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Steve Hughes wants you to open your eyes. The world is a broken place and he's seething about it. But he also wants you to laugh. And for all the heavy handedness of his approach, he manages to have you in stitches with apparent ease.

It's impossible to properly describe the show without first explaining his worldview. Hughes loathes the tight grip that governments, and global powers appear to hold over the world. He hates 'nanny-state' politics of school zones, public service announcements and even the 5-day working week almost as much as he's enraged by pre-emptive strikes on poor nations. At the same time he's a spiritual, idealistic kind. Sort of like a Metal Maharishi. Everyone just needs to calm down, relax and enjoy life. As Hughes half-jokingly put it: "Why is everyone still working? Everything's built!”

However given this is a comedy show and not a Noam Chomsky lecture, is it funny? Yes. Hysterically so. Hughes looks and sounds like he has been teleported out of 1980s Australia. Spending the lion's share of his time since then in Europe, it's as if the blunt, crude, Aussie charm one can only find in a bygone era was frozen in time the moment he left to live abroad. It came as little surprise then, that one of his central topics for the night was how Australia isn't the carefree, positive place it once was. It's this unmistakably old-school Aussie charm that gives his quick and clever humour a boost onto even higher plains.

The only major downside of the show is occasionally the politics he is clearly so passionate about got in the way of the laughter. Hughes likes to feel his way through his show, and every so often the crazy conspiracy theorist side of him takes hold for a little too long. I groaned internally every time he said the classic conspiracy nut phrases of the 'new world order' and the corrupt 'power structure' to describe the world's ills. Though to his credit he'd quickly right himself with a sidesplitting, light-hearted quip most times before he went too far down a dark path.

For all this, the laughometer reading was still unbelievably high. Hughes' own amusement is infectious and by the end it's as if the room was in a trance, waiting for the next bout of hysterical laughter to share in. I, for one had to actively try not to collapse into unstoppable laughter by the end and I consider this a Good Thing of the highest order.

Steve Hughes' politics and crude nature might not be for everyone, but anyone who can stomach it has a very, very funny show to look forward to.


Century Entertainment presents
Heavy Metal Comedy
Steve Hughes

Venue: Trades Hall, The Meeting Room | Cnr Lygon & Victoria Sts, Carlton
Dates: 25 March - 18 April, 2010
Times: Tue - Sat 9.45pm, Sun 8.45pm
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: Full $24, Concession $19
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 | at the door
Visit: stevehughes.net.au