Ego No Amigo

"That's Spanish for "the Ego is not my - Amigo", which was how Arj Barker set the tone for his stand-up show when Toby and I went along on Sunday night.

We were both really excited before we went and couldn't wait for the show to start. It was at the RMIT Capitol Theatre, and even though the show was still in "preview" mode, the whole place was jammed. I guess we caught on a little late, as it became pretty clear that he's got quite a lot of fans here (this was his third visit) and I'm guessing he didn't disappoint any of them.

His jokes were great, really funny and all (I laughed and laughed) but I was, however, a tad let down. I was slightly annoyed by the devices he used to generate the laughs. Firstly, he turned his routine into a mock New Age "Seminar" and of course he was the guru. I don't have a problem with people taking the piss out of the New Age-ers (they deserve it for the most part), but I'd hoped for a slightly more sophisticated way of putting his points across. And his points were GOOD. Like the rights of gays who want to get married (Magaret Cho's been going on about this too, but I like the way she tackles it better), like yoga being good for you, like it's good to be nice to people and of course, like being aware of that your ego is er, not your amigo...

So first of all he went around and gave a few people their "Joy" names, which were pretty funny, but it was stuff like "What's your name?? Cheryl? Ok, your Joy name is "Eagle-breath". Yeah-yeah....hey I still laughed, but that was kinda the way it went all night.

He finished his show with a short "info-mercial" for his Labradorian cult (a group of extraterrestrials that had the bodies of humans but the visage of a Labrador) and that was pretty funny too, but by the end of it, I just wanted something more....creative.

Still, I'm not complaining. I was happy that I went. I had a great night. I would probably even pay to see him again. And even if he did have to take the "easy" road by poking fun at all these things to get his points across, he was still better than most comedians on offer at the Festival, and yes, had way better things to to make me laugh about.