Boy is Fergus Neal’s latest show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. With situational comedy, crowd work, and personal anecdotes, there is plenty to laugh at in this hilarious show.
Boy is comedian and social commentator Fergus Neal’s latest show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Trades Hall – the beating heart of Victoria’s trade movement – is the perfect venue for one as politically charged as Neal. But the 29-year-old philosophy graduate makes it a point to say that the show is not political. Unless you count a classic Bob Katter story as political.
The show is, rather loosely I might add, about the manosphere and how it has influenced a generation of boys during their formative years. Just to be clear though, Neal wrote the show well before Louis Theroux’s special came out on Netflix.
Neal bore witness to social media and its negative influence on a generation of young people. Since having a manosphere escapee on his podcast, Neal has become somewhat of an expert on the subject. So much so that mums have been writing to him asking for advice on how to get their teenage sons out of a similar predicament.
On top of Seinfeld-like situational comedy, Neal employs the comedy stable that is crowd work, which yielded a particularly juicy meet-cute story he later posted on his Instagram page.
The audience had a weird energy that night, laughing at some of Neal’s jokes and staying totally silent at others. This threw-off the comedian, visibly showing on his face. He would periodically say, “I love you guys” as if to his nerves and get him back on track. While Neal does bookend his show with commentary on the manosphere, it isn’t solely dedicated to the topic. This could be seen as deliberate on Neal’s part, done so as to not alienate his audience. But this lack of commitment has yielded a mixed bag of a show, one that switches between topics at will.
He shifts between situational comedy, personal anecdotes, and crowd work, noting contemporary issues like the cost of living and Melbourne’s month of free transport. Neal employs multimedia tools to help illustrate key points in his show, which got some good laughs from the crowd.
Despite being a comedy veteran of 10 years, Neal was a little rattled by the on-and-off reception from the crowd. Thrown off his game, Neal scrambled to bring the audience back on board, trying perhaps a little too hard to make them laugh.
Neal’s anecdotes were the highlight of the show, with stories like crashing into a Forty Winks on his Ls, Greg the yellow Wiggle trying to steal his girlfriend, and asking Quentin Tarantino – to his face – if he liked feet.
Is Boy worth seeing in Melbourne?
Despite its flaws, I found Boy to be a pretty enjoyable show. Neal is a funny and all-round competent comedian, never struggling to issue a laugh from the audience. While he was a little frazzled, he brought it all home in the end. Even if you aren’t chronically online or know the ins and outs of the manosphere, you will get a real kick out of Neal’s show. Three and a half stars out of five.
