The trauma of last year still feels too raw to revisit. Unless perhaps you're Tom Gleeson and you're poking holes in 2020 like a coke-addled echidna.
Echidna seems the appropriate metaphor given the number of Australian animals that feature throughout Gleeson’s MICF show, Lighten Up. Honorable mentions include a koala (chlamydia-riddled), a goanna (gatorade-drinking) and a kangaroo (exploding or butchered – take your pick). In fact, much of Lighten Up feels like a trip through typical Australian experiences, be they treasured, later traumatic, summer beach holidays or burning rubbish in a paddock.
Lighten Up draws heavily from the events of last year to warm up the crowd – the unbalanced expectations between comedians and firefighters, the online shopping, the drinking – and Gleeson praises and teases Melbourne for its lockdown experience in equal measure. Anecdotes are all raucously funny and relatable – though Gleeson describes his career as slow and steady (a low GI comedian if you will) we can’t help but feel his popularity comes from the broad (but not trite) appeal of his material combined with a deprecating, mildly neurotic delivery.
Fans of the comedian, ABC Hard Quiz host and Gold Logie renegade might clue that the title of the show comes from his aforementioned Gold Logie winning speech, in which he addressed the “controversy” of his win by further leaning into the long-running practical joke (haters can shush though, because he’s promised not to repeat the gag).
Gleeson regularly during stand-up allows the audience the chance to call out any stories he might have, ah, embellished for comedic effect. While the unpredictability of the audience might unmoor some comedians, Gleeson turns each allegation – correct or not – into another joke in what might be one of the funniest segments of the show and a testament to his ability to ad lib. When someone calls his bluff about a particular story that was altered to create a circular narrative – because there might be a reviewer here from the Age and they love that shit – he brings the house down.
Hey, we might not be from the Age but we also love that shit. And we’re pretty sure it’s a legal requirement to give five stars to any show that left your face sore from laughing.
