Ambling greasily onto the floor with patchy neck hair and sneakers, the cramped audience in the DeLuxe tent is immediately brought under the madly glittering eye-lights of Dave. A worst-of-Australia-Day type, Dave is a rabid, drawling, bigoted larrikin, whose pet peeves include ‘twitter feminism’, dikes at mikes, and the unsportsmanlike configuration of the female anatomy.

The bloke has copped a bit of flak for his last tour though, and spends most of the show’s hour trying to transition from stand-up comedian to Gaulier mime artist. The trouble is, Dave as a concept doesn’t exist when he isn’t running his mouth off. He’s an idea of a man, who sustains himself by talking. This is true even when the words don’t make sense, and he begins repeating phrases like “penguins in Sydney! I didn’t know there was penguins in Sydney! Penguins in Sydney! Is there! Is there!” right up until the lunatic breaking-point of meaning.

Meanwhile, the audience is giggling with a woebegone hysteria they couldn’t even explain to themselves.

Dave is the drag creation of Grafton-bred comedian Zoe Coombs Marr. She slips out of her male persona from time to time, turning what would otherwise be a straight parody of the adolescent, bullying and brutish jerk-circle of dominant masculine humour into something far more self-reflexive and crafty.

One of her strongest ‘reappearances’ is during a costume change. By virtue of some ingeniously designed tights, Zoe stands before us at one point with the illusion she is being piggybacked by a clown. This makes at least three clowns on stage at the same time – Dave, Zoe and the leggings – each of them goofing off the other.

The show is in parts jarring and patchy, and perhaps makes too much of the comic tension produced by mania. Even if we put aside the convincing yellow vomit episode, the act is not one designed to put audiences at ease. Its work is to disturb rather than delight.

On the whole however, Zoe Coombs Marr comes together as an inspired, gross-out gag on the performative relationship and nature of gender and comedy. Nothing if not original, it favours showing over telling – showing us a fake head wound, an interpretation of a Sia dance, a banana phone, and the equivalent of a beginner’s belly dance done with her face.

It truly was – her words – Clown Inception.

Zoe Coombs Marr in Dave 2: Trigger Warning runs from Jan 24-27 at the DeLuxe venue in Northbridge. Tickets available on the Fringe World website.