Inside the weird and wonderful mind of Melbourne comic Neal Portenza

CULT comic Neal Portenza talks Christ, Graham Kennedy and the wrath of online critics.

CHRIST shall not return, comic Neal Portenza says.

We may well live in a time when we need Him back more than ever, yet Professor Neal Portenza (actually Joshua Ladgrove, 31) has announced that his hit 2014 show Come Heckle Christ won’t be returning to the stage.

Though the show was a sell out — hundreds crammed into the Tuxedo Cat venue to ask questions of a crucified, yet defiantly cheery Saviour — it seems the attention of online haters vowing to “smash his face in with a brick” provided enough disincentive.

Still, Portenza’s 2017 show P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A. has been doing a roaring trade, attracting rave reviews for what the comic describes as “me being very stupid. Nothing clever or serious about it.”

Pushed for a deeper description, he calls it a “Shaun Micallef meets Mighty Boosh meets Lano & Woodley meets Graham Kennedy — but a bit worse than each of those”.

Dressed in his distinctive lab coat and signature red beret while handing out flyers, we asked Portenza to take a break and join us in the Town Hall bar for a deep dive into his methods and motivations.

We thank the bar staff who kindly brought the lights up for us, and to the patrons who allowed us free reign for a few minutes. They quietly listened in on the interview, thus allowing us to record a fairly clean audio track. They make a brief appearance at the very end of the video.

P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A.is on at the Backstage Room, Melbourne Town Hall until 23 April.

Neal Portenza for MICF 2017