★★★
Adelaide Fringe. James Clark. Crack Café. 15 Mar 2023
Finding the Crack Café can be a challenge, since it’s tucked away behind Victoria Square in what seems a seedy locale, but find your way upstairs and there’s a perfectly presentable venue with a perfectly presentable host. James Clark hails from Sydney, where he works in a bank (‘Which bank?’ I have no idea). He has a luxurious spread of hair and a presentable manner, except perhaps when he begins describing nurses by their attributes rather than their skills. To be fair, he seemed to find most women offensive, from their weight (which affects his ability to get an erection while being nursed) to their skill sets (Serena Williams? Oh, yeah, she gets paid the same as men for playing three sets instead of five…).
He began his evening show with an observation; he’d recently seen SAPOL’s police greys, opining that he was taken aback to discover a police force who still used horses. ‘How did they perform an arrest?’ formed the basis of the next little sketch. In the same way as anyone else might, I suppose, since the NSW Police have horses, as do Victoria Police and many others, I’m sure.
That little warmup over, it was on with the show, James engaging audience members to help him flesh out his corporate ideals. This was confusing. We learned later that he had once been caught in flagrante delicto in the bank, but little else. This seemed odd for a show which billed itself about being for Corporates and the work/life balance, for James was most comfortable interrogating his audience and using their material rather than developing his own, or indeed delving into the corporate world.
He found an HR person from the Police (she quickly pointed out she was not uniform branch), a cagey man who ‘did things’ and ‘traded things’ and ‘procured things’ (who he labelled a drug dealer), and there was a teacher in the front row who wore red shoes and had been with his partner for 40 years. These are not corporate types. Lastly, through judicious questioning James unearthed a woman who confessed to having been sent penis pictures, and to having saved them on her phone. In a photo album. Why this became quite the cause celebre I cannot say, but it is clear James’ fancy was tickled.
Also, clearly, this had little to do with comedy for corporates. Now I know this review seems sour and confused, and the 55 minute show was in no way bad, but the lack of real direction, the fact that little of the show seemed to have anything to do with ‘work life balance’ and the fact that he seemed quite interested in pictures of penises made me wonder if a scripted show existed or if ‘seat of the pants she’ll be right’ was more the order of the night.
Perhaps he was here to practise a little social anthropology.
At one point he mentioned murder and barrels, so he’d done some research into the state’s finer points, although at several responses to questions he suggested South Australian ‘flexed’, which I assume to be a posturing display. And just like that – with a hastily thrown in ‘I’ve been James Clark. Goodnight’ it was over. I do wish they’d practise a wrap and an outro, at the very least. It would make all the difference.
Alex Wheaton
When: 15 to 18 Mar
Where: Crack Café
Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au
