A 45-minute-long queue meant Channel V’s Free Shit Men were already on stage. Unfortunately there were still more of the duo’s not-quite-as-classy-as-Jackass shenanigans to sit through, as they waxed an audience member’s butt and received a painful foot tattoo on stage. To keep the crowd on side during these (frankly boring) demonstrations, the larrikins tried out some homophobic and sexist crowd-work — but most offensive of all was how excruciatingly dull they were.
Streeter Seidell, known for his work on SNL as well as CollegeHumor, delivered an energetic half-hour of standup, and while the subject matter he tackled was a little old-hat (how weird is Vegemite/AFL/plain cigarette packaging?), he generally stuck the landings, with unpredictable punchlines and an eye for specifics. One chunk about XL shirt sizes was particularly effective.
The packed theatre met Jake & Amir with delight, and the duo wasted no time before beginning their advice show, If I Were You. Packed with in-jokes and crowd interaction, the show worked best when the two comics were pleasantly perplexed by the situations fans had written in about, riffing on one involving an impromptu foursome on a beach, and another about reopening a long-past argument. The show dragged somewhat when the duo debated for far too long whether or not they could pull off a stage-dive, but their enthusiastic fans lapped up the chance to get up close and personal.
