Rhys Nicholson: These Are My Jokes, No Refunds | Lynott’s Lounge and Johnny Fox’s | Season concluded | ★ ★ ★ ★ ½
Rhys Nicholson presented an early evening try out of new material this week at Fringe World. As the much-loved queer comedian, and RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under judge, explained to the audience, some comedians can sit down at a typewriter and bang out a show, Nicholson on the other hand prefers to get up in front of an audience and see how ideas work.
Seeing work in progress is always fascinating, especially if you later get to see a more fully formed version of the work. It’s a revealing insight into how much skill and preparation is involved in the art of comedy.
Comedians often make it look like they just jump on stage, talk for the required amount of time, share some hilarious anecdotes, give us all a laugh and then head to the bar. It leads to people telling their mates, “You’re hilarious, you should be on the stage.” There’s so much more to it.
Some may question if shows where comedians are just trying out new material and giving things a whirl should even be reviewed, but we were invited, and the show is billed as a ‘World Premiere’ by Fringe World.
This was a casual and laid-back affair, Rhys Nicholson mingled in the crowd before they took to the stage and rather than being dressed in their usual suit and tie appeared in a snappy retro polo shirt and nice slacks. Upon beginning their set Nicholson commented that Perth appeared to have been moved closer to the sun, as temperatures outside pushed pass 40 degrees.
An hour with Rhys Nicholson is a joy, and working their way through notes on a laptop they shared their thoughts on a vast range of topics including asking what is the right word for a non-binary uncle or aunt? The dilemmas of a long stay with family over Christmas, or the long planning for their recent wedding.
An element of randomness was inserted into the show, with audience members asked to write a single word on a card and drop it into a box which Nicholson then used as inspiration to riff upon.
Hilariously they would pull some cards from the box, gaze at the word, before loudly declaring ‘Nup!’ and propelling the card across the stage, but other sparks hilarious conversations about trips to the beach, triggering words, and a vast array of other topics.
Sometimes a spiel on a particular topic would come to a deflating end, like a jogger who runs out of energy after a long run, no final sprint to a finish line, a punchline and crescendo yet to be found. At other times we’d fly off on an unexpected tangent to see where it led, sometime to a whole new journey, and other times to a dead end.
There were laughs aplenty, and it was also an intriguing exploration into how the jokes are made, remodeled and perfected.
This show’s season has concluded. For tickets and more information on other shows head to fringeworld.com.au
Graeme Watson is an editor at OUTinPerth. He has a background in journalism, creative writing, dance, theatre, radio and film working as a performer, producer and writer. Graeme writes for a variety of publications and has been working as a reviewer since 1997.
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