Great Expatations

Great Expatations is a show designed to share expat experiences and the sometimes-absurd nature of operating in a new culture. Both performers have very different intercultural experiences and are from very different racial and cultural backgrounds which provides a good breadth of material for this stand-up comedy routine.

Martyn is a Sri Lankan-born British comedian whose often bizarre personal experiences include appearing on TV quiz shows and being likened to an alien. This is recounted with the aid of posters with screen shots of his television appearance and the subsequent twitter storm the appearance generated. Martyn recounts this episode with humility and a disarming level of charm that often characterises his material overall.

Green is a British comedian whose approach is more subversive. His travels have undoubtedly made negotiating new spaces and places comical experiences. This is not always effectively communicated in the anecdotes he shares. His approach is very introspective, however, this can create a distance with the audience that he is not always able to recover. Green tends to retreat into a flow of ideas that resemble a stream of consciousness which can require effort to appreciate.

Their act included reflecting on terrible travel experiences and the audience offer random places that have negative associations. This proved less promising than expected. Perhaps the audience had not really visited terrible places and, strangely, there didn’t seem to be a lot to laugh at.

Patricia Di Risio