REVIEW: TWICE SHY

2013 MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL

REVIEW: TWICE SHY

VENUE AND DATES: LOOP PROJECT SPACE AND BAR, UNTIL APRIL 18

ASSESSMENT: Cute, sweet, funny, with a happy ending.

STAR RATING: ****

Shannon Woodford (L) and Joel Checkley (R)

Twice Shy is an unexpectedly cute, endearing, inoffensive comic gem, created by two disarming and charming performers, Shannon Woodford and Joel Checkley.

At the beginning of the show, a voice over tells us it’s 6.31pm on the day in the lives of Rosemary (Woodford) and Jonathan (Checkley), who through a series of remarkable coincidences, and the intervention of fate and destiny, are about to meet. Think “When Harry Met Sally”.

Former fat kid, Rosemary, is an awkward, well meaning, control freak, who enjoys magic trick tricks, works for a nightmarish, co-dependent, sexist boss, Richard, is kind to her elderly neighbour, Bill, and lives with a pet gold-fish, Rumi.

Kind-hearted, naïve, socially awkward, tram travelling, environmentally aware, Jonathan Arnold, likes bird-watching and dinosaurs, and is a part-time palaeontologist at the Melbourne museum, where he dodges his tarty colleague, Michelle.

We live out most of the day with our often hapless duo as they interact with an assortment of weird, dysfunctional human characters, and one gold fish, all portrayed with care and bright-eyed enthusiasm by Woodford and Checkley. 

In one of the highlights of this show, Jonathan fantasises about performing a duet with his favourite tram stop busker, an American country singer. Their version of the Bryan Adams, Barbra Streisand song “I Finally Found Someone” is a delight to listen to.

It’s not perfect. And, not all of the gags or characters work. But, the uplifting, feel-good nature of the piece, and that dynamite duet, makes this show a sure-fire winner.

BY: JOE CALLERI.

NB: REVIEW ALSO PUBLISHED ON HERALD SUN ONLINE, SATURDAY MARCH 30, 2013.