Comedy Festival 2018: Rhys Nicholson at the top of his game in Seminal ★★★★½

IT’S quality control, not portion control for Rhys Nicholson, whose economy of words is at a Jerry Seinfeld-level — only with more edge.

LET’S do the math here (“Yo teach” voice). If Rhys Nicholson’s show goes for an hour and he packs in four jokes, three add-on zingers and one belly laugh per minute that’s 420 laughs per show. I won’t mention which show I’d seen before Nicholson, it certainly didn’t have that value for money.

Nicholson’s cool, calm and corrected (he always comes correct) demeanour makes his audience delight at being in his presence without dreaded “coneedian” obligations where you feel you need to laugh to prop up his/her/their (pronouns!!!!) ego.

SAM SIMMONS: METHOD BEHIND THE FULL-BLOWN MADNESS

BECKY LUCAS BANG ON WITH THE NOT-SO-SWEET AND INNOCENT

“He’s flying!” I beamed to my plus-one as Nicholson stacked post-wedding stories, the perils of Monopoly, voting no in the plebiscite and prickly anti-vaxxer gear after a line about dinner parties. He described the latter as a “smart casual hostage situation”.

Rhys Nicholson hits every mark in Seminal.

His economy of words is at a Jerry Seinfeld-level, with more edge and less zeroes in his bank account.

Nicholson makes sly, knowing drug references throughout Seminal and takes us onboard the now-quite-acceptable-to-admit-you-are-doing-them P&O Comedy Cruise.

DILRUK JAYASINHA: CLIMBING THE COMEDY LADDER BIG TIME

IVAN ARISTEGUIETA: AN EXHILARATING RUN WITH THE BULLS

He improvises a bit about white men: “Stick to the plan boys, it’ll settle down soon … it always does.”

At least he made it feel off-the-cuff and fresh for us, just like the other 417 laughs in Seminal.

Rhys Nicholson, Seminal

The Swiss Club, until April 22.

comedyfestival.com.au