Adelaide Fringe Festival Review 2016: Lawrence Mooney — Moonman

WHAT is the difference between “just a funny guy” and a comedian?This is what I am left wondering after an hour at Rhino Room with Lawrence Mooney.

Lawrence Mooney — Moonman

Comedy ***

Rhino Room — Upstairs, until February 27

WHAT is the difference between “just a funny guy” and a comedian?

This is what I am left wondering after an hour at Rhino Room with Lawrence Mooney.

A jibe at Malcolm Turnbull that carries on a little too long (OK, we get it, he speaks like he’s had a private education) and a clumsy story about three women named Margaret has me thinking Mooney falls under the former.

While the man with a number of accolades under his belt has an undeniably natural demeanour and commanding stage presence, it seems Mooney’s comedic philosophy revolves around the idea that inserting a booming profanity at the end of a frankly unfunny story automatically makes it funny.

Sure, we can all laugh at his crooked moral compass and chuckle sympathetically at him navigating the choppy waters of a recently disqualified driver’s licence, but the bottom line is — Lawrence Mooney is just a funny guy under a spotlight.

Alas, tales of his sassy 84-year-old mother bring redemption in the final moments of the show — a woman who might have single-handedly solved Australia’s domestic violence epidemic with a gruesome plan of attack? Now an hour with her I’d pay to see.

Isabella Fowler