02 April 2014

MICF: Rod Quantock

MICF
Peak-A-Boo
Rod Quantock
1 April 2014
Melbourne Town Hall, Powder Room
to 20 April 2014
comedyfestival.com.au


Rod Quantock did his first official show in the year that I was born (not counting his first unofficial show, which he told us about last night). In Peak-A-Boo, Rod is as bloody wonderful as ever. He's often described as intelligent and subversive, but what's subversive about stating the obvious?

Not too long ago, Rod's shows had become more positive. It's harder to joke about your government when they are undoing some damage. That didn't last. It didn't even last as long as one term. And now, well, now it's just too easy and too depressing to even joke about.

But Rod still makes us laugh. Hell, if we can't laugh at the regressive hell that we're in...


Still greeting everyone at the door, he's gone back to basics with a blackboard to help explain things like the blatant fiction in a piece shared by Andrew Bolt EP* (it's here) and to attempt to do the maths that could possibly make the East-West tunnel make any sense. Billions of dollars for something that makes no sense. Billions; he ran out of blackboard with the number of zeros.

Rod doesn't deserve anything as archaic and boring as a knighthood, so what can we award him? I'm going with an old suggestion of naming a Melbourne lane after him. Who wouldn't want a latte and a rant in Quantock Place?

And for those who read EP and scoff at the left, come along and see the left in Rod's audience: middle aged, middle class and educated.

*Evil Prick

I also wrote about this show on AussieTheatre.com.