MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL

TOM GLEESON: JOY ★★★★

Comedy Theatre, until April 14

Despite the injunction against photography or recording, some spectators snapped away on their smartphones as Tom Gleeson arrived onstage at the start of his latest show.
“I don’t give a shit,” Gleeson shrugged, though he went on to quip that the result was hardly likely to be good Instagram fodder: “You’ll have a picture of a middle-aged man. At night.”
Gleeson might be no oil painting, but he has star quality in full flight and seems to attract stalkers, if his material is any guide. (And indeed, one shrieking groupie from the dress circle sounded as though she was ready to throw her knickers at him.)
He’s mercilessly sharp on federal politics, firing off putdowns of Sco-Mo even Paul Keating might envy, and his Peter Dutton impression brought the house down.
Yet the bulk of his free-flowing, finely crafted stand-up – funny stories about his children, a family secret kept by his grandfather and namesake – was closer to home and drawn from life.