By Colin Flaherty.
You may have seen a young fella spruking his show around the Town Hall using a life-sized cardboard cut-out of himself. If you liked his sales pitch and wandered down to The Tuxedo Cat, you would have experienced a high energy performance by Dave Warneke, a brilliant comedic performer with three MICF shows under his belt and a bright future ahead.
In keeping with the theme, general knowledge facts were presented in the expected manner of presenting a tid bit of information and making a hilariously snarky comment about it. An example was the “Fact or Not So Fact?” quiz, a non threatening piece of audience participation where the audience answer en mass.
In other parts of the show the facts were used as a launching point for more interesting material. A general exploration of the manipulation of facts to suit a particular ideology or deception provided many fascinating and amusing examples. A routine about “Dave’s Body Facts” led to some wonderful self deprecating humour as well as an example of his endurance challenges that he regular posts as videos on the ‘net.
Dave had a wonderfully quirky delivery style. Jokes would get a added zing by following them up with cocky comments. He would regularly conjure zany lines from out of left field that were bizarre yet strangely relevant to the topic at hand.
Being a multi-instrumentalist, Dave used music as both accompaniment and an integral part of the jokes. A series of clever bass riff responses to hypothetical situations were delightful and some silly Synth-Pop tunes had plenty amusing ideas to keep all you laughing throughout. He wasn’t the strongest singer but he sure had a way with lyrics. A cool-jazz bass line providing the atmosphere to a film-noirish flirtation with a woman was an idea that has been done plenty of times before but he pulled it off flawlessly.
The use of PowerPoint was an effective use of the technology with the slides being used to emphasise his jokes with out too much reading for the audience. It also included some wonderfully wonky illustrations (apparently his course didn’t cover animation) for his silly children’s series featuring George the Keyboard Zebra. The only complaint was the need to project the images on the side due to space constraints which meant neck craning for some punters.
Dave explained that main reason for this show was to justify his Three Year Media and Drama degree so he seemed to have thrown everything bar the kitchen sink at this project. The results of his HECS Debt were certainly put to good use in producing this well rounded and hilarious show.
Dave Warneke – Fact! is on at The Tuxedo Cat
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/fact-dave-warneke/