What: The Correos Effect
Who: David Correos
When: 28th February – 4th March (see fringe page for full details)
Where: Pig Tales at Gluttony
How much: $19.50 – $25 (see fringe page for full ticket details)
Electrical tape, a kitchen knife, fluorescent paint, baby powder and a bike pump. These are a few of the ingredients that David Correos, emerging comedian from New Zealand, uses to bring you on his level, make you feel his vibe; show you the Correos Effect. And it works.
The show starts normally enough, David in a shirt and jeans welcoming everyone to the small marquee, but it doesn’t take long to get strange. His style reminded me of that of Australia’s surrealist comic legend, Sam Simmons– but with (if you can believe it) even more of a youthful, crazed tinge. Themes and stories in the show revolve around the embarrassing bits of growing up most of us would rather not reminisce, at least not to a crowd of strangers- moments of sexual self-discovery during puberty, pranks on cousins that went horribly wrong and experiments with dating. Coupled with Correos’ raw and limitless energy, this hour of perfectly Fringe-appropriate comedy is both oddly relatable and utterly entertaining.
The show is dispersed with moments of delicious anticipation as Correos turned to the back of the stage and prepared some sort of impression or theatrical illustration of something he was trying to describe to us. This was often accompanied with noisy up-beat dance music…and mess. One of the most intense of these was when David announced he would attempt to complete something akin to the YouTube cinnamon challenge, but with a few big twists. It goes without saying that The Correos Effect is not for the faint hearted. I even gagged once or twice, but David’s commitment to putting himself through such acts for a laugh is admirable.
Other highlights included Correos’ cheeky impersonations of his Filipino father, as well as a dig at traditional stand-up ‘t-shirt’ comedy (think Russel Howard). Basically, David Correos is analogous to a kind of crazy mate of a mate of yours you love spending time with at parties.
I’d recommend all our adult readers who can put up with their deal of grossness and nonsense to go and see this show. I spent one half of it cry-laughing and the other just sitting back and having a bloody weird good time.
4 out of 5 stars
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