Musical comedy is strongly represented at this year’s Comedy Festival, ensuring that punters seeking a song as well as a laugh are well catered for. Adding their considerable skills to the mix are the deadpan duo Smart Casual, half brothers Roger David and Fletcher Jones.
At the heart of their new show is the duo’s slowly simmering sibling rivalry, brought to a head by a series of tape-recorded messages from their mother, Rhonda, about the fathers the boys never knew. Increasingly improbable stories about their respective dads soon follow, interspersed by sketches about bullying seagulls, and an excellent and topical Shirley Temple cover.
Through short pithy songs such as ‘Why is There a Polar Bear at My Party?’ and ‘Please Don’t Dance, Ellen DeGeneres’, Smart Casual provoke sporadic, staccato bursts of laughter rather than continued hilarity, but their carefully constructed shtick and wry, winning humour ensures audiences are constantly entertained.
Three and a half stars
Smart Casual - SAME MOTHER, DIFFERENT FATHERS
Tue-Sat 7.15pm, Sun 6.15pm
Victoria Hotel
$15 - $22
This review originally ran in The Age on Monday March 29.
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