Lawrence Mooney @ Royalty Theatre, Adelaide 16/2/2020

Beauty. Comedian Lawrence Mooney (An Evening with Malcolm Turnbull, Dirty Laundry Live) would have you believe not one audience member in the Royalty Theatre on Sunday 16 February possessed it. He proclaimed, “You’re all fucking ugly!” and the scene was set for an hour of laugh out loud storytelling with a focus on the ugly juxtaposed with Mooney’s interpretation of beauty.

Beauty is Mooney’s ninth foray to the Adelaide Fringe Festival and his comfort with the stage, audience and situation were apparent from the get-go. After name dropping key Adelaide facts—missing children, bodies in barrels, giant balls in the mall – he launched into a history lesson of Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, a symbol of beauty, which descended into a crudely humorous depiction of stereotypical Australiana at the beach.

The crudity and boorishness continued for Mooney’s entire set. And it was fabulous! When you thought he would be on the path to discuss a sensible topic such as his labradoodle the story would inevitably deviate into something about genitalia, pubic hair, anuses or sex.

Nobody was safe in Mooney’s trajectory as he took aim at Malcolm Turnbull, his wife Lou and the bloke near the front of the stage who brought his mother to the show. Yet despite the vulgarity, Mooney spoke candidly of his insecurities as a fifty-something-year-old male. This manifestation of vulnerability elevated Beauty beyond being just a crass comedy gig and brought a personable quality to the humour.

Beauty is a laugh a minute ride into the inner workings of Mooney’s life and psyche. Certainly not for the prudish, it screams the message that beauty is in the eye of the beholder with raw and straightforward hilarity.

Fringe Review By Anita Kertes

For tickets and show information had to FringeTix.