Comedy Festival 2017: Sam Simmons is unhinged and breaking all the rules in A-K ★★★★½
SAM Simmons reads a phone book in his comedy show but the real-page turner is his rule-breaking spirit and his beautifully unhinged moments
Comedy Festival
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Sam Simmons has built his career breaking the rules of comedy.
His last few shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festtival, the anarchic, Barry Award-winning Spaghetti For Breakfast, and demented Ceremony, underscored that reputation.
Simmons, whose often crazed delivery borders on performance art, rejects slickness in comedy and enjoys laughter on the blurry edges.
“I’ll never be a straight stand up or a commercial prospect,” Simmons once said. “I’m happy with that.”
His new show, A-K, plays to those realities with finely-tuned jokes about fatherhood (Simmons and wife Rosyln recently had a baby girl), fake phone calls, and feuds (with Herald Sun writer, Mikey Cahill, no less.)
The opening monologue, and character, feels like a test before Simmons unleashes a barrage of very snappy, really funny material.
A-K, loaded with shorter jokes, is definitely Simmons at his sharpest.
Be warned: Simmons is known to taunt anyone walking out of his show, and arcs up if he senses crowd resistance.
But, knowing his mission to push boundaries, I suspect these beautifully unhinged moments might be part of the act.
Sam Simmons, A-K,
Forum Theatre until April 23
Buy tickets here
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