Joel Creasey enters to enthusiastic applause and congratulates his audience for ‘coming out’ in the opening moments of his DVD, The Acid Tongue Prince. This recent release from Madman – filmed before a live audience as part of the ABC2 series Warehouse Comedy – is a slick and fresh production that delivers laughs throughout.
The young Perth comic’s stand-up act focuses on his own sexuality and the situations that he lands in because of it. It’s territory that might be too confronting or scary for many young comedians, but Creasey tackles his various issues with flair. Awkward yet endearing and familiar anecdotes from his childhood and adolescence – schoolyard dramas, run-ins with football teams, and pop culture references to Xena and the Spice Girls – resonate, and clearly delight his audience, though Creasey is at his sharpest when poking fun at social stereotypes, including gay clichés prevalent within contemporary culture:
‘I love a bad a drag show … it’s basically karaoke with the mic turned off.’
The more offensive material is countered by Creasey’s charming and witty persona, which helps sustain humour across the entire set. With the audience in the palm of his hand, he uses his clean-cut appearance to push the envelope as far as he can. Consequently, he gets away with murder.
‘Even in a bat cave in Afghanistan there’s a couple of terrorists sitting around saying, ‘oh, what is Ahmed wearing today?’ That’s a very gay terrorist…There’s nothing better than a gay shoe bomber…’
The most powerful moment of Creasey’s set is when he talks about being run out of Colac, a Victorian country town, by a mob of locals in 2011. Ironically, Creasey was hosting an anti-discrimination seminar and the incident made national headlines.
‘Outside the venue were 20 people waiting to bash me. Scary, but kind of impressive, I can’t even get that amount of people together on a Saturday afternoon.’
Creasey’s talent to turn a serious and potentially dangerous situation into something comedic demonstrates his considered grasp of the material, and reinforces his reputation as a rising star. By eliciting laughter from a serious event, Creasey shines a light onto some of the embedded homophobic attitudes still at large within contemporary Australian society.
That said, there are several points where the pace and rhythm of the show seem to flag, such as a routine where Creasey shares his experience of going to a Celine Dion concert in Las Vegas, which is only mildly amusing Perhaps the overseas context creates a disconnect for Australian audiences, making it more challenging to engage with this story. Similarly, his game show segment, ‘How would you rather die?’ is more irritating that amusing.
The DVD extras consist of three episodes of Bitch PR. Presented in a web series format, the short skits feature Creasey alongside stand-up Fiona O’Loughlin and will appeal to new and old fans alike.
Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Joel Creasey – The Acid Tongue Prince
Warehouse Comedy Festival
Australia, 2012, 65 mins
Madman Entertainment
Rated M
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