Despite its name, there are very few international acts in this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival. But Arj Barker has done enough gigs across this lucky country to count as one of our own native sons, despite his American accent (and the little fact that he's from California). A Comedy Festival veteran, Barker has been performing in Melbourne for more than two decades, and he was here during all of 2020 – "or at least the shit parts," as he says.
He has been doing this long enough to be able to control a crowd, and long enough to know when things aren't working. When he says, "You may be wondering, 'is this still even a comedy show?'" after a long and rambling bit about UFOs (there are no jokes, just weird conspiracy theories), it gets the biggest laugh of the night, the laughter of an audience relieved that the person on stage is aware that they aren't being funny, just strange.
Barker is not in his usual form for this show, and he is very candid about why: he's going through a divorce, which he made public in January of this year. He's candid about the topic, then deflects, then back again to candour. He swings wildly from sad to funny to sad again, until the audience isn't quite sure where to land. It's like the human embodiment of an 'everything is terrible and I'm a depressed mess, j/k, unless...?' meme, and it's discombobulating and a little dizzying.
He's professional enough to bring it back from a very weird place, and there are still plenty of chuckles to be had in the show. But for those who are used to the rapid-fire pace of previous performances, this one might be a little uneven.
