Ronnie Neville’s debut show, ‘All Irish Comedy,’ is absolutely bonkers! I’m not entirely sure what it’s all about, but the guy is incredibly funny.
Ronnie will make you laugh just by standing on the stage, looking at you with his wide, childlike eyes and a big, pure smile. He will be telling you how he ended up selling kitchen gadgets on American TV as an Irish man from Cork. He is genuinely happy, and his storytelling is extremely physical.
He doesn’t wear banana boots like Billy Connolly, but he embodies the late comedian’s famous comment about comedy:
“You shouldn’t be forced into it. You should find yourself in it by mistake.”
The show is raw, and his act needs work, but Ronnie embodies the essence of Billy’s words. He is good at being funny and, like Billy, his material doesn’t seem to be structured. He has a list of jokes on a piece of paper that he sometimes looks at.
Ronnie has lived in Melbourne for a long time. The cultural clash between his beloved Ireland and Australia creates incredibly funny moments. For example, the joke about his parents’ swimsuits while swimming in Australia is as completely silly as Connelly’s incontinence knickers routine.
Ronnie turns his funny stories from his experience as a globe-trotting international Irish pitchman and storyteller into comedy. These stories don’t really end up with clear jokes, and there are no specific comedy techniques. Sometimes, he goes so fast, that it’s hard to understand his strong Irish accent, and his crowd work might not make sense at all, as he acts out everything he tells, impersonating each of the characters in the stories.
I sat there, and by the end of the show, I asked myself if he is the greatest raw comedic talent I have ever seen. Only time will tell.
