Harley Breen brings a personal story to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this year with I Heart Bunnings: Stories About My Brothers. The show is his exploration of  growing up with brothers Clifton and Randall, in Bundaberg, Queensland, attempting to emulate their blokiness and ending up falling somewhat short of the mark (humiliatingly mocked by his five-year-old nephew in one instance). Breen’s show is a bracingly frank take on the rudiments of being a man in the 21st century. He handles the subject matter of  (to borrow from Robin Williams) “men with men doing manly things” with a healthy dose of self-awareness and a willingness to mock his own status as “the arty brother” within his own family.

Playing to a crowded upstairs room at the Portland Hotel, Breen gleefully engaged in banter with the audience before launching into his show proper. Tackling subjects such as the pitfalls of being a new father, negotiating the ins-and-outs of the titular hardware store, and going about putting together flatpack furniture (the centrepiece of the show, it must be said), Breen even manages to weave in some topic material about rebuilding after the recent natural disasters up north. However, in the midst of the show Breen opts to make time for a smoko break, with the audience also getting an unexpected bonus feed.

The audience was fully engaged from start to finish, and laughter was near-constant. Breen makes his points with precision timing, and while it does delve into the occasional bodily-function gag, his rapid-fire pacing is such that you honestly can’t object. Breen’s “flatpack comedy” is anything but flat.