Sammy J - 1999
4 April 2009
Melbourne Town Hall
If I were 14, I’d be writing “SJ 4 AMP” on my pencil case, putting a great big love heart around it and considering some under the jumper action.
Sammy J had a cringe worthy start on Red Faces in the 90s, but he has found his genre and made it his own. His cabaret is terrific but following on from the amazing Sammy J and Forest of Dreams, the Sammy J -1999 style of musical comedy is going to make him famous. (And it lets him prance around the austere Melbourne Council Chambers in a pair of budgie smugglers, waving rainbow ribbons.)
It’s 42 days ‘til Toy Story Two, Malcolm Turnball is a republican hero, Y2K is threatening to fuck up our VCRs and 15-year-old Sammy Gay is rightly terrified of getting a boner at the pool.
The dial up internet and the Tamagotchi set the era, but the angst-ridden quest for coolness is as universal as it gets and Stiffy J’s natural story telling evokes our painful teenage memories with an unseen cast of archetypal classmates and a tale of painful decisions and nerdy revenge. Teenagers do horrible things to each other and make stupid choices in their quest for acceptance and love. As grown ups we learn that nothing really changes and accept that there’s a bit of Stiffy Gay in us all. (Yes Wade - that’s a double entendre.)
Sammy’s hero journey is textbook, but it’s also tear-wiping, jaw-aching, snort-out-loud funny. Bring your teenagers, but you will love it even more than they do.
PS: To all the geeky teens out there – the cool kids will always want to be fingered by the Wades of the world, but we eventually come to our senses. You just have to wait til we’re 30 ... or 40.
Sammy J had a cringe worthy start on Red Faces in the 90s, but he has found his genre and made it his own. His cabaret is terrific but following on from the amazing Sammy J and Forest of Dreams, the Sammy J -1999 style of musical comedy is going to make him famous. (And it lets him prance around the austere Melbourne Council Chambers in a pair of budgie smugglers, waving rainbow ribbons.)
It’s 42 days ‘til Toy Story Two, Malcolm Turnball is a republican hero, Y2K is threatening to fuck up our VCRs and 15-year-old Sammy Gay is rightly terrified of getting a boner at the pool.
The dial up internet and the Tamagotchi set the era, but the angst-ridden quest for coolness is as universal as it gets and Stiffy J’s natural story telling evokes our painful teenage memories with an unseen cast of archetypal classmates and a tale of painful decisions and nerdy revenge. Teenagers do horrible things to each other and make stupid choices in their quest for acceptance and love. As grown ups we learn that nothing really changes and accept that there’s a bit of Stiffy Gay in us all. (Yes Wade - that’s a double entendre.)
Sammy’s hero journey is textbook, but it’s also tear-wiping, jaw-aching, snort-out-loud funny. Bring your teenagers, but you will love it even more than they do.
PS: To all the geeky teens out there – the cool kids will always want to be fingered by the Wades of the world, but we eventually come to our senses. You just have to wait til we’re 30 ... or 40.
