Telly Talk: Well bread
The first time Sam Simmons came to my attention someone was telling me about this awesome Australian comic at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival who was putting bread on his feet – actually, putting his feet inside the bread – and calling the idea ‘loafers’. In fact, the punchline only turned up relatively recently, for a long time he was simple ‘that excellently funny guy who put bread on his feet’, and no more exclamation was needed. The following year I saw his show. It didn’t involve bread but it was quite abstract and crazy, and I was disappointed in myself in that I didn’t seem to ‘get’ it as much as everyone else. I was anxious about him rather than laughing at the general tomfoolery, which is a failing on my part, I know.
This year, I found that Problems was arriving – Simmons’ own Aussie sketch-style comedy show loosely revolving around on his comic persona. I ‘got’ this. It made me laugh out loud. Balance has been restored – it’s like it never went away.
Simmons’ comic persona is, in essence, a big jolly idiot with mood swings. He’s a moustachioed middle-aged balding man with glasses who is permanently in shorts and not unlike a child in his ability to switch from boundless joy to full on tantrum in a heartbeat – and he never means any ill will towards a soul.
“Sometimes the actual punchline, although good, is completely irrelevant”
Episode one is entitled ‘Taco Night’, offering up ample opportunity to spin off into sketches from Sam’s childhood, regarding sarcastic and aspirational moths down the back of the sofa, and ponderings on “how many Australians do you have to hate to be un-Australian?” – only one in a series of ideas put forward by two random men sitting on fold-up chairs in their driveway. The root of the episode is the changing of the fictional Dr Mexico’s classic pre-made taco recipe and its disruption on Sam’s mindset. It’s a basic idea well exploited, which I think is likely to be said for the majority of fun coming out of Sam Simmons’ brain.
There’s a practised tempo of punchlines that come at a speed that contradicts the conceit that Sam Simmons’ is just a child in an adult body. He’s been doing this for a while and he knows what’s funny, and how to deliver it with a wonder that you just didn’t see coming. Just like the loaves on his feet years ago, sometimes the actual punchline, although good, is completely irrelevant to the fun to be had enjoying the delivery of such off-the-wall frivolity.
A word that came up a lot to me as I watched this first episode was ‘ridiculous’. He is a ridiculous man acting on ridiculous ideas that bring about ridiculous results. It’s ludicrously funny. Like a cross between Summer Heights High and The Young Ones, with its own special secret ‘taco’ ingredient. This is how you remember the best pub conversations to be – and not how they actually were. You know – very funny, childish and yet with none of the empty gaps actual funny conversations really have.
Let’s not overhype this, though. It kept me smiling throughout, had quite a few laugh out loud moments, and feels like original Aussie humour, but I didn’t fall off my chair and medics were not called for hysteria. It’s engaging and refreshing and slightly adult and funny, and it’s not particularly taxing. Exactly what you would expect from someone who tickles with craftwork and questions the social limitations of bakery. Get that man a taco. Just like his mum used to make.
Problems, Dave, Wednesday 4 December 2013
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