Nando’s Thrill By Night Comedy Night At Comedy Store, Sydney

Laugh number one of this funny evening was not sponsored by Nando’s, nor did it help stamp out malaria.

It was enjoyed by the driver of the City to Bondi bus, and was at my expense.
“Yeah, Moore Park, I stop there,” he assured me. I had to run back across town from Bondi Junction with the clock ticking fast against me.

Once I made it to the Comedy Store, the Thrill by Mouth evening – sponsored by those Peri Peri chicken guys with proceeds going to United Against Malaria – was a hoot.

The tough gig of MC was handled deftly by Daniel Burt, whose short bursts between acts kept the pace up and the laughs coming with his takes on his favourite Aussie phrases and his mum revealing that he was an accident.

First through the crimson curtain to face a well-oiled, intimate crowd were sketch show double-act Burt Maverick and Ben Vernel. While they did not seek to reinvent the wheel, the duo raised some chuckles with Python-esque absurdities.

The highlight was an amusing satire on foodie trends – the World’s first suicidarian restaurant, where all the meat served had killed itself. How do you know the Calamari intended to take its own life? Because it usually leaves a note, of course. Other items on the menu included Lemming Meringue Pie and Roast Lemming.

A writer for Jay Leno, self-confessed Natalie-Portman-with-a-beard-alike Simon Taylor, showed great stage craft with a frenetic set which included gems like the truism that not everyone that goes to the gym is a d***khead, but every d***khead goes to the gym.

The stand-out moment a raucous evening came when Taylor invited the audience to simulate a prison riot as he demonstrated the only time that he – a feminist – would resort to yelling the typically Aussie line ‘show us your tits’.

TV and radio regular Nelly Thomas was a master of delivery with pithy observations about motherhood, while off-the-wall headliner Catherine Deveney was not afraid to shock on the same subject – listening to her describe childbirth was as uncomfortable as it was hilarious.

Sometimes corporate or charity gigs run the risk of descending into long evenings of back-slapping or preaching, but that was not the case here – Daniel Burt made sure that both Nando’s and indeed Malaria were legitimate targets for comedy.

There surely isn’t a more satisfying way to support a charity.

By Jim Palmer

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