There is nothing quite as exciting as an Austen Tayshus comedy performance. The audience are literally poised on the edge of their seats as the Big Man of Australian comedy engages in a relentless, rapid-fire satirical assault. It’s funny, frightening, fierce and informed. This is not just a collection of gags thrown together with a couple of catchy punchlines.
Austen’s humour is about who we are and how we think and what happened in the cultural melting pot to make us that way. He plays provocateur to our values and measures them against our rather shaky identity as ‘Australian’. There are few comics with the tenacity and killer instinct of Austen Tayshus. The comedy superstar who first came into being in 1981 has the ability to take a room hostage just with his tongue. He’s the closest thing the Australian comedy scene has to its very own Bill Hicks. Every Austen show is unique. He has the ability to weave current politics, what’s happening in the room, philosophy, anthropology, religion and of course sport, and let’s not forget the pope, into one gag.
Austen, a committed vegetarian in the eating department, is not averse to carving up the odd sacred cow. There is no subject he won’t dissect. Uncomfortable, confronting, but always illuminating, an Austen Tayshus show is both comic and cleansing. Austen remarked once that he sees his role as being a social agitator, as the prickle in the paw that makes the public think. He doesn’t need you to like him. In fact he’d probably prefer if you didn’t. Austen Tayshus performs with Mandy Nolan at the Byron Services Club on Monday 2 January at 8pm. Tix are $15/20. He also appears at the Currumbin RSL on Wednesday 4 January at 7.30pm with Mandy Nolan as MC and Brisbane’s Matty Marr as support. Tix are $15/18. Book your tickets through our website, www.currumbinrsl.com.au, at reception, or call 07 5534 7999. Kids Club open until 10pm.
