now at lumiere.net.nz
Charlie Pickering—Auto
Downstage, Silo TheatreMay 16-20, 22-27 | Reviewed by Megan Fleming
YOU CAN'T HELP liking this guy. More of a one-man play than a string of one-liners, Charlie Pickering’s show is a well-crafted bit of funny. And the theme – Charlie sitting down to write his autobiography – holds the whole thing together.
Charlie launches into a lively string of anecdotes about his middle-class Melbourne childhood. Through his impressions of a furious Scottish vice-principal, and funnysad stories about the death of his beloved dog, Charlie lets us into the world of a grammar school semi-spaz who is genuinely amused at himself. The succession of stories is punctuated by little interludes, like when Charlie leans back under sexy red lights and reads from B.B. King’s autobiography in his “mildly racist at best” black American accent.
The material is relateably weird. The writing is great. And he weaves the whole self-deprecating story together with the help of props, lighting, and old-timey radio broadcasts.
The possible book covers for his auto-bio had the audience pissing themselves. As did his explanation of autobiography itself: “it’s like climaxing in a rolled-up picture of yourself.” Of course there were sex jokes. And penis jokes. And poo jokes. But everyone thinks poo is funny. And besides, the gross bits weren’t offensive so much as... somehow innocent, like a ten-year-old boy falling in love with a playboy models’ acreage of late 70s bush.
I did get the sense that Charlie was a bit tired of his own material. There’s a fantastic funniness in spontaneity, and that off-the-cuff wit was lacking in Auto. But he’s a sympathetic comedian, and the slight staleness of the act didn’t detract from my enjoyment. I left feeling satisfied, and whaddayaknow, I kept chuckling to myself the whole next day. The jokes – dare I say it? – made me think. We laughed, we cried, we threw rotten veggies. You could do far worse than seeing this Aussie gem.
For full programme, venue and show details on this and other Comedy Festival events, visit comedyfestival.co.nz.
