Another brilliantly confrontational offering from Brisbane-bred funnyman Luke Heggie, Rough Diamante finds him skewering a dozen occupations, mindsets and sensibilities during the intro alone. He then ramps up the offensive from there so prepare to be assaulted.
Fortunately, Heggie's trademark deadpan demeanour means it's hard to take things personally, even when the barbs hit close to home. His default droll delivery masks a routine dripping with sarcasm and cynicism (although these traits are often adroitly deflected by being attributed to some nebulous third party).
Heggie's everyman Aussie persona somewhat conceals his top-notch observational skills and some brilliant turns of phrase (such as the throwaway line about someone having attended the "above ground pool school of English"), and while he delights in cutting people down to size, there's no real feel of arrogance or hubris as he packs in plenty of self-recrimination to square the ledger.
He plays the hometown card perfectly (despite being Sydney-based these days) with a life hack about mowing toads, delivers an amazing take on mortality with a shrug, and then strums a mandolin for the last ten minutes which allows him to shed longer anecdotes for one-liners (a la Demetri Martin). He ends with a flourish of off-kilter song seemingly designed to push people from the room in a hurry. Affably scathing blue collar philosophy with no punches pulled but plenty to love.
