Comedy Festival 2018: John Safran’s doesn’t get edgy enough about religion in Jew Detective Snooping On Extremists ★★★

THE joys are many as gonzo journalist John Safran recounts his sword crossing with extremism, yet there’s too much stuff from the Safran archive, not enough about what’s on his mind now.

IT’S heartening that, even in these constrained times, there is still somebody brave enough to crack a really good Hitler joke.

There’s a collective gasp from the packed Comedy Theatre at the sheer gall of the gag. But then comes the laugh, acknowledging the license John Safran has earned after two decades establishing himself as Australia’s premiere gonzo journalist.

Safran is deploying his weapon of choice — he describes himself as a war artist who uses sarcasm instead of paint — to attack the chronic overuse of the term “Nazi” in public discourse. “You’re a Nazi, you’re a Nazi; everyone’s a Nazi!” he declares, pointing into the crowd as it roars back at him.

Another crowd-winning moment comes when Safran starkly illustrates how bigotry can find expression in anything, even the exorbitant booking fee Ticketmaster charges. Is it a Jewish conspiracy?

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Across a satisfying, enjoyable hour Safran presents a fun, occasionally poignant show that touches on a few topical nerves and skips about all over the shop.

Despite the title, there’s no driving narrative here; it is not a condensed stage version of his laudable 2017 book Depends What You Mean By Extremist, in which he spent a lot of time with radicals from across the political spectrum.

It’s basically a light-hearted, enjoyable series of stabs at extremism that loops in racism, religion, immigration and identity politics as Safran recites some colourful anecdotes involving skinheads and online trolls.

Reading off notes — always a disappointing sight at a comedy festival — Safran loosely sets up his premise as a conflict between artists and ideologues, though curiously he doesn’t bother with those who occupy the rather sizeable overlap.

John Safran in Jew Detective Snooping on Extremists.

A pleasant ramble rather than a comedy lecture, it’s all very loosely structured, with a lot of biographical digressions.

These include showing his famous confrontation with Ray Martin over the 1998 Paxton “dole bludger” story on A Current Affair, which still gets big laughs in its edited form. He also reflects on the influence his Year 9 teacher, his father and Mad magazine had on his reporting style.

The full house Safran drew was no surprise. Two decades of branding via enjoyable TV shows such as Race Relations, Speaking in Tongues, Music Jamboree, John Safran vs God, radio stints and the true-life crime book Murder in Mississippi filled the venue with enthusiastic fans. There was a lot of love in the room.

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Yet comfortable as Safran was with his people he proved a little timid about getting too edgy. In one segment about religion and “purging the world of offensive content” he quotes damning passages from sacred texts.

First he has an easy go at Judaism and Christianity before declaring “I’ll go there” and launching into Islam and the Prophet Muhammad. He lands one punch, then leaves Islam alone, disappointingly settling for bronze rather than gold.

The show could do with a little less of Safran’s history and more material that’s on-topic. We all enjoy a good chuckle over what he looked like in the 1990s, but it’s the contemporary debate preoccupying him now that really engage and deserve a greater airing.

Side note: Judging by the number of people who tried videoing parts of the show on their phones before being shut down by torch-wielding ushers — good work, guys — there’s obviously a hunger to see Safran back on the tube, the medium he was born for.

John Safran, Jew Detective: Snooping on Extremists

Comedy Theatre, cnr Lonsdale and Exhibition sts.