Following rave reviews for his previous show Love Song’s for Future Girl Shane Adamczak a.k.a Zack Adams returned to the Perth stage to revive his show Zack Adams: The Complete History for the Fringe World festival. An autobiographical tale peppered with some fine musical moments as well as plenty of laughs. The life of Zack Adams is filled with plenty of ups and downs, and is quite the cathartic experience.
Adams’ career as the story goes, began in the school halls. His first big break, a part in the school nativity, unfortunately it was also the scene of his earliest setbacks. The strength of the shows comedy lies in the characters honesty and his self-deprecation. Adams’ doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to describing his various dramatic mishaps along the way; whether it is was the unsuccessful trip to the East coast to make a name for himself, or a calamitous (fictional) appearance on Big Brother in the UK.
The set is punctuated by small vignettes of a young Adams sorting through insects, which constantly build up throughout the show to reveal the meeting between Adams and the childhood friend Fender, who features prominently throughout the show.
Adams’ comedy is not particularly offensive in any way and it’s rarely directed at anyone except himself. He manages to entertain his audience and make them laugh, without having to resort to toilet humor or insults. The strength of his humour lies in his ability to poke fun at the image he has created for himself, and by doing so he also is poking fun at the notion of the cult of celebrity and the lengths people will go, to attain fame. It’s also a somewhat inspirational tale, a show that has you leaving uplifted and ready to tackle what the world has to throw at you.
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