A List Operators and Dirty Work Comedy production presented by QPAC

Having recently reached the age where I can make pronouncements that begin “when I was young” or “when I was a boy I used to”, it is pleasing to have been able to see a show wherein I can now make such a pronouncement with a suitable gravitas.

Thus: “When I was a boy Wii was known as playing.”

Unlike many of my friends I never got into the Wii craze. The notion of doing something via one’s TV or via technology when you can do it in real life seems slightly surreal and more than slightly absurd. That’s why I like this performance. It is suitably low-tech and performer-based which contrasts nicely with the high-tech aspirations of the title. Obviously there are two layers to the title. It works for The List Operators as their performance encompasses both puerile toilet humour and cleverer funnier wittier ideas.

It is silly sketch comedy skillfully done. Not too heavy, not too light, but just right. Kids lap it up; while their parents alternate between raucous laughter and uncomfortable cringing (did they actually just say that?). This is no work of high art by any measure but it is full of the joy and exhortation of live performance done really well. Low-tech special effects, low tech set including cardboard cut outs and signs saying “Do Not Look At This”. Additionally, they do their own sound effects and I didn’t notice too many (any) lighting changes.

Richard (Higgins) wearing a tie and glasses and moustache is clearly presented to us as the butt of the jokes; whereas Matt (Kelly) wearing a Superman T-shirt is designed to be the one the young audience relates to. The chemistry between the two is strong and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. The banter has the relaxed feel of improvisation with the polish of clever one-liners peppered throughout the performance.

It’s like Monty Python for kids; like the illustrations in Andy Griffith’s Just novels...but on steroids. Terry Denton is the illustrator of those books and its clear that The List Operators and he share a suitably warped sense of humour.

To share some examples.

We see a pair of used underpants and their accompanying skidmarks, quite graphic marks it must be said, mixed in with adult verbal jokes...“dinosaurs are interesting because they’re indistinct” Add to that lots of very silly fart noises thrown in, well, everywhere.

The Other Names for Nanna section involves high energy audience interaction with the Nana-ninja gag a highlight. Fart jokes. The Yawn Off – hmmm, how far can you take a simple idea? About fifteen minutes with these guys as they take yawning to new and extremely silly, whole-body, physically-contortioned, heights. Since we’re in Brisbane, there is a riff on how you pronounce the name. Russell Crowe makes a cameo playing Richard. And did I mention there’s farting.

Plus aliens from Teatowelia, aliens that look suspiciously like wrapped up tea towels, involved in a war between floor and stage, with the hapless Teatowelians getting flung back and forth for a chaotic couple of minutes.

The List Of Rude Words, I have a note in my book which says “Difficult to tell the difference between art and fart”. I think it’s something they said, but if not I’ll happily claim it as my own. Quite a nifty critique of some modern art? Some more farts.

The final scene The Ultimate Sandwich is a gross-out eating competition. My adult brain tells me it’s just collection of scenes that don’t sit together and somehow needs an ending. My kid id (and no doubt those of every person under the age of eight who’ve ever seen it) don’t care about nice neat theatrical structure or thematic resolutions. They think it’s a cack—which it is.

However, having reached the age (as mentioned above) I feel compelled to draw a connection between this performance and YPAA’s (Young People and the Arts Australia) Keynote Forum presentation Changing Habitats, also presented as part of Out Of The Box. American journalist Leonore Skenazy, talked about her belief that kids today aren’t allowed the opportunity to take safe, personality-shaping, character-building risks the way, yes, people of my vintage and older could. Media paranoia and helicopter parents have encouraged what has become known as the “free range kids” movement. It began after Lenore and her husband’s reasoned decision to allow her nine-year-old son catch the subway home by himself (it was his idea). A decision which caused furore amongst the media in America leading her to be dubbed “America’s worst mum”.

The anarchy with which this performance is imbued and ends is a strong reminder (possibly unintended) that we are being too overbearing, too overprotective, too mollycoddling of our children; and that we need to allow our them to grow up experiencing life through more than just a Playstation or Wii.

The performers even acknowledge this. After hyping the kids up with their version of red cordial performance and a cushion fight finale finish by saying, “okay folks having made them all hyper, we’re giving back to you now”... or words to that effect. It was right about then I was very pleased I didn’t have any souped-up six-year olds in tow, and go get a nice cup of chamomile tea.

Credits