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The Melbourne International Comedy Festival boasts a considerable number of acts that are referred to on its website as ‘Overseas Artists.’ Amongst these shows, Australia’s idiosyncrasies, politics, landscape, and inhabitants are common fodder for jokes that, although amusing, are ones we have often heard before.

So, when reading that Hear Me Out, the show of Pommy comedian Jeff Green, will be all about Melbourne, one can’t help wondering whether there’s much left to say and certainly whether it can be said any differently. However by the show’s end, these questions have rather subtly been answered.

Green is better looking and sharper in real life than in his promo shots. His scraggly, wispy hair is cut short, and he’s wearing a suit and collared shirt. But most noticeable is the speed with which he delivers his material, and this is what sets him apart from many other comedians. Where others quite often take their time to lead into a joke, Green barely seems to stop long enough to take a breath, indeed only pausing twice to take a sip of water – quite incredible given the warm conditions in the room in which he is performing. At one point he says, “I’ll slow down in a moment,” but he never does.

Whilst Green fits in a great deal of material into his show, at no time does it seem that he is simply trying to tell his audience as many stories or jokes as possible within his hour or so timeslot. Rather, he is what might be considered a conversationalist. His attitude is upbeat, he’s easy to listen to, and he is genuinely likeable.

Differing from other International acts at the festival, Green actually lives in Victoria, and he’s lived in Melbourne. His observations are less those of someone who might be considered a visitor to Australia, and instead are those of a participant – his wife is Australian, he got married here, his kids have an Aussie accent.

Included in his material is his take on the real heritage of our Prime Minister, our Bogan drivers in their low cars, where all you can see of them when they drive is a baseball cap and a knuckle, and the wonderful invention of our squeezy tomato sauce bottles with a nozzle. Especially amusing is his possum impersonation, and his demonstration of having to get out of the car to read Melbourne’s parking signs before actually parking, including having to read all their exclusions and conditions.

In comparison with many other comedians, the content of Green’s jokes are not particularly crude or racist, but then he delivers those that are with such ease and joviality that they tend to slip by relatively unnoticed. Most importantly, his cruder jokes are clever. There is one in particular that means this audience member will never view one of Australia’s larger supermarket chains in quite the same way.

Hear Me Out ends with a reference to one of Green’s earlier jokes about the contradictory nature of the stereotypical Aussie’s pronunciation of certain words. One of his final lines suggests that he too may start to talk in such a way. The joke, when told in its entirety and in context, is rather subtle and gentle and despite the varying backgrounds and nationalities of the people in his audience, it also gives a sense of union between him and them. All in all it is a most fitting way to end a show that is very much of a similar nature.


2011 Melbourne International Arts Festival
Hear Me Out
Jeff Green

Venues: Melbourne Town Hall, Lower Town Hall | Cnr Swanston & Collins Sts, Melbourne
Swiss Club | 89 Flinders Lane (btw Russell & Exhibition Sts), Melbourne
Dates: 31 March - 24 April
Times: Melb Town Hall – Mon 7pm; Swiss Club – Tue-Sat @ 8.15pm, Sun @ 7.15pm
Duration: 55 minutes
Bookings: Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 | at the door