Comedy Festival 2018: Dilruk Jayasinha climbing the ladder in Bundle of Joy ★★★★

SRI Lankan-Aussie Dilruk Jayasinha explains why death isn’t so bad after all.

DILRUK Jayasinha (you can call him Dil) has had a very good year. His dance card overflowed with television and live gigs and he even performed in the presence of Malcolm Turnbull.

He’s climbing the comedy ladder in a way that’s unheard of for Sri Lankan ex-accountants.

Dil is off the grog, instead into expensive scented candles and single origin coffee.

So why is he so focused on death?

Dilruk Jayasinha in Bundle of Joy.

This hook ties together a snappy hour of writing that touches on casual racism, Alcoholics Anonymous, India versus Sri Lanka and a health scare that leads to a more pleasurable than expected medical exam.

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Jayasinha’s style is slick, peppered with occasional swear words and fair lashes of self-deprecation. He effortlessly moves from topic to topic with a deft tongue. Familiar material like visits from parents and university drinking stories have a snappy touch.

He mines his mixed ethnicity and religious backgrounds to help identify the man he is today. The clueless, bum-bag wearing international student 14 years ago is miles away from Aussie Dil, yet Jayasinha still harbours elements of that younger persona.

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He may have replaced spicy foods with Aesop body products, but you are always who you are, even when placed in a new context.

The Australian/Sri Lankan straddle is Bundle of Joy’s richest material and Jayasinha makes good cases for the hits and misses of both worlds. The show rolls by with barely a lag; audience banter is tight and there’s a depth to the accessible material that exposes an interesting and relatable cross-cultural experience.

Dilruk Jayasinha, Bundle of Joy

Swiss Club, until April 22.

comedyfestival.com.au