Review and images © Kerrie Pacholli

I was again privileged to be part of a very appreciative audience for the fabulous Stephen K Amos at one of my favourite venues The Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne. Stephen is back in Melbourne, of course, as part of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2019 or MICF 2019 which I prefer to scribe.

Let’s face it, this man has charisma and stage presence that the Queen would envy.

From what I heard, he travels the world, communicating with audiences from many, many countries and cultures. I suppose the Queen does too…Yet, this man is truly funny. Just thinking about him on stage makes me laugh as I am writing this, this review.

Clearly, he has well oiled jokes up his sleeves for comfort, but the man comes across mostly as spontaneous.

Engaging with the energy of the audience, particularly probing a few special targets in the first rows. Nothing better in this world than natural quick wit and spontaneity. Except perhaps, very large sums of money to compensate for the lack there of.

Stephen is an artist, a true artist who shares his life’s stories on stage with us. Transforming soul wrenching experiences into bare able positives through humour and generosity. I was so chuffed to get a selfie with the man himself, in the alley, on the way out of the theatre, where he and this friends collected donations for palliative care organisations, inspired by his own family experiences.

It was a true pleasure to experience this man doing his thing. I predict a Knighthood in the not to distant future. But then I do carry on like an over intuitive oracle at times.

It makes all this hard work of creating a MICF 2019 Open Media Review Feature all the more worthwhile. And a special thanks to generosity of Alexis Lalios from Hatching Communications and artist manager  Mary Tobin