Rob Hunter
Moosecow
Rhino Room
Until Sat 15 March


Rob Hunter's 2007 debut show, '...Is Shoes', made me an instant fan, this year's offering has now made me want to sign up for life. The oddly entitled 'Moosecow' sort of comes with an explanation via a hilariously drawn out voiceover introduction that tells of two most unlikely enemies: the docile cow and, "nature's dog", the moose. What eventual relevance this may hold is neither here nor there but it certainly outlines the type of humour we can expect.

Hunter, by his own admission, delivers "dumbly clever" jokes that follow along a similar vein to Steven Wright and Gary ('The Far Side') Larson, in that as absurd as his observations may be, there's a definite logicality to them that simply makes sense. Two of my favourite lines came both early on in his set (where he hoses down his furniture in a public parkland) and towards the very end where he thankfully acknowledges the seasonal timing of the discovery of oranges.

That's not to say that in between was nothing but filler, in fact far from it. Nothing escapes Hunter's notice as he tells of his love of elevators and shows his disdain towards chefs, sliding doors and windscreen wipers, as well as pointing out the collateral misunderstanding of a spelling error at an Aretha Franklin concert and one Los Angeles highway patrol officer who can't get his own name right.

Hunter's delivery style may not be the fastest, but one still has to be quick enough to pick up on a lot of his subtle nuance based double takes, and joined by The Dairy Brother's Joel McMillan for some offbeat interlude stupidity that involves pie charts, whittling and a turnip, as well as a grand finale that surely must hurt... well, I guess one can call one's show whatever one wants. And 'Moosecow' it is.

Steve Jones