Year of the Abbott

An hour of irreverent impersonations and recollections of the first year of the Abbott government kicked off last night in the cellar of the Chippendale Hotel, just one day short of the actual anniversary of Tony Abbott’s first 365 days in office.

John Timothy, Hugh Govers and Shane Addison with Nathan Lentern and Brent Thorpe take a satirical swipe at the present PM, a past PM, a PUP, and the media in a series of interviews, a quiz and some “guest appearances”.

Brent Thorpe’s alter-ego ‘Deidre Flick, self-funded retiree from Mosman’, kicks off the show with a phone call to Alan Jones. In a pink fascinator and sparkly glasses, ‘Deidre’ sounds off about everything from ‘Anthony Lebanese’ to ‘poor Gina Reinhart, who’s worked her fingers to the bone”, to people who come here ‘wanting to set up asylums’. Pity the PM wasn’t there to give her a wink!

Shane Addison and Hugh Govers provide some good laughs in straight-faced comments on various events of the year including ‘misunderstood election promises’, and the new Senate. Kevin Rudd makes an appearance answering his own rhetorical questions. A PUP supporter channels his big leader, mixing up the name of the interviewer, repeating phrases and explaining that “billionaires are the most depressed minority in Australia”.

The insertion of a quiz with two ‘plants’ from the audience is a bit of a fizzer, but that is offset by a relatively good impersonation of ‘Tony Abbott’, complete with constant hesitations, back-of-the-throat laughing, feet apart walk, winks and uninformed references to climate change eg “solar panels stealing rays from the sun”.

It’s not a bad little show and it certainly gets some laughs!

Carol Wimmer