Review-Brew Ha Ha-Comedy.HK
15-9-13
By: Tom Hope
Each of these Ozzie comedians just played this year’s Edinburgh Fringe where they garnered 4 star ratings from the likes of Time Out and the Scotsman (click here for Jen and here for Eric). They stop-over through HK on their way home and pull out the stops for a one night stand at the HK Brew House – and they must think they’ve died and stayed on the slab 'cos instead of a packed sweat-laden beer-fuming bunch of off-the-wall on-the-fringe comedy-heads they’re looking at 20 or so nicely turned out folk eating supper and sipping not-necessarily-alcoholic beverages and wanting oh so very much to be entertained but a little bit too polite to laugh too loudly at what they’re hearing from these funny people on stage….
Those funny people really are funny. Jen Carnovale, as an assured raconteur, took us on a tour of her last 2 years on the road, from a call centre in Sydney to assistant teaching in London, with (en route) a spot of retail therapy and a whole lotta character assassinations of places she’d been and people she’d met. Eric Hutton worked a similar arc – not only as a teaching assistant but also as a tester of sun-tan lotions (he has red hair and very white skin) and extending his geographic range to Latvia, where he wondered who the skinheads have to hate in a land where everyone is so white-skinned. (Well, Eric, I guess one day you’ll get to hear about the Holocaust – well, now, come to think of it, Eric, you’re Jewish, aren’t you…)
Eric’s style differed from Jen’s in various ways (you know, he’s a man, she’s a woman kind of thing) but mainly by his asking the audience a lot more questions than she did. He established that the audience was mostly composed of teachers; that one person’s beard was really real; and that another person’s worst job ever was working as a bike courier. (His deadpan response to these responses might have been more effective without so many teachers in the audience.) He also established that his questions couldn’t always be understood, with a request (from a teacher) to please repeat the question – so he did – and so did she – and 3rd time round what he was asking (‘do you always believe what you see on TV documentaries?’) made respondable sense. And so, armed with a ‘yes’, off Eric went on a sashay into the crazy world of TV reality…
(Brits and Ockers: two people divided by a common accent. I thought he was asking ‘do you always BLEED what you see on TV…’ – and she thought he was asking ‘do you always EAT what you see on TV…’ – and she’s from Melbourne – and so my case rests.)
Brits and Ockers: we just love to knock each other, don’t we? And Ozzies especially love a bit of Pommy pummelling, don’t they? So it made perfect sense for Jen and Eric, fresh from 2 years in the UK, to indulge - and it made perfect sense for the audience to love it (because of course we Brits have such a great sense of humour we don’t mind laughing at ourselves, and everyone else loves laughing at us too). And so my case rests…
It helped that there was a lot of knocking of other things too. Including the audience. (‘So what do you say to an audience when you’re doing stand-up and they don’t laugh out loud at your jokes? Tell them it’s not funny!’) And the bemused deadpan look on Eric’s face as he told us (more than once) how he’d never before in his life had such lack of response to some of his best material wrung sufficient sympathy from me to blame us Hong Kongers for not being able to muster a bigger, more boozed up, bunch of off-the-wall on-the-fringe comedy heads to catcall and caterwaul and generally wet ourselves listening to some really very funny stuff.
That said, the lady next to me thought the best larfs of the night came from compere Michael Dorsher and his multi-media (well, photos on a video screen, actually) intro exploration of the trending Super-Tutor ads now adorning HK. What better value way to spend a Saturday night ($100 the lot) than learning where to look for a pick-me-up hootenanny poster-recon – no further charge – next time you’re anywhere near a passing bus or MTR station. Now that’s what I call education!
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Jen Carnovale and Eric Hutton's performance at the Brew Ha Ha has now closed. For more information, click here.
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