★★★½: Tommy Little, Self-Diagnosed Genius, review at Melbourne comedy festival

A word of warning: make sure you’re firmly in your seat when the house lights go down for Tommy Little’s comedy show — or you may regret it. Here’s why.

Comedian Tommy Little is all over the small screen and radio airwaves, so it’s no surprise that his popularity translates to a buzzing full house on a school night.

Word of warning: make sure you’re firmly in your seat when the house lights go down, or you might find yourself part of the show — as Little works as his own warm-up man before the show kicks off in earnest.

If you’re in the front row, it might be unavoidable anyway.

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Little riffs off the latecomers, engaging in the time-honoured “how did you meet?” routine to showcase his quickfire improv skills.

He notes the difference between the various cities’ response to his gags (his “root in my building dot com” swipes gag fell flat in Hobart, with its dearth of high-rise apartment blocks).

Tommy Little worked his improv skills and his finely tuned storytelling techniques at his Melbourne International Comedy Festival show. Picture: Sarah Matray

But the crux of the show is his recent attempt at the (in)famous Antarctic Ice Marathon, which had its origins in a particularly hairy night of excess in Sri Lanka — resulting in a “what am I doing with my life?”-style soul search — the previous year.

Ignoring advice from his doctor, and others, to engage in plenty of “soft-sand running” — and with his dodgy knees fortified with cortisone — the ill-equipped Little treks to the end of the earth to stay in an unheated tent and compete against seasoned marathoners in subzero temperatures.

The whole premise is comedy gold from the get-go — and Little milks its hilarity for all it’s worth.

He matches wits and workouts with race favourites “Poland” and “Sri Lanka”, honing his pre-race strategy of “just win it”, and, above all, avoiding the omnipresent “wet is death” threat of hypothermia.

Having survived the potentially treacherous ordeal (no spoilers there, he’s standing in front of us recounting these tall tales), Little — a non-swimmer — tells us he is now setting his sights on the 20km Rottnest Channel Swim.

Grist for the comic mill of next year’s show, perhaps?

Our rating: ★★★½

Tommy Little, Self-Diagnosed Genius, until April 21, The Forum.