Fitzroyalty
Simon Brodie
The Evelyn Hotel
30 March – 20 April
$15/$18
comedyfestival.com.au

I went along to Fitzroyalty thinking it was the dude who writes the wonderful Fitzroyalty blog. I was wrong. And Simon Brodie made sure everyone knew he wasn’t the blogger and that the blogger didn’t own the word Fitzroyalty. My mistake.

So I expected something quite different, not to say that I got was bad, but rather, it was just…not what I thought I would be seeing. Should’ve done my research.

Hailing from the Blue Mountains in NSW, Brodie moved to Fitzroy for a bit of excitement and a change in lifestyle. Apparently when you move to Fitzroy, you become a drug fiend and a booze hound and because of this, Brodie picked up his life and moved to Brisbane to get away.

He’s moved back to his old hood, somewhat wiser and a bit less of a drug user. But are his experiences funny enough to do a stand-up show about it? Simon Brodie isn’t talentless – he has quite a nice dry sense of humour and is always having a good time. Is he funny? Sure. Much of it related to living in Fitzroy – prams, cyclists, noise, the Fitzroy Welcome Pack…but really, all of that could relate to anywhere. There were a few ex-girlfriend jokes that made me chuckle quietly to myself and it seems the funniest jokes were about himself. But overall, there were few laugh out loud moments and possibly the best part was at the very end when he was joined by a little poppette to sing a rap song about Fitzroy as he projected images of a drunken pub crawl on the big screen.

It wasn’t the most memorable performance I’d seen and to me, it just seemed a little bit underwhelming – there’s so much to say about Fitzroy and the people who live there, but unfortunately, Brodie didn’t quite exploit that as much as he should have.

For more info on the MICF, hit their website.

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