You know a comedian is good when they make themselves laugh. And Stephen K Amos does it often; breaking down in the middle of doing an accent, or cracking up at the responses he gets from the audience. Far from being distracting, it gives the impression that he is having as much fun as much we are, and we love it.
His latest show,What Does The K Stand For?is all about how we need to be asking the hard questions – the ones that make dinner parties awkward – and, in between the silliness about meat trays and the Australian creature known as a ‘bo-gan’, he goes right ahead and asks them.
Does your sexuality define you? What is love? Are we a truly multicultural society? As an audience, we’re a bit shocked. It’s not often you’re asked to think during a comedy show, and this is heavy stuff. But with the deft hand of a comedic master, Stephen K Amos strikes the perfect balance between food for thought and the kind of comedy that actually causes you physical, laughter-induced pain.
He’s quick and clever, playing off audience reactions like he’d planned them, and gracefully flipping heckles in his favour. His facial comedy is something most comedians can only dream of – sublimely over-imitating audience members, his parents, taxi drivers, Prince Philip… And then there are the accents. He can flip from Eastern Suburbs to Nigerian to northern English to a made-up language and back again without batting an eyelid. The man’s a genius.
As promised, he does tell us what the K stands for. But if you really want to know, you’ll have to go see him yourself. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll never look at jelly babies the same.
4.5/5
Stephen K Amos is on at the Sydney Comedy Festival on Tuesday May 6 and Thursday May 8 at the Enmore Theatre.
