COMEDY

Marcel Lucont

February 1 2016

Review by James Burnside

Alexis Dubus, better known as his alter ego the suave yet pompous Frenchman ‘Marcel Lucont’, is a force to be reckoned with on the stage. From the moment he comes on, nonchalantly holding his glass of wine and speaking in his trademark dry aloof tone, he has the entire tent entranced. He moves from joke to joke and one delightfully arrogant judgment of the audience to the next with remarkable confidence, as if he knew he had the crowd hooked from the word go.

The show itself is remarkably simple. Marcel Lucont stands on a stage and with the exception of two musical numbers, the whole act comprises of Lucont delivering a series of on-the-spot improvised jokes and light insults at the expense of the audience. The ‘Whine List’ in question is a survey the audience fills out before the show begins. Marcel reads and comments on the list of worst days at work, worst romantic encounters, worst Australian experiences, and so on.

Dubus is a gifted improviser, able to get some very loud laughs and riotous applause with the best of his persona’s arrogant and dismissive remarks. At one point he read about one audience member’s bad day at work which involved the gruesome sights one encounters as a hospital worker, remarking “Oh so I take it you work at McDonald’s?”

As is always the case with improvised lines, from time to time there would be a joke that fell flat. But overall the man remained on point for very long, very funny stretches. Part of the humor comes from the caricature of Lucont; the picture of arrogant French culture who looks down his nose snootily at the boorish Australian swine below. Patrons should be warned to expect to be on the receiving end of many disparaging and scathing remarks.

For a show like this to work it requires the audience to be fully involved. Funny answers are expected; what the audience writes is what Lucont bases his humour on after all. Frustratingly, some people did not answer back when he called them out, giving him nothing to react to. To Dubus’s credit, he managed to make that into its own running gag, and whenever he was able to get a response from the crowd he made the most of it. But it was perhaps the one flaw in his show.

Whether you will enjoy Whine List depends entirely on your willingness to sit back and let an eccentric European read your life story and mock you for it. For those who love self-deprecating humor, the comedy comes highly recommended – just remember to own up to your stories when the Frenchman asks you to.

Marcel Lucont’s Whine List runs from February 9-17 at the Sunset Verandah Big Top in Scarborough. Tickets available here.