Latest Reviews

As a topic for comedy, yoga is a wealth of possibilities. It’s a discipline that many take very seriously and it is has such a long and complex history, that it is more than ripe for some comic re-interpretation.

Happy Yoga, created by yoga practitioner David Naylor is more participatory class than comedy show, although Naylor definitely wants his audience to laugh. Disappointingly, it is more silly than cleverly funny. It’s very hands-on and direct and gets its participants chuckling, but its humour remains in a one-dimensional zone. With more fleshing out and development, it could go much, much further.
 
Set in a cozy yoga studio above Swanston Street and overlooking the Melbourne Town Hall which swarms with more mainstream comedy fare, Naylor, as Guru Dudu takes his charges through yogic asanas (poses), with an emphasis on the ass-ana. There are plenty of scatological references, farting jokes, bending down and looking at one’s own (and other’s) bottoms. The “down-faced dog” pose is embellished with lifting one leg up and taking a pee, the meditational “Om” is said as quickly as possible and there are plenty of jibes (many in a song format) about the pelvic floor.

Interspersed are mini power-point lectures on energy channels, the various public places one can engage in Happy Yoga and some bizarre pictures of group yoga. All of these are excellent fodder for observational comedy. Naylor matches the “channels of the human body” to Australia’s television stations, making statements about the politics of the different media outlets and relating them to anatomical locations. These ideas have the essence of some very sharp comedy, but, like much of Happy Yoga, they still feel in workshop-phase rather than presenting as fully fleshed out content.

Most of the 30 odd people attending Naylor’s opening night class took to the material with mirth, obligingly attempting his instructions, gawking like kookaburras, balancing on strangers for group poses and joining into closing chants. As a leave-your-inhibitions-with-your-shoes-at-the-door group bonding session, Happy Yoga succeeds. As thought provoking, nuanced comedy, it needs more time and evolution to transcend to a more enlightened plane.


Wiseworld presents
Happy Yoga with Guru Dudu

Venue: Urban Yoga | 3rd Floor, 123 Swanston St, Melbourne
Dates: 28th Mar - 12th Apr
Times: Fri-Sat & Wed 7.30pm
Duration: 50 minutes
Prices: Full $15, Conc $12
Bookings: Door Only