09 April 2015

MICF: Jonestown

Guinea Pigs
Jonestown
1 April 2015
Portland Hotel
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Jonestown: Sarah Jones & Nicholas J Johnson

Sarah Jones and Nicholas J Johnson are Jonestown (it's funny every time). In Guinea Pigs, they are trapped in a lo-tech, hi-laugh sci-fi experiment that tests their friendship and takes the double act not quite to the final frontier but surely where no one has been before.

Their debut show, Pajama Party, was nominated for the 2014 Golden Gibbo (best MICF indie production) and they were helped with a Moosehead Award (a grant for "mental and overly ambitious" comedy) to make this show.

Captured by a mystery nutter/genius, Sarah and Nick have known each since from high school and, with the help of the audience, re-visit their school and university days to figure out how they found themselves in an unescapable box in an unescapable box of a theatre in the Portland Hotel.

The straight–stooge (Nick–Sarah) double act is comedy where every laugh relies on the other person to make it work. Adding story, mystery and shadow puppetry (yes!) to sketch and stand-up, the chemistry between these two is as cool as a bicarb and vinegar volcano, and as illogically exciting as opening a bottle of fizz that might have been rolling around the floor of a car.

Because I said it on Twitter, so it must be true: A heap of stars.