It’s 2026 and most of the shows I’ve seen at this year’s Comedy Festival have embraced the absurdity of the world, rather than try to tackle the political moment. It’s difficult to even know what to make fun of, when discourse has gotten so tense and nuance has flown out the door. Not that the other work I’ve seen this year has been apolitical, not at all, but none quite so bold and unvarnished as Reuben Kaye’s new show which tackles A LOT.
As a cabaret
artiste, Reuben’s work has always been bold, queer and in-your-face; he never
shies away from what might be deemed inappropriate to make a political point.
He knows where he stands under the queer umbrella too; his “gender reveal” is
gender-bent clothing with his arse out, he’s still a cis man in a world where
his trans friends are being persecuted.
His first
song is about his love of men and how handy they can be, even as the world
falls apart. It’s not daring to say that men are part of (if not most of) the
problem, but they can be solution-driven. “After all, men came up with the
Final Solution!” And from here on out, Reuben embraces his cultural Jewishness
(“I’m Jewish for soup, not for real estate”) to pull apart the complications and
crises we’re all facing – especially in an Australia where the right is falling
apart, with the void ready to be filled by the far-right. (“Labor is just there”
– which is all that can be said about that.)
Hard to
Swallow is far more
just a litany of reflexive gags about Reuben (and the rest of us) being
force-fed fake news. It’s also about how even conversations between friends can
lack nuance in a world that has been set-up to put us all in conflict. It’s not
just a culture war anymore (especially with Gaza and Iran and Lebanon), it’s a
war against sense and taste and science and logic.
Reuben does
not pull his punches and that was refreshing, especially in a full house at the
Athenaeum Theatre. There were a few walk-outs the night I saw the show; it
would be disappointing if there weren’t. But most of the crowd was on Reuben’s
side, knowing that it’s better to talk about the problems of the world rather
than shy away from them. And when a comedian makes you laugh about a
particularly tricky subject, those lessons can stick.
Reuben’s
magnetic personality and powerhouse vocals are always a joy to see up close –
and one man in the front-row got an up-close-and-almost-very personal interaction
late in the show. “Look at me,” Reuben commanded and the whole audience lost
it, waves of laughter cascading around the theatre.
By the end
of the show, when Kaye pulls things together with the crowd shouting in unison “You
have mother fucking got this bitch”, we were able to leave with a spring in our
step and some queer joy. Because the worst thing we can do right now is see
shows that are so overwhelmed by the miasma of the world, that we leave more
hopeless than when we arrived.
Reuben Kaye’s Hard to Swallow will have you choking – with laughter – but it also goes down easy.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
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