Every year, as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival approaches, I vehemently urge people go and see a Neal Portenza show. It's comedy like you've probably seen before, only much much better. Well this year will be the last year I will recommend him because Neal Portenza is hanging up his little red beret and performing his final ever show.
"The rumours are true. This will be my last live Neal Portenza show. I expect there will be a national day of mourning followed by a blood moon at the conclusion of the festival," the brains behind the beauty of Neal, Joshua Ladgrove tells me. For his final send-off, Ladgrove has named his show Fafenefenoiby II: Return of the Ghost Boy, a title that is slightly different to previous shows P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A and Neal Portenza: Neal Portenza Neal Portenza Neal Portenza Neal Portenza Neal Portenza Neal Portenza Neal Portenza. Tracey, but equally as perplexing and random. "Fafenefenoiby is a Shaun Micallef reference. Hopefully he won’t sue me, but what wonderful publicity if he does. Audiences can expect a shell of a man performing his 22 last ever live shows with a mixture of genuine abandon and cavalier intimacy," he says.
P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A. Neal Portenza. The name should strike fear into
anyone who does not like audience participation, because once Neal has you in
his sights there's no point fighting it. Even sitting in the back of the room
will not save you as Neal roams up and down just waiting for something to
happen. A sneeze, a phone ringing and even a velcro strap will set Neal off on
a tangent that is completely improvised but incredibly hilarious.
Neal is the creation of Josh Ladgrove - who makes sure we know that he has two degrees
from the University of Melbourne, making him smarter than us in every way - and the character is the embodiment of what laughter and good times are. There is a huge
sense of fun during the entire show, taking inspiration from the mundane, the
silly and the downright absurd. It would certainly be an experience to be able
to see the world through Ladgrove's and / or Portenza's point of view.
Neal Portenza is a name that anyone who has an interest in comedy should know. The creation of comedian Joshua Ladgrove, Neal Portenza is about as absurdly bizarre and hilarious as they get. The character returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with a new show simply called P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A. As with previous shows, you may read the show description and be entertained but utterly baffled by what it is actually about or you can try read between the lines...and then let Ladgrove know.
"The show is in a pre-embryonic state as of right now (20 February 2017) and so I can’t tell you what it's about
with any degree of certainty," he says. "What I can say though, is that I want
this show to be different from my previous outings, but to still retain
all the elements of live comedy that I love. Chiefly, visceral, whole
body laughter, stupidity, cleverness, characters,
chaos, danger and fun. So, I suppose, going on past shows, the audience
can expect a show that is very live and alive, and a bit different
from night to night. I love involving the audience in a way that’s
particular to that evening, but not in a hacky sort
of way.
I'll be completely honest, I remember seeing Dr. Professor Neal Portenza (Joshua Ladgrove) in 2012 and not really being impressed by what I saw and thus stayed away from future shows. Since then, every review I read mentioned how great his shows are so I finally bit the bullet and went along to his Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, Catchy Show Title and am I glad I did. Hands down, the best show I've seen during the festival and highly doubtful that anything is going to beat it.
It's really hard to explain what this show is about, especially as there seems to be a little of bit of everything in it. Sketch comedy, character pieces, improvisation (the good kind) and (for some, the dreaded) audience participation. No one is safe in this show, you cross your arms, you whisper something to your friend or even sneeze, you will be pulled up. The audience tonight was particularly open and eager to play along, which is imperative for a show like this to succeed and this is also in part to Ladgrove's charm. There was even one instance where I thought "uh-oh, he's going too far" but he just makes it work; we are literally putty in his hands.
