Dave Hughes - Hughsey Rides Again @ Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne 02/05/06 - by epod

Until today, I had only ever seen Dave Hughes on the tv in his show, "The Glasshouse", and also in a number of tv stand-up spots. I have always admired and loved the way that he delivers comedy, so I was very much looking forward to seeing him in person at his Melbourne Comedy Festival show, "Hughsey Rides Again".

However, my excitement quickly turned to disappointment when the show began. Dave proceeded to make fun of various audience members seated in the lower section of the theatre, as well as what seemed to be every single latecomer. Whilst most comedians do this to an extent, they tend to do this somewhat briefly and know when to stop. It appears that Dave does not know when to stop OR that he had very little material written for the show, and that he did this as a filler. This sort of banter with the audience quite easily went on for a good 15-20 minutes of the 1 hour show.

I've heard it all before and did not really wish to hear it again. "Are you a couple?", "How long have you been going out?", "Why are you late?" (insert hilarious responses here). Oh. Ha ha. Hilarious groundbreaking comedy. Yawn. Being in the upstairs section of the audience, I could not even see the people he was talking about!

I paid around $35 for this ticket (including booking fee), and could have accepted behaviour like this from a less experienced comic - not one who has such a high media profile, with plenty of years of stand-up to back it up. The way I would describe the layout of this show is very lazy. For the money I paid, I was really expecting a more structured show.

Something that shits me to no end is comedians who swear excessively for no particular reason. Don't get me wrong, I love some of the most offensive, disgusting stand-up acts out there, and swearing does not offend me in the least - if it is in context. Dave punctuated almost everything he said with a four or eight letter word starting with "f". I found this to be quite excessive, unnecessary, and that it really detracted from what he was saying a lot of the time.

Not much of the content of this show was overly amusing to me, but there were a few moments that really made me laugh. I liked when he was talking about how everyone has to slow down in school zones. He said that he does but that he feels bad because you are not supposed to look at young kids, but he has to because he is driving so slow. He also shared with the audience how open he is about giving out his address and phone number. Dave actually gave out a full description of his (alleged) address for any audience members who may be wishing to drop by.

It is quite obvious from the numerous times I have seen Dave Hughes perform that he is massively talented, and capable of great things, I just feel that his talent was not successfully applied to this show. Very disappointing :(