The Pun

Dave Grant: MAN the MYTH

By Bex Lee ⋅ May 9, 2006 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

As a well-established Australian comic, Dave Grant owns his stage with an authority that comes from knowing his craft implicitly and his crowd intimately. The bulk of the punters who buy tickets to Dave Grant know what they’re in for: an old-fashioned serve of ‘male’ Aussie humour. This is not to say his line-up is full of dick jokes - far from it - but the material strikes a chord with every bloke who has ever had a VB showdown with his mates.

MAN the MYTH is all about initiation into manhood, be it through beer, bongs or ‘bombs’ (the kind that splash water over people, not flaming bits of debris). It’s essentially a rites of passage show, where Grant recalls tales of his misspent youth and connects easily with the testosterone in the audience. As a female, I was able to appreciate the characteristics of the Aussie male, but I couldn’t laugh with the same intensity as the boys. I also found some of the material dated and predictable’has there ever been a time in history when comedy hasn’t mined the differences between men and women?

On a more refreshing note, Grant sends a quiet but clear message to his fellow man: don’t be afraid to visit the prostate doctor. It was a gentle reminder that in between the bottle shops and boxing rings, life can grip a man by his you-know-what. I applaud Grant for broaching a sensitive issue with an overtly masculine audience.