Review: Cameron McLaren's DARDY MCFLY at Perth Comedy Festival

Cameron McLaren won the FRINGE WORLD Best WA Comedy Award in 2017, but the opening of his new show Dardy McFly at the Perth Comedy Festival was nothing I would have written home about.

His not-quite-an-hour set was preceded by a short warm up set from his friend and roommate, affectionately nicknamed Ravioli. Despite only being onstage for a short time, he had a selection of great jokes and stories which flowed well. Any jokes which didn't land were moved on from quickly and truth be told I was a little sad when he left the stage.

By comparison, McLaren's set was fairly disappointing. Despite the jokes being thick and plentiful, it still ran short by almost ten minutes. McLaren often seemed to be chasing his tail looking for a punchline that would land. This might have been due in some part to a small audience, most of whom didn't seem to connect with a lot of the content. From my perspective it mainly just seemed like he was either very nervous or was having a hard time reading the crowd.

This isn't to say that the show didn't have its moments. His glee in recounting how he likes messing with people on planes was a lot of fun, and there were more than a few Perth themed jokes that landed well. But there was a lot of time spent simply bringing up previous jokes and stories without building them to a satisfying climax.

Early on McLaren described his style as "loosy-Goosey" and the sections where he interacted directly with audience members were good. From the off they seemed genuinely charmed by his casual demeanour and simple presentation style. An innocent misunderstanding of the term "clock wise" reduced me to absolute fits of laughter, but by and large I was left underwhelmed.

Dardy McFly is on at the Perth Comedy Festival for two more nights at The Regal Theatre. Tickets are available here.

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