Fringe World Perth: Randy is Sober

The incoherent ramblings that open the show are those of the old intoxicated Randy, but that is the old Randy for now  Randy is Sober.  Randy, the purple felt faced comedian shares his thoughts, ideas and feelings on subjects through new teetotaller eyes.

The sober Randy has had a lot of time to reflect and he shares his sober thoughts on such topical subjects as vegetarianism/veganism, food allergies, McDonalds home delivery, the shark cull, the internet and God. The funniest sections of the show are when Randy takes a line from the audience and runs with it. Unlike some comedians who delight in embarrassing members of the audience, Randy includes them.  He uses them to elaborate on stories and responds to words or lines they throw at him by developing yet another comedic story.

A member of the audience provided one of the many laugh-out-loud moments when she likened living in Adelaide, when not in Festival season, as being part of Stephen King’s horror story/film Children of the Corn.  Perth’s idiosyncrasies were also the butt of Randy’s humour.  He suggested Perth should secede from the rest of Australia so that we could shut our restaurants at 2:00pm and reopen them at 6:00pm, dig giant holes in the earth, and charge exorbitant prices for a cup of coffee!

At times Randy took himself a little too seriously and the tone began to sound, and feel, more like a preaching rant than comedy.  But Randy was in touch with his audience and quickly moved on to another topic. Thus the funny bone was tickled once more.

The performance ended abruptly with Randy announcing, “Well I will leave it there.”   Perhaps constant interaction with the audience, though a highlight of the evening, had thrown Randy off his timing and he’d suddenly realised it was time to end the show, thereby having to delete any climatic, side-splitting ending he may have had in store.

Randy is Sober is a witty, spontaneous, thoughtful night of laughs.