The Pineapple Club

The Pineapple Club
Brisbane Comedy Festival. Brisbane Powerhouse. Fridays & Saturdays 25 February – 23 March 2014

Different from most of the acts featured in this festival, “The Pineapple Club” is a bastard product of Theatresports and Brisbane’s popular Impromafia company. The performance I saw featured four actors, Natalie Bochenski, Tristan Ham, Wade Robinson and Luke Rimmelzwaan;  MC, Dan Beeston; and Kris Anderson, an instrumentalist on keyboards and percussion. (The combination varies from show to show.)

Anyone who saw Thank God, You’re Here or Whose Line Is It? on TV will recognise the style. Amazingly versatile actors work spontaneously without script, falling instantly into character to topics and styles suggested by audience members. The comedy in this sort of show depends as much on the quality of the audience’s suggested topics as it does on the line uttered by the first actor. Pace is essential and any piece is fraught with traps. The musician was the real star of the show for me, devising instant melodic accompaniment to embryonic songs in a suggested style, or musical backing to skits and sketches with ease.

Inevitably some segments work better than others, but rarely do any fall flat in the hands of these brave professionals.

It’s the best value at the festival: laughs just for turning up!

Jay McKee

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