The Gov Sunday Sessions

Veterans of 22 Fringe seasons, Comedy Inc brought 90 minutes of polished professional stand-up comedy to arguably Adelaide’s most beloved live performance pub venue with its latest Gov Sunday Session. The performance space is cosy, with different sorts of seating for about 80 people, who also had access to the pub’s beautiful old bar facilities. Staff were warm and welcoming and the raised stage, and professional sound and lighting rig meant that the audience could easily see, hear and enjoy the event.

Sunday sessions at the Guv are rather like attending a buffet; you get new dishes, your favourites and a few that you check out and may not choose. But I was pleasantly surprised because this comedy menu was delightful and has me wanting to go back for more. The spread served up by host, Adelaide boy Thomas Green, currently living and working in London, was made up of four very different, very professional acts. Green was witty, quick and skilled at reading and involving the audience. With almost laconic humour, he effortlessly embraced the diversity of Australian humour, encouraging, mocking and including the audience ensuring that we were well primed and laughing for the featured acts.

Lindsay Webster is from Brisbane and has been a Fringe regular since 2007. He was almost droll with his rapid-fire dialogue and wonderful one liners like, “I have two kids made the old fashioned way…with drugs and alcohol.” And the quip about COVID being made in China and lasting longer than it was supposed to, quickly followed by, “Thank God it was not made in Sweden, we would have had to put it together ourselves.” I’d love to see his full length show.

Female comedians are few and far between and award winning Gill Cordiner is a brilliant reminder that middle aged women have had years to build a repertoire of real life experiences on which to build hilarious routines. I am reminded of Rita Rudner, Sarah Millican and Phyllis Diller, and like them, this feisty Scotswoman mined her personal, family and sex life with laugh out loud anecdotes. Her routine about the Valentine’s Day bondage gift had to be seen to be appreciated. Cordiner used witty, intelligent and self-deprecating humour, holding up a mirror to the reality of relationships.

She is on my 2024 Fringe ‘to see’ list,

Nick Carr is a big, bear-like man from Toowoomba in Queensland. His style was commensurately big and bold. He understands stand-up, punctuating his routine with funny, quick jokes like the one about parenting where he advised the audience, “Even if you only feel like six chicken nuggets, always get 24 for $9.95.” Absurd, but funny.

Resplendent in a bright red tracksuit, Daniel Muggleton used incisive, droll politically challenging jokes. His routine was largely based on the quest that he, and his wife, were undertaking to have children and his joke where his wife wanted to accompany him when he gave his sample for IVF - “To make sure that he was doing it right”, was hysterical. He is the master of pause and planting lines and is worthy of seeing again just to watch his very clever delivery.

In reviewing comedy in recent times, I have been despondent, but this show reminded me that very professional comics, who understand their craft, are a delight. Their jokes are scripted and have setups and punchlines. Their monologues are frequently self-deprecating and are based on the life of the comedian giving the audience tacit permission to laugh at and with them. They are audible, able to be understood and jokes are ‘planted’ with pauses and opportunities for the audience to catch up and enjoy the humour. This show had all of those qualities in spades. It was a delightful Sunday afternoon, and a masterclass in comedy, to boot.

Jude Hines

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