Review: Adam Rozenbachs is lockdown’s everyman in ‘The UnWellness Guru’
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

08.04.2021

Review: Adam Rozenbachs is lockdown’s everyman in ‘The UnWellness Guru’

Words by Alexander Crowden

★★★★

Punters made the most of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s ‘Tightarse Tuesday’ to pack out Adam Rozenbachs’ room at the Imperial Hotel, with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the self-proclaimed ‘UnWellness Guru’ in person. Adam was greeted by a lively crowd who were on from the get-go, and he wasted no time getting them all in stitches either.

Rozenbachs’ comedic appeal stems a lot from his incredible likeability, his quick wits – which help with crowd work – and the fact that he is very much the embodiment of the ‘everyman’.

He’s extremely relatable, and while he might be prone to the odd exaggeration or two, the topics he speaks about are – for the most part – things we can all understand or have done, or at least thought about doing, ourselves.

Get all the latest comedy news and reviews here.

Nearly the entire show centres around life during the pandemic. Since live comedy has resumed, many jokes comedians make are about ‘how good it is to be out and about again’ or at least touching on their time in lockdown. In many ways, lockdown content is the new Trump material. With both topics, it feels like it’s probably best to avoid it altogether or go all in on it.

Rozenbachs has chosen the latter. He touches on so many elements that we all experienced throughout lockdown, making the show completely relatable to anyone around the country, but especially for those in his hometown of Melbourne.

While engaging with the hemmed-in crowd, Rozenbachs spoke to a lady in the front row who said she was a teacher. Upon pressing her for more details, she revealed that she taught entrepreneurship.

“Step one, open an Instagram account and become an influencer – done!” Rozenbachs joked.

He mostly touched on the unhealthy things that he encountered during the pandemic, such as drinking. “Did anyone else pour themselves a glass of wine, then get to the couch and think, ‘this already needs topping up?’”

He said when pubs and bars opened up again, the stinginess of responsible serving of alcohol had irritated him. “They’d just fill it up to the line… my pours at home had a little convex bubble on the top, that’s how you pour a glass of wine!”

Well-mannered people joking about ‘finishing Netflix’ annoyed him – he wasn’t at all impressed. “I finished Pornhub during lockdown, and I’ll be honest with you Melbourne, I don’t think they’re really step-brother and step-sister.”

To counteract his unhealthy habits while living alone during lockdown, Rozenbachs tried his best to keep fit. On one particular workout at Princes Park, he was skipping and someone asked to have a go. Rozenbachs told the audience he’s so adverse to confrontation that he would’ve normally let him have a go or just kept skipping for ten hours until he left.

However, due to COVID he had an excuse and told the guy that due to the virus people shouldn’t share things. The gentleman agreed before promptly informing Rozenbachs that he used to be a professional skipper. “Sure, checks out mate.”

The UnWellness Guru manages to touch on so many experiences of our lives from the last year. He somehow managed to put a hilarious spin on every single moment that you might be forgiven for thinking you actually enjoyed in 2020!

The UnWellness Guru is showing on Saturday April 17 and Sunday April 18 as part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Tickets available here.