Andrew McClelland - Truth Be Told

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Victoria Hotel

Sunday 10/04/2011

5 Stars *****

Andrew McClelland is a delightful performer who has crafted a unique and intelligent style of comedy story-telling. McClelland has made his name exploring offbeat and somewhat niche topics, such as pirates and the fall of the Roman Empire and is currently enjoying television exposure Friday mornings on channel 10s The Circle where he talks about lol cats and other bizarre web based phenomena.

In his current show “Truth be Told” McClelland is erudite and charming. He draws material from his own life in a delightfully self-aware manner. He skilfully explores the discomforts of a well dressed and slightly old fashioned persona in an abrasive contemporary world.

McClelland confronts the big stuff... existential questions such as; why does he always fancy lesbians? As well as, the patenting of cravat wearing on Australian television (I’m sure we all know the responsible party). He also looks at the more mundane, such as French foreign legion snipers, dancing in Croatian forests and being eaten by man-eating boars, you know all the usual stuff.

“Truth be Told” is a more personal approach for the comedy styling’s of Mr McClelland and it really works for him, proper side splitting, tear rolling, shoulder jerking laughs being the pay off. Wonderfully charismatic, he is easy to warm to and even though some of his jokes go over the heads of less well read audience members, they forgive him as he is just so darn likeable. “Truth be Told” rates as one of the easiest and most intriguing shows I’ve seen to date.