Review – I Wish I Was Him: A Ben Lee Tribute

‘Palky’ is a lovable character. He’s your best mate, he’s funny, weird and he has his faults.

Accompanied by his band The Surrenders complete with three semi-confident ‘Claire Danes’ backup singers, Palky took me on a journey through his Ben Lee fandom.

He opened the show with an original song ‘I wish I was him’, which I unfortunately didn’t understand a word of because the sound was terrible. But the show progressed with a stand-up-esque routine littered with songs from the Australian singer-songwriter’s prolific career. Throughout his show Palky reviews each of Lee’s albums – with most of them being described as ‘absolutely fantastic’.

In his 22-year fandom, Palky has learnt to sound like Ben Lee and his musical ability is unquestionable. He sang with feeling and you could tell he loved what he was singing. The first half of the show however was LONG. It was an hour and twenty minutes before an interval, with maybe just a few too many songs and some stories that seemed irrelevant and could have been kept a lot tighter.

Palky is most certainly not a stand-up comedian and there were plenty of bad jokes, but I found myself constantly humoured – particularly when his mates behind me would interject with funny heckling. My favourite comments were those from Vicky.

In the second half of the show, Palky and The Surrenders shone. He came back stronger, with some particularly endearing and funny stories with Ben Lee songs woven in. I found myself slowly understanding a resolution to his well-written narrative and was happily surprised when the show – which began clumsily – became ultimately uplifting.

‘I wish I were him’ is heart-warming, blundering and funny.

I would like to tell Palky that he is Ben Lee because that’s what he wants, but I don’t hate him enough.