Review – Steve Hughes: Big Issues

Steve Hughes’ “Big Issues” deals with precisely that – the big issues facing our society. Hughes provides his own take on issues such as drugs, smoking, gun-control and the over patronisation of us as a society. Despite the heavy subject matter, Hughes is hilarious. Big Issues is not a show for the faint-hearted – those that are easily offended are often fodder for jokes and Hughes gets a lot of his laughs simply from telling the most shockingly appalling jokes. Despite the swearing and casual offensiveness, Hughes somehow manages to be charming, and has definitely mastered the art of the call-back.

However, Big Issues had a weakness; at times it delved into Hughes simply ranting about things he hates about society. It is during these times it seems as though he plays up to the beliefs he thinks his audience has. And he does have a very specific demographic – the parade of tattoos and Metallica t-shirts in the foyer before the show proves that – but it seems that Hughes plays up to this more than necessary – his rants at times fell into cursing the police and insulting Julia Gillard, with no real context. On the other end of the spectrum, Hughes makes jokes that go completely over the heads of the audience. He is clearly an extremely intelligent man, but at times this gets in the way of a good joke. More than once Hughes let fly a string of socially psychological or philosophical terms or the occasionally Orwellian reference that were met with crickets by a large majority of the audience.

Hughes needs to pick his demographic. While genuinely funny, Big Issues was generally uncomfortable, due to the constant switch between Hughes‘ ‘bogan’ persona and his intellectual one. He did make the point more than once through the show that he is just being himself, but in terms of comedy, it feels like he needs to go more in one direction or the other, lest his audience constantly leave slightly confused.