Comedy Festival 2018: Larry Dean in command with dirty jokes and jealousy in Fandan ★★★

LAUGH-laden, adults-only act from lanky Scotsman Larry Dean, who commands his audience with a set built around dirty jokes, jealousy and his morbid fear of a friend’s friend.

FRESH from Scotland with a Glaswegian accent so thick it sounds like a put-on, Larry Dean is easily one of the most puerile stand-up acts you’ll see at this year’s comedy festival.

The other good thing about him is his sheer jubilation when detailing his adventures in relationships, the sexual upside being Scottish, being gay and his somewhat related fear of being murdered.

With his easy, gangly manner and an infectious perma-smile shaped like a loaded hammock, Dean struts the stage from end to end, so confident in his material he sometimes laughs at it before we get to. It’s a flub in his style he apologises for, but it hardly detracts.

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Commanding full audience attention, Dean delivers big laughs. Some of these are to do with politics, some with homophobia, some with his parents, but most are associated with what is clearly a favourite topic of his, namely the act of self-pleasuring.

So, what better way to start off a comedy routine than by describing in vivid detail the dilemma faced by a gay man stuck in an anti-gay Middle Eastern country in dire need of some viewing material but only having legal access to the type that caters to straights?

Larry Dean in Fandan ssss

It’s a preoccupation Dean weaves through his set, giving him ample opportunity to expand on the topic by describing the techniques, facial expressions and physical contortions involved. He’s also fascinated by the way women do it.

It sounds dirty. And it is dirty. And he loves it. So, too, did the audience, who ate it up like a free dessert.

Also threaded through Dean’s discursive act is his tale of meeting up with a friend, who was a criminal, who texts him shortly beforehand that he’s bringing a friend who just finished 10 years in prison, thus giving Dean plenty of scope to vent his anxieties about homophobia.

Larry Dean in Fandan.

Not that he’s complaining, he stresses before explaining why Scottish people are the least homophobic people in the world and how this is logically linked to the fact that Scots are the most argumentative humans on earth. Even the menus at sandwich bars challenge them.

In one of the show’s highlights, Dean reveals the age when he first had sex, then again deploys his Scottish logic to argue why the age of consent law should be matched by a law declaring the age by which you must have sex. The proposal was greeted with howls of laughter so approving they carried the suggestion that Dean should consider running for office.

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One of the chips on Dean’s shoulder is his issue with jealousy, which he airs out through a tale of the revenge he exacted against a non-communicative ex-lover by engaging the powers of the internet’s dark side.

It’s very funny in the telling, though Dean might be wise to offset the obvious glee he took from his online harassment with a well-worded disclaimer that such conduct is inexcusable, even for the lovesick.

Though it’s not mentioned in his flyers, also appearing on stage with Dean is a well-educated London observational comic whose dry wit and ability to help Dean recover from the occasional flat joke warrants more attention that he’s received thus far.

Here’s hoping he continues up-staging Dean before scoring gigs of his own.

Larry Dean, Fandan

Melbourne Town Hall, corner Collins and Swanston streets, until April 22.

comedyfestival.com.au