Andy Zaltzman: Plan Z (MICF)

A laptop, a pineapple, and various right-leaning newspapers sit visibly on the Powder Room stage. What in the hell could Andy Zaltzman have planned?

The answer? An unholy plethora of absurdist, political, observational comedy gold.

As the crowd staggers in, Zaltzman greets them offstage and over the speakers with hilarious pre-show announcements. It's simultaneously tacky and topical - and a good representation of Zaltzman himself. As the wiry-haired weirdo emerges looking like a substitute teacher that desperately wants to be thought of as cool, the UK comic and podcaster launches into a gargantuan amount of material on the current state of government around the world, including plenty of pointed and on-the-ball gags on our own little corner of the globe. No one does their homework like Zaltzman.

What's truly phenomenal and unique to Plan Z is that Zaltzman is totally unforgiving in the delivery of his material. While most other comics alter their references and stories to ensure they hit the mark abroad, Zaltzman leaves everything as is. Allusions to random snooker players that no one here could possibly know, news stories that broke in his home country but not here, it's all exactly how Zaltzman originally planned it - which is exactly how it should be.

The comedian is a master of flipping seamlessly between the straightforward and the bizarre, totally catching even the most hardened of Zaltzman fans off guard. Once a collaborator with HBO's John Oliver on their podcast The Bugle, Zaltzman has all the dry wit and perceptive brilliance of Oliver, and it's a total, unfathomable astonishment that Zaltzman hasn't risen to the same levels (or even higher) of notability.

There is so much happening in Plan Z, and yet it still feels cohesive and screams for more time to shower its audience with some of the most original and hilarious political comedy in recent times. With Trump and Brexit and a hoard of depressing news taking over the world, the only solace is the boom it contributes to the comic's economics. But no one, absolutely no one, is doing what Zaltzman is doing. No one else could.

Andy Zaltzman presents Plan Z till Apr 23 at Melbourne Town Hall, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.