20 April 2019

MICF: Either Side of Everything – Wil Greenway

MICF
Either Side of Everything
Wil Greenway
Crowded
20 April 2019
Crowded in the Vaults
to 21 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Wil Greenway

Describing a story can never do it justice. Like describing the taste of a ripe warm fig picked from a tree or a cheese sandwich made with homemade bread and butter, words can only hint at the experience.

Wil Greenaway tells a story, or four stories, in Either Side of Everything. There are figs and cheese sandwiches. And two friends in a car on a road trip, an old woman with spiky white hair and "fuck the police" tattooed on her ankle, and a bug called Brian. And it floats and leaps through time and makes you know the entree you want for your last meal. (Vegetarian Su Roll from Ying Chow in Adelaide or vegetable tempura from anywhere in Japan.)

The story is sad and still makes you wonder why you don't feel that happy all the time, even if you're wiping away a tear. It's just a silly story, but it's a story we are told. I will read a story to any child that wants to hear a story because it's one of the most lovely things to do. Greenaway lets us feel like a child curled in a lap of someone who loves them and being told their favourite story.

Sorry, that's taking the metaphor too far. This isn't like that; it's a story for adults and it's damn funny. But it is really lovely to be told a story.

While not comparable, Either Side of Everything reminded me of the story telling by Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn. (I'm seeing Kitson tomorrow, so have no idea what his show is about this year.), Kitson himself is a fan Greenway. As now I am, too.

He's in a small room by the river where 30 people would be a crowd. The only fair way to end his run tomorrow is to overcrowd the room.

Fit another show in. You won't regret it.

And, you can sit here before or after and have a beer with a toastie or a cheese platter.

View from Pilgrim bar. Phone snap by A-M Peard