For comedy trio Aunty Donna (Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane) this is not their first Melbourne Comedy Festival rodeo. This year’s show Big Boys was performed at Max Watt’s. Aunty Donna, accompanied by musician and friend Tom, presented a dynamic show filled with vibrancy and overall phenomenal silliness.
The show comprised of individual sketches that thematically showed the absurdities in everyday interactions. This ranged from the dilemmas of getting a low Uber rating (whether you’re the driver or passenger), having to politely interact with an acquaintance in every aisle of the supermarket and trying to be polite when the waiter has forgotten your order.
The scenarios highlighted a double standard in these interactions. For example, the Uber sketches showed how a driver can get a one-star rating by running out of mints while a passenger has to literally shit in the car to get the same low rating. They also placed emphasis on the unnecessary stress that these interactions place on us, which was displayed in the increasing hyperbolic actions of shouting and physical revulsions.
For Big Boys, the sketches were accompanied with an underlying meta-narrative that highlighted a fictitious tension between the three members. Throughout the show, Mark held contempt and strong concern that Zack was not “stepping up”. Following an incredibly realistic rap battle, the tension continued to increase resulting in Zack’s farewell and then his physical inability to actually leave the stage. The strength of this meta-narrative provided a backbone to the show’s structure and their reunion provided a strong conclusion for the show.
Like most of their work, Big Boys inverted well-known comedic gimmicks with absurdity, displaying their creative comedic genius. This resulted in this show’s uniqueness and surprise twists and laughs.
The unexpected laugh of the evening was due to the agency of the crowd as a result of Tom’s one line of dialogue. What should have been a quick laugh after Tom said “yes” to a question, resulted in a standing ovation. Aunty Donna, to their credit, were clearly puzzled and amused by this reaction, both allowing and admiring this occurrence. Tom stole the show. And Aunty Donna were very big boys about it.
By Rose Maurice
