Loyiso Gola: Dude, Where's My Lion? (MICF)

South African comedian Loyiso Gola is a supremely relaxed person with a natural ease onstage. He comes across as a likeable, charismatic guy and these qualities work both for and against him as a comic. A flash of his winning grin can elevate the response to any punchline, which seems to have enabled him to take a fairly casual approach to actually writing material.

Gola is among the few comedians who are funniest when riffing with the crowd. Early interactions with mostly African audience members prove his natural crowd-work prowess. His observations as an outsider in Melbourne are often perceptive and funny, like a story about watching Iron Man 2 on TV only to have a dramatic fight scene interrupted by an ad for avocados. Unfortunately, much of his set treads too-familiar territory, like saying golf isn't a real sport and bemoaning being seated next to a fat person on a flight.

Gola is a black South African man who attended a "99% Muslim" school in Johannesburg. He now lives in London, has spent time in the US and is currently visiting Australia. In an industry dominated by white Western men, he has an interesting perspective to share, particularly at this political moment. He has had a lot of unusual experiences which could be explored plenty more than he does, to the audience's benefit and his own.

The closest he comes is toward the end of his set when Gola ruminates on the overblown fear of Islam. "We all need to learn more about each other," he says. "Actually, white people need to learn more about other people." It's one of the biggest laughs and truest lines in his set. Funny how often those go together.

Loyiso Gola presents Dude, Where's My Lion? till 23 Apr at Melbourne Town Hall, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.