Josh Earl Talks

By Lisa Clark

Josh Earl has been putting on shows at MICF since 2005. He started out as a “musical comedian”, and even his most successful shows like Josh Earl vs The Australian Women’s Weekly Childrens Birthday Cake Book always had great comedy songs in them. This year Josh Earl Talks, but you will not really miss his songs, because it is straight up hilarious.

Josh Earl is doing straight standup this year about growing up working class in Bernie. If you are a fan of Josh’s you may have heard some stories of his childhood and the family tensions but this is the one that, as Josh says, is his Marvel Origin Story. The one that shows you why he left home to become the performer he is today. And if you have heard some of this stories around town in warm up spots, you’ll be amazed at how many more fabulous jokes he’s pumped into them. He really had me in fits.

His family have always been a source of humour for Josh, but there has always been a bit of darkness there and some of that is explored, though this is not a weepy therapy type show by any means. Meanwhile at school on the one hand is his speech therapist, a source of kindness and encouragement and on the other hand is a nasty teacher who bullied him and makes the audience boo. We all remember teachers who enjoyed bullying kids.

Josh Earl Talks is a storytelling show about nostalgia and childhood that Josh has always done so well. Some people in front of me were in hysterics every time he cracked a joke about his small home town, but you don’t have to be from Burnie to have a great time. Josh has pulled out the most uproarious, mind blowing finale that I’ve seen at the festival so far. It had the audience gasping and screaming with laughter.

I thought it might be a bit more about his life long speech issues, but Josh is more interested in giving the audience a good time. This is one where you can go to during the festival and forget about the troubles of the working week and nasty world politics and just laugh your head off, while Josh Earl Talks.

Josh Earl Talks is on at The Victoria Hotel til Apr 21

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/josh-earl-talk