Experience emerging Adelaide comedy at its rawest best
Reviewed at Ancient World on 5 March 2019
Presented by JooYung Roberts
JooYung Roberts is an emerging Adelaide-based comedian slowly expanding into the comedy world. His current show The Ballad of JooYung Roberts is a fresh piece of work currently on at Ancient World as part of the Adelaide Fringe.
Hidden through an alley way and into a basement on Hindley Street, the venue Ancient World is an intimate, themed location with exposed fittings, experimental art and an otherworldly view. It’s a fun, fringe venue with unique offerings, including the work from Roberts. The Ballad of JooYung Roberts show drew upon Roberts’ personal experiences including his family background, personal history, and some cooking discoveries.
Roberts was joined on stage by new, local comedians starting with the dry, story-based tales of Henry Wilson and followed by a state Raw Comedy finalist, Anno Gomes, who presented edgy race observational comedy.
Once on stage Roberts presented a casual air to his show. His short set is an ensemble of playful personal tales, some expanded shower thoughts with sudden turns, and darker tales of sexual assault and its longer term impacts. The darkness in the harsher tales is shown confidently in Roberts’ presence on stage while still displaying vulnerability that contrasted with the potential randomness of the other stories in the comedic sense.
The commentary on pop culture scattered throughout the set landed strongly as did the mixture of political satire. Some of the story set ups are rough around the edges but there was clear potential in Robert’s style of comedy. He demonstrated a strong sense of understanding crowd responses which allowed him to test and challenge the audiences and his work in an unfixed manner.
The fresh production within The Ballad of JooYung Roberts has the potential for development into a longer show. The raw notes in Robert’s work show an emerging talent in the craft.
Reviewed by Alex Dunkin
Twitter: @AlexDunkin
Venue: Ancient World, Hindley Street
Season: 1st – 9th March 2019
Duration: 45 mins
Tickets: $10.00 – $15.00
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