Randy is Sober

Heath McIvor’s puppetry creation Randy stars in Randy is Sober, one of many stand-up performances showcased as part of ABC TV’s pop-up Warehouse Comedy Festival, performed live and captured on DVD ‘before their shows are lost forever’.

Randy, the check-shirted and felt-faced raconteur, is the brainchild of Barry Award-winning comedian Heath McIvor. McIvor’s caustic mouthpiece has appeared on Paul McDermott’s Good News World in guises such as Richard Branson, Jesus Christ, and Bear Grylls. Until recently, Randy has appeared as the other half of the comedy duo, Sammy J & Randy, to rave reviews on the international comedy circuit.

This latest solo performance is Randy sober, standing on his pulpit and spiting out his sermon on the absurdity of life without the filter of alcohol-soaked felt. It is Randy’s redemption in the anger stage of grief, without the apology required by a 12-step program.

The jokes are hinged on the story of Randy’s sobriety, starting with the prehistoric and religious precedents of his sober state by blaming the First Man Adam (renamed Gavin for the sake of Aussie colloquialism) biting into the forbidden fig. Randy surmises that Gavin’s self-indulgence marked the moment when the distraction became the pursuit, and sets the theme and structure for the rest of the show.

Randy fine tunes his clarity with distracting absurdities involving eggplant as the new meat and the ‘Fish and Chipocryticism’ of his brand of vegetarianism, exacerbated by giving up smoking, drinking and sex on the same day. While running off on these tangents/distractions the jokes often rely on his common go-to analogies between eating and female genitalia, provoking some disgust and guilty laughs from the audience.  

McIvor also relies on recycled jokes from previous performances, such as the Bible being the first piece of fan fiction. Given the quasi-religious theme often tied to sobriety, which is subsequently the basis of this performance, it seems just a little too convenient to slip this joke into this piece; indeed, one wonders whether this joke is indeed the base around which this whole show is based.

There are a couple of great comedy moments involving Randy’s ‘observation’ of and comments about the audience, highlighting the clever uses of puppetry in stand-up and the performer behind it. It’s a pity there wasn’t more of it, as it seems like an wasted dynamic full of comedic possibilities.

In tyring to understand the ‘man’ he has become – no alcohol leads to no sex, exercise and no smoking – and his fears around becoming one of ‘those’ people, McIvor’s creation of a sober and acerbic puppet has flashes of genuine entertainment and a couple of laugh out loud moments. For the most part however, is a mildly amusing piece of sobriety bashing.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

ABC2 presents Warehouse Comedy Festival

Randy is Sober

Live Directors: Peter Ots and Jon Olb

Australia, 2012, 65 mins

DVD Extras: Randy’s performances on Good News World; On The Road with Randy ‘documentary’; Whiskey Podcast from the Edinburgh Comedy Festival; Randy ComComedy interview; out-takes

Out now through Madman Entertainment

Rated MA 15+