Me, My Cult and I

Raised in a cult, Colin’s parents were matched in a mass wedding in Madison Square Garden in the 1980s by a charismatic Korean who said he was the returning messiah.

Ebsworth offers a prologue on how this isn’t going to be a laugh-out-loud show that pokes fun at the Unification Church cult, but as his quick-witted storytelling unfolds with history, hard-hitting emotion, and comedy, I can’t think that anyone would be upset, even if they wanted wall to wall chuckling.

Ebsworth tells a great story, accompanied by family photographs and PowerPoint headlines, and it’s so full of interesting asides and detail, they should be a ‘director’s cut’ edition that goes for longer than the sixty minutes it takes him to get through forty years of his family.

There are plenty of laughs – some are the uncomfortable kind, others are a genuine reaction to surprising throwaway lines and edgy jokes. There’s enough ordinary life in his tale to make it relatable, despite the strangeness that pervades key moments, like birthdays. Ebsworth is a genuine storyteller: charismatic, humble, and authentic – he could probably start his own cult and build a good following in no time.

But he’s not here to disparage the people who subscribe to the cults – indeed, he can’t stress enough just how human those people are: with a need to connect and live a life full of meaning.

There’s genuine emotion when he talks about how life (and death) impacts his family and challenges their beliefs. The reconciliation of faith and fact is touching and moving. It’s as far from a superficial stand-up as you get, and is so much better because of it.

Review by Mark Wickett'

Images (top) by Tony Knight and (lower) by Naomi Reed.

To check out our round-up of Adelaide Fringe reviews, click here.