By Nick Bugeja
Daniel Connell is already reasonably well-known in the Australian comedy circuit, and his latest show Box-Headed Manbaby will only serve to bolster his comedic credentials. With a likeable and easygoing cadence and sensibility, his frequently dark and sardonic humour catches you off guard, and it’s all the funnier for it.
Connell unlocks the humour latent in the banality of day to day life; walking through the streets of Melbourne, at the local coffee shop, on family holidays. He has a sharp sense for the comedic moments which punctuate the otherwise ordinary occurrences of life in middle-class Australia, rendering his show immediately relatable to its audience.
His crowd work, homing in on one particular audience member, drew the laughter of the audience at large. Unlike other comics who aim to disconcert and disparage (even if lightly), Connell’s crowd work always maintained a respect for his audience and was conducted in good faith.
The largest chunk of the focused on a recent family holiday in Bright, Victoria, and revolves around a particularly unsafe water slide which has stood for decades. By this juncture in the show, Connell had peppered the audience with joke after joke which invariably landed, and this extended recount of a trip to Bright gone wrong brought his performance to a hilarious climax.
Daniel Connell performs Box-Headed Manbaby at Max Watt’s until April 13
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/daniel-connell-box-headed-manbaby/