Powerbomb Comedy

Powerbomb Comedy

Staves Brewery

4 Grose Street, Glebe

Every Saturday night

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP

It’s really pleasing to see comedy venues reopening and returning to full capacity, and I keep finding out about new, smaller, more intimate rooms with low-cost ticket prices.

On the night on which I attended Powerbomb Comedy, the range of talent was impressive and thoroughly entertained the audience of about fifty people.

MC Michelle Azevedo is a young, vulnerable woman who wants to have lesbian sex but hasn’t quite accomplished it yet. Her openness quickly established rapport.

The recently engaged Kathryn Thomas also projected the insecurity of her persona, which might not have been a big stretch from her own personality.

Andrew Hastings shared his perceptions about tattoos and virtual dating.

Then came Bryce Lavery-Jacko, a metrosexual with a Jesus look.

Also impressive was Sam Bowden, a bearded, bespectacled, gay ginger who has Chinese in his ancestry. He did an exceptional bit on scales and degrees of racism in Australia. Like all good comedians, Bowden is a deep thinker and an insightful and expressive communicator.

Elouise Eftos, dressed appropriate to her persona, told us what it’s like to be an extremely hot, supremely confident female comedian. Given her character, it would have been easy for her to put off women in the audience, but without going too much into analyses of the construction of comedy routines, Eftos uses a couple of clever devices to bring them in. It’s an unusual, intelligent and entertaining presentation.

No-one was billed as the headliner, but the final act was Eric Hutton, an experienced comedian who has had the distinction of having performed in such places as Latvia and Estonia. Hutton did a polished and engaging bit about his mother who has Alzheimers.

It was telling that some of the performers are also trained actors. Bowden is a graduate of Brisbane’s Actor's Conservatory and Eftos trained at WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts).

Co-promoter Jamie Kirk and his cohorts are clearly passionate about the comedy scene and are giving young talent a chance to showcase, as well as providing continuing work for more experienced comedians, and last Saturday night, the standard was high.