Like fashion’s foray into flannel, one of this festival’s stronger trends has been 1990s nostalgia. A natural progression from the comic book/cartoon fascination generated by blockbusters and internet download trends, celebrating our youth ironically has been a favourite of thirty-year-old male comics. But on this closing weekend with a final Festival Club headliner, MICF organisers have hooked their rose-tinted Oakleys onto their No Fear T-shirt and instead plucked from overseas a boy born in 1990.

Freshly graduated from school, Bo Burnham is an internet celebrity with a Comedy Channel special already under his belt. Or to be more accurate, under his tracky dack elastic band, because he shrugged onto stage in similar garb to that which he wears in his bedroom-bound Youtube videos. He either knew exactly what he was doing or was still suffering from being on Massachusetts time. With the crowd roaring with laughter a few minutes later, the answer was clear.

Bo writes songs on his keyboard in a basic Channel Nine Sunday Night Scoreboard sort of way, but then uses the rhythmic structure to wield wordplay, contrive over-the-top offensive puns, and make a T-shirtload of sex, gay and toilet jokes. His topics are exactly what you’d expect from within a classroom – including references to hot-button issues like race, religion and abortion – but he has twisted the ideas and words to take it a whole lot of levels above school yard banter. His recall, especially in the centre of dense, convoluted raps, is dead impressive and he has worked rhythm and alliteration into lyrics which are otherwise only there to rhyme with oncoming punchlines. There are hits-and-misses, but no flat spots.

On a Festival Club night when several women audibly reacted to MC Randy’s use of the C-word, Bo had everyone loving his similarly touch-n-go material. His young, slacker good looks are slightly undermining his underdog, uncool chic, but nothing could deny the talent required to deliver offence so enjoyably.

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