★★★★
We hear Paul Foot before we see him. Quite a long time before we see him, actually, his Comedy Store show opening with a drawn-out, off-stage spoken intro. It’s a neat subversion of the standard start to a comedy show, and things only get weirder.
After eventually revealing himself – he was behind a door right next to the stage all along – Foot springs into the clearly fond audience, running down the aisles, stopping to tell people they’re his favourite, before picking a new favourite elsewhere.
He cuts a strange figure as he darts about. He is a mismatch, a rag doll of different styles. His severe Rod Stewart haircut falls over a Michael Jackson-esque black jacket, beneath which he wears a ’70s kipper tie and flared trousers. This all carried by his thin and awkward frame, which jitters and jolts as he is inflicted by his own inane irritation.
The instability of his mind manifests physically: he doubles over, points his ornithological features right into the faces of the front row, stamps his foot like an angry cockerel.
After he comprehensively lays out the agenda for the show, he works his way through the different chapters without pause. Billed as a ‘best of’ his last few years of shows, there are hits as well as misses.
Some parts strike of self-indulgence. His long speech in nonsense gobbledygook lacks impact and peters out. It feels lazy and designed to burn the time. The humour fades quickly from his phrases that are “meaningless but somehow amusing”. Some sections are too sprawling and free-form, without the punch of a proper pay-off.
His so-called “disturbances”, however – single-paragraph thoughts read from cards he’s decorated – are hilarious concentrated capsules of surrealism. His breakdown on Pierce Brosnan and animal husbandry is extended long enough to lose its funny before finding it again through sheer endurance.
The hour over, cries of encore appear to catch Foot unprepared. He delivers some fan favourites before running off stage and down the exit stairs.
It’s a delightfully deranged mess of a show. It’s an absurd, unsteady and unpredictable ride. Foot is probably a genius: nutso with gusto.
Paul Foot was reviewed at The Comedy Store on Wednesday April 20 as part of Sydney Comedy Festival 2016.
