The Bryce Is Right

The Bryce Is Right
Bryce Halliday. Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Ruby’s Music Room. April 2 – 12, 2014.

Bryce Halliday is one talented performer. A terrific jazz pianist, he has a lovely tenor voice that moves easily into falsetto. A handsome young man, he had updated words to old songs and written some of his own, which all went down well.

Particular congratulations to the sound man, as every word was clearly heard.

Bryce also utilised a keyboard and computer for some songs, and got the music to loop back, so he was able to sing duets with himself. He also played sound bites from speeches made by various people he was talking about.

The premise of his show was to introduce the audience to various people who had made predictions which were spectacularly wrong. Was this very funny?

Unfortunately, no.

It was informative, but the material was not what one would expect at a comedy festival. It appeared that Bryce realized that too, as his delivery was low key and he often looked at the floor. His timing was not what one would expect from an experienced comic, even on opening night. The reaction from the small audience was luke warm.

I’d be more interested in hearing him at a concert of his songs. I don’t think the Comedy Festival is his thing, unless he can find more comic material.

Graham Ford

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