Comedy Festival 2018: Sam Simmons sharp with the random in Radical Women of Latin American Art, 1960-1985 ★★★½

PREMIER absurdist micro-sketch artist and prop comic Sam Simmons detonates a fast-paced package of random humour that ranges from the cheeky to the excruciating.

THERE is a wonderful, child-like abandon with which Sam Simmons executes the art of prop comedy.

The form might have its detractors for being cheap, but when in the hands of such a skilled practitioner it’s extremely funny and even clever without losing its essential cheapness.

In a very solid, relentlessly paced hour, Simmons presents a high-energy mix of prop gags, stand-up, singing and killer micro sketches — each about six seconds, with booming voiceover intros — all delivered with his absurdist edge and trademark mock-aggression, the f-bomb only being deployed for the sake of a laugh.

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Alongside his high-laugh quotient — the packed house on the night was completely engaged — Simmons delights in the control he can exert over his audience, especially when pushing them into uncomfortable territory.

In a near-brilliant demonstration of today’s collective anxiety over racial terms, he notes the power certain words have to suddenly drop a pall over the room.

He plays with the change in mood, turns it in on itself and the room is quickly laughing again, if a little nervously. It’s just “a bit of cheeky, racist stuff”, he quips, checking at show’s end that he hasn’t caused any real offence.

Sam Simmons in Radical Women of Latin American Art, 1960-1985.

Of course he hasn’t. The guy’s a clown in street wear and is only abrasive, never truly offensive. He does, however, have a taste for gross-out humour, his venture into the scatological earning as many groans as it did laughs. Simmons clearly loves testing how far he can go with his people, and does so several times.

Despite the scattershot nature of the gags, an underlying sophistication drives the show. Knowing the value of a satisfying close, Simmons caps Radical Women off with a string of very pleasing pay-offs.

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Special kudos must go to the show’s excellent technical production, with terrific lighting and set design — the centrepiece being a large bank of stocked supermarket shelves — making this look, for all the world, like a legit piece of theatre.

Simmons uses a clicker to cue the booming voiceover intros, but a mishap involving spilled liquid threatened to derail the show. Fortunately, luck — or the Comedy God — was on his side. Whew.

One caution: Simmons relies heavily on audience participation, so those with an aversion need to avoid sitting in those first few rows and to avoid eye contact should Simmons approach.

Yet there were no shy types on the night. Indeed, it was fun observing how happily people surrender themselves to Simmons as he pulls them up on stage and has them completely at his mercy.

Fortunately, he has just enough of that to keep things on the right side of silly.

Sam Simmons, Radical Women of Latin American Art, 1960-1985

Fairfax Studio, Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Rd, until April 22.

comedyfestival.com.au