Marcel Lucont – Sexual Metro

Google the directions to the The Tuxedo Cat and you are presented with an array of moggies dressed up to the nines; a promising start to this year’s festival in my books.

 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
Presented by: Marcel LucontVenue: The Tuxedo Cat – 335 Flinders Lane, Melbourne Wednesday, 24 March,  2010
Google the directions to the The Tuxedo Cat and you are presented with an array of moggies dressed up to the nines; a promising start to this year’s festival in my books. 
Down a dingy underground passage and into the Cat itself, you will find a crowd of festival-goers enjoying the makeshift bar and lounging around on bean bags. It is a cute place for some intimate shows, barely 50 people can fit into each room, but programming a highly audible and raucous show next door to our French raconteur is a bit of a mistake given the paper thin walls. Lucont deals with this intrusion, along with any late comers and hecklers, with lively humour and great timing.
France’s premier misanthropist and lover turns out to be a Gallic charmer with a delightfully dry wit. He will talk at you and, if he thinks it worthwhile, perhaps with you. The show plays up to cultural stereotypes and this arrogant, red wine drinking, poetry reading Frenchman is happy to include our local biases in the mix. Cue the joke about Adelaide.
The show takes the form of gentle conversation, with rants, poems and songs thrown in for good measure. The stand-up sections produced several gems which had me laughing out loud, but an overall lack of structure gave the hour a rambling feel and a sense of never quite getting going. However, the accent, delivery and the ever-present accordion player, Gaston, elevate moments of mediocre stand-up to another level. An hour in the company of Marcel Lucont was a good start to my 2010 Comedy Festival. 
Bookings: www.comedyfestival.com.au Until 18 April 2010