The Million Dollar Fish is a sketch show featuring three energetic performers with lots of colour and movement. They sell every line to the back wall, bound around the stage like kids on cordial and mug aggressively to the crowd. It’s a shame that the material underneath it all is devoid of enough actual jokes; you can only get a finite number of laughs by merely pulling silly faces and shouting.
A number of sketches are paced rather slowly and many outstay their welcome. They may be going for the “repeat the absurdity to the point of boredom and eventually it will be funny again” angle but the weak initial premise of the scene ensures that this never happens. Most of the sketches are structured as follows:
– Guy #1 is on stage either alone or with Guy #2
– Guy #3 enters and interacts inanely
– Guy #3 says or does something to offend Guy #1
– Guy #1 shouts at Guy #3
– Either Guy #3 leaves or they all dance about
– FIN
There are a few interesting ideas scattered through the hour such as the brilliant chutzpah and inept acting in the “One Liners” segment and “Jim’s Doors” infomercial. Even with these strong premises they forget that brevity is key, thus causing the sketches to fizzle out rather than land a strong punchline. Other scenes have a whiff of an intriguing idea, such as the “that’s my job” guy, but they fail to do anything constructive or amusing with it.
The wraparound story of the fish, the fisherman and a certain fishing celebrity starts off slow, becomes interesting as it veers into strange territories but falls flat at the conclusion. The youngsters in the crowd may not have got the reference while those old enough to identify the celebrity telegraphed the reveal early on, lessening its power.
The soundscape is superb and is suitably bombastic while the lighting works its magic to create atmosphere in lieu of detailed sets and props. There is an interesting pre-recorded joke about their sound designer quitting mid project but it isn’t pushed to its logical conclusion. The actors don’t even to react to the announcement so it is merely a blip on the landscape and isn’t referred to again.
Some groupies of the trio were cackling at every facial expression, movement and line uttered but others were less enthralled by this group. If you’re in the mood for three attractive boys in matching tracksuits bouncing off the walls and revving up the crowd for no particular reason, you will enjoy yourself. Others will need more substance to get their fill of laughs.
The Million Dollar Fish is on at The Owl and PussyCat until April 16
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/the-million-dollar-fish