Demetri Martin: These are Other Jokes
Performing his second show at this year’s Festival, Demetri Martin could be seen as capitalising on a captive audience.
Thankfully for us, his shows are actually worth seeing.
These Are Other Jokes consists of a varied collection of comic material, the majority being observation based humour interspersed with musical whimsy. Throw in a dash of prop comedy, and it is fair to argue that Demetri has catered for all audiences.
One problem Demetri has to face is the amount of his material that his audience actually understands fully. On a number of occasions throughout his performance, Demetri would pause after the first instance of a joke awaiting a reaction. If there was no reaction, Demetri would have to draw it out and explain the joke in full to draw a laugh or write the joke off altogether – either stating how shit that joke was or playfully blaming the audience.
Those seeing Demetri Martin should already be aware that there is a certain intellectual component to his comedy that requires a bit of afterthought. I haven’t managed to see Dr Earnest Parrot Presents Demetri Martin, so I cannot offer comment on how much of the material in These Are Other Jokes is reproduced, or if any is at all.
From what I have seen of Demetri, I’m happy to report that These Are Other Jokes is completely fresh material.
I definitely recommend checking out These Are Other Jokes, but don’t sweat it if you don’t get every joke.
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Oh, Demetri, what happened? After viewing your show Dr Earnest Parrot Presents Demetri Martin earlier in the Festival, I was ready for another bout of the deadpan cutesy humour that makes you, you. But I’m afraid to say that you were way off making this show memorable for me.
There are many unspoken rules about holding more than one show at the same festival. One: have a different theme. OK, check off that one’this was decidedly different from Martin’s previous show; these are the other jokes. Two: if possible, have a different character. With Martin’s style of comedy, this really isn’t necessary’it’s always kinda fun to have a bout of his groan-crunching absurdity. Three: don’t repeat material. With the difficulty attached to remembering each joke, each pun and each individual idiosyncrasy, it must be hard, but please don’t overlap.
Whinge over. Martin’s style allows for many a pregnant pause through his shows, before half the audience gets the joke, bursting into spontaneous laughter and leaving the remainder of the room to laugh along, just for the hell of it. Well-established in his own ways, Martin is marvellous in so many ways, least of which involves his guitar, a harpsichord and some foot bells. When he realised his show had started 15 minutes late, Martin offered an impromptu Q&A session with members of the audience. Of all his material, it is this unrehearsed banter that works best, allowing Martin to relax away from his dry, witty stage persona.
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