Melbourne’s Athenaeum theatre may contain elements of 1880’s ‘boom style’ architecture but Gabriel Iglesias’ presence is substantial enough so that it easily accommodates this theatre and its extravagant decor. Iglesias waddles on-stage dressed in a relaxed Hawaiian shirt, knee-high denim shorts and homie sneakers. He quite possibly tips the scales at well over twenty kilograms. Consequently, his reputation for cute fat jokes precedes him. Less obvious during his tactically wise decision to immediately impress this Australian audience with local content, is his exceptional comedic presence. Concealed beneath a jocular image of the sweet, fun loving fat guy, is a quick thinking and polished performer who is entirely at ease with himself and the audience he seeks to entertain. Even so, and given the limitations of stand-up comedy and its repetitive structure of the smart-arse one liner, it is hard to imagine a more competent, composed and skilled comedian than Gabriel Iglesias. His virtuoso performance borders on astonishing and an audience swollen with die-hard fans is uproarious. Curiously though, a young, wavy-haired man sitting two seats away is not laughing.
Iglesias’ comedic method is comprised of four structural devices: short jokes with sharp punchlines, accent and mimicry, amplified sound effect and improvised audience interactivity. For eight-tenths of this ‘Fluffy Shop Tour’ show he hysterically mesmerises the audience with the first three of these four structural devices. For example, Iglesias informs us that during a recent tour of Saudi Arabia he was confronted by an audience either consisting of women concealed by veil, or their oppressive male Arab counterparts. Utilising a fluent ability to switch between the tender, frightened voice of an oppressed female and the gruff, Arabic tone of her masculine oppressor, Iglesias elicits a momentous sequence of one-liners from what is a stereotypical and very American view of Saudi identity. Petrified of revealing flesh for fear of masculine retribution, Iglesias’ veiled female battles the tyranny imposed upon her by an audience comprised of the ubiquitous Arab male desperate to maintain his irrational superiority. Iglesias, a Mexican-American, is the on-stage conduit for this battle. Having little empathy with either, and instead extracting humour from a vision of the ‘Crazy Arab’, Iglesias has also been careful to ask if there are any people of Middle Eastern origin in the audience. The fact that their are seems to make the others laugh louder. This perfectly timed sequence of apparently good-natured wisecracks, mimicked femininity, Middle Eastern accent and Saudi Arabian sound effect, seems to have had an impact. The aforementioned wavy-haired man sitting two seats away now has a wry smirk spread across his face.
For approximately fifty five minutes Iglesias enthralls his audience with a show that is almost a comic tour de force. Whether its the cross-border plight of the Mexican wetback, the obtuse Aussie ocker, the hypocritical African-American or Iglesias’ own amorous girlfriend, his humour is borne of cultural/ racial stereotypes that upon deeper analysis are historically consistent with a conventional and mainstream American comedy that laughs at the misfortune of others. But what is really on show here is Gabriel Iglesias’ exceptional skill as a comic performer. That is, until he strays from the smart arse one-liner and riffs with the audience. A woman requests Iglesias perform his joke about the Aussie crocodile hunter. Here, Iglesias overblows into an improvised and highly imaginative anecdote that hybridises Steve Irwin with a member of Al Queda. However, it would appear that the majority of his audience finds this elaborate and extensive story related with wonderful timing and empathetic skill slightly less humorous than his previous set of one-liners. Not so for the aforementioned wavy haired man sitting two seats away. By the end of the show, and with an honest smile momentarily stamped upon his face, the same man then cracks-up with convulsive laughter.
Gabriel Iglesias: The Fluffy Shop Tour
Athenaeum theatre, April 14 - 17
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
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