Austen Tayshus is a name just about every Australian should be familiar with. His piece Australiana was one of our countries’ biggest exports some years ago. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say I grew up listening to it as a child, trying to memorise it word for word.

However, Austen’s latest show, The Merchant of Menace, did not evoke the same feelings. Yes, it is funny. Possibly blurring the line of political incorrectness, but what is good comedy if it doesn’t blur the lines occasionally?

There were, for lack of a better term, low points throughout the show, when jokes were taken past the point of being funny. The material in Merchant of Menace would feel more at home in bars across the wide brown land of ours, rather than its current setting.

Hardly a reinvention of the form, Austen Tayshus doesn’t shy away from interacting with his audience, often using audience members to draw inspiration and better focus his work to appeal to the mass populous.

Craig Millar does an excellent job of supporting the show. Although the two artists come from different times, they both seem to have a mental link in regards to political views, which is quite possibly the reason for the pairing. I await a future solo show from Millar, who certainly seems capable of such an event.

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• For We Are Young and Free
• Courteney Hocking Un-Australian
• Austen Tayshus