Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas. Axis of Awesome

Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas. Axis of Awesome
Part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Famous Spiegeltent at Federation Square, 8 Apr – 20 Apr.

Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas is the latest show from Axis of Awesome, a comedy rock and roll trio who are regulars at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Well known for their YouTube clips, Axis of Awesome parody popular music styles with original material poking fun at generic song structures, along with mashups of existing numbers.

The aforementioned titular piece, combining Coldplay's Viva la Vida, Ricky Martin's Living La Vida Loca and Elvis Presley's Viva Las Vegas, was more impressive in concept than in practice and not the greatest choice as opening song. But once the trio warmed up, they delivered a solid set of feel-good entertainment along with plenty of laughs. Jordan Raskopoulos, on lead vocals, has a strong voice and sparkling comedic talent and used both to great effect. Classically trained Benny Davis on keyboards and vocals, clearly a formidably talented musician, bore the brunt of Jordan's "short jokes" but the two of them frequently turned their mocking humour on the band's third member, guitarist Lee Naimo who displayed a strong gift for ad libbing.

There was the usual audience participation and topical references, but the best laughs came from the songs, which were frequently spot-on in their parodies. Highlights included a sung example of how to construct a generic boy band love song, and the trio brought the house down with their encore 'Rage of Thrones' - aka 'Well I Read the F***ing Books' (I think Game of Thrones author George RR Martin would love that one). If pop music parody from talented musicians and performers is your thing, you’ll have a great night.

Alex Paige

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