Fasten seatbelts for a sharp attack
COMEDY REVIEW: Melanie Coram
Airline
Pleasure Garden
4.5 stars
A to B, whatever.
What has happened to the magic of international air travel?
Today, transglobal flights cost a snip and we travel further and more often for business. Here in the FIFO wild west, short-haul flight means week-to-week stress and discomfort.
Comedian Wayne Deakin feels your pain. From plane lover to frequent flyer, he feels your immigration queue frustration, your squashed-seat torture, your delayed flight apoplexy.
The London-based Aussie is well travelled and he is over it. And if you've got a spare 50 minutes he's in the Pleasure Garden to tell you why.
Please remain seated and fasten your seatbelts. Folks, this could get a little rough.
Deakin comes on stage as an airline steward. Pushing a drinks trolley, he is sharp-tongued and confronting, taking pot shots at the 70 or so passengers in the Deluxe tent.
If you have been dying for a stranger to give you an honest assessment of how you appear, sit in the front row and brace yourself. (These 10 first class seats do have compensations though so do consider queuing early.)
This is brutally, eye-wateringly funny and I would pay to see this character alone.
After the trolley dolly segment is over, Deakin reverts to conventional stand-up with sharp attacks on the airline industry that have business travellers and holidaymakers nodding and laughing along. Yep, we've had that. Yeah, that sucks.
Successful comedians have a superpower the rest of us dream of. They remain congenial, with winning smiles and charm in buckets, while inflicting deep cuts on us and our world. And we laugh. Or cry. Or both.
The first two nights of Airline sold out before the world premiere on Saturday.
If you can get tickets, get intimate with Wayne Deakin.
Airline is on until February 12.
