Both Simon Cumming and Perri Cassie greeted the audience, all very much ready on stage, with some light chatter about the etiquette of introducing their show as they walked into the room at Grand Mecure, and then well… introduced us to their show through a unique little sketch-stylised bit. The sketch stuff was tossed aside from that point on as we all went together on a fun little romp through two sets from two comedians who love the wonderfully silly stuff of life.
Simon Cumming launched the show with some nice little quips about his life and other observational oddities. Where Simon shines is his rapport with the audience however. After seeing a couple quietly have a word with each other, he snapped into an wonderfully sly convener – butting his quirkiness with the awkward interruption. Peppering this through his set gave it a nice spice of life.
Perri Cassie took the stage in the second half with a set drier than the Atacama, but certainly more hilarious. Defiantly not willing to shy away from frankly and boldly talking about acts in the bedroom so visceral. Ghastly as talking about such acts may be, the description was amazingly visceral and with a hint of unabashed boldness. This was pleasant to see from such a new act in the festival.
The aim of this show – as mentioned from the outset – was to develop it into two separate solo show for next years festival. While the two certainly had different styles, and there’s an expectation that both comedians will have two distinctively different shows, the duo together gave off a nice ying-yang ambiance suited for those wanting variety in their double-billed shows.
Simon & Perri Go Large is playing Downstairs @ The Grand Mercure Hotel as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival until April 17. For more info and tix head here.
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