James O'Brien

My friend Graeme says I think about things too much sometime. By and large, he’s sometimes right. But tonight, having seen Josh Thomas at the Sydney Opera House, I can’t stop thinking.

I’ve been anticipating this show for several weeks, ever since fellow blogger Tom suggested going.

I’ve quite liked Josh as a performer for quite some time, and the promise that this show would be about his recent “coming out”, and in particular, his relationship with fellow comedian, Tom Ballard made it even more interesting. And then the recent Youtube clip where Tom talks about his surprise that his relationship would be the subject of a comedy routine made it even more interesting.

While the show was funny, it wasn’t funny in a belly-laugh kind of way. That’s his style, and that’s why I quite like him. I was also quite surprised at the level of audience interaction, without it being the cliched response to hecklers you often see from comedians.

But what surprised me most was the apparent honesty and intimacy of the material. It was amazing to hear a comedian talk about another person in their lives in such an open manner. While other comedians will talk about “ex girlfriends” or whatever without naming them, you knew exactly who Josh was talking about, and thus you could very strongly imagine the situations he was describing. For example, when he spoke about them having a shower together, and Tom having a pee in the shower, my mind was completely there.

I was left confused and wondering about the appropriateness of it all.

I was also left wondering about Josh as a person. Is he really as insecure as he comes across, or is that part of the routine. Comedy isn’t supposed to be that honest, is it?

As I’ve come home town, I’ve been wondering if there might be a deeper meaning to the show? Was it, in some way, an apology to Tom… saying “sorry, I fucked up the relationship TWICE”?

Or maybe I’m reading too much into it?