REVIEW: Jack Gow – Just A Small Town Boy
Off the back of sold-out seasons at the Sydney Comedy Festival and Sydney Fringe, Jack Gow’s Just A Small Town Boy is worth watching.
Deftly stringing together conversational yarns with digressions (sometimes more funny than the original thread), Gow narrates the ordeal of having to grow up in country NSW, poking humour at classic Australian school activities like Tournament of the Minds and competitive soccer.
But what makes Just A Small Town Boy so unique is its surprising poignancy, each hilarious memory tinged with unexpected pathos, often captivating the audience into silence.
Opening with the iconic strains of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing, the show tracks Gow’s development from country boy to city slicker. Yet, each silly anecdote – the correct answer to who your sporting hero might be is not Nelson Mandela for the record – is underpinned by thought-provoking recollections of growing up and knowing that you don’t quite fit in.
Above all, Gow is wildly aware of who he is and where he has come from. Touching on identity politics, notions of traditional masculinity and the dark lengths individuals will go to in order to belong, Gow challenges both himself and his audience to be better than their past selves. Far from your average stand up show, Just A Small Town Boy is all about standing up for what’s right, even on a micro level.
Just A Small Town Boy was part of this month’s Sydney Comedy Festival for more shows & info head to www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au
Reviewed by Emily Shen
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