The Pun

Sammy J’s 55 Minute National Tour

By Alex Murray ⋅ May 5, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Becoming a fan of Sammy J is exhausting. Like some sort of keyboard-wielding Pied Piper, J compels many of his fans, using his charm and charisma, to travel the length and breadth of the nation just to watch him perform. (I saw one particularly fanatical groupie at almost every show.).

Although Australia is the world’s smallest continent, it is fairly sparsely populated, which can make travelling between major capital cities a particularly gruelling process when you have an almost pathological inability to catch a plane. But it can make for a very entertaining Comedy Festival show.

Nestled under Duckboard House, J bounces around on stage in what must be one of the smallest festival venues, in his well written, high energy 55 Minute National Tour. Accompanied by some very funny video material, which fills in the travel time storyline as he wings his way from Brisbane to Perth and places in between, J performs a collection of catchy tunes on his keyboard and delivers some biting political comedy to each of his audiences. (It was interesting to discover that Adelaide still rates as a destination on a national tour.).

J’s performance as the smooth, garish cabaret performer was hilarious; although, at times his slick keyboard playing overshadowed his brief attempts at straight stand-up, and occasionally made his song lyrics difficult to understand. With that said, I doubt you could find anyone in the audience who wasn’t glad they came on this Contiki Tour of Comedy.