World Wide Webb

LINDSAY WEBB by Baz McAlister

IT’S FAST becoming a Christmas tradition for local comic Lindsay Webb to get up at the Sit Down Comedy Club over the festive season, and this year’s no exception. At a time of the year when most touring acts return to their various homes to tuck away the turkey, Webb finds the time to play to his home crowd.

This year he’s performing a new show, Lad To Dad.

“It’s a show about mentally growing up,” he explains. “It’s a very personal show about me becoming a father, and about the struggles that I’ve had as a young man becoming a dad. It’s a great form of therapy, talking about your problems in front of people.

“There’s a lot of adjustment that you need to take on board when you become a parent. It’s a lot of commitment. If that baby needs help, then you have to go and do it. You can’t just go ‘Ah, it’ll be right’.”

Webb became a dad fairly recently, at the age of 33.

“It’s a good age,” he maintains. “You’ve learned and done much more stuff, and you’re a bit calmer, and more relaxed about being a parent. It is a big role. It’s difficult because I have to travel and tour. People scoff at the single parent; I salute them. I don’t know how they can do it all on their own. I’m lucky enough to have my wife. There’s a payoff - normally I’m at home all day, and only have to go to work three, four, five nights a week for a couple of hours, so in terms of hours spent at home as a husband I’m actually in front of your average 40-hour-week worker. My time not there comes in chunks. My time at the Edinburgh Festival is the longest stretch; it’s a month away. This year it was hard because I missed a month of the young fella growing up, which is irreplaceable.”

It seems, though, that the sacrifice is paying dividends. Webb is the only Queensland-based comic to have taken a solo show to the Edinburgh Festival, two years running, and he says he’s developing a base of enthusiasts.

“It’s a melting pot of ideas, Edinburgh, with so many comedians in one spot. We don’t often get the opportunity to see so many of our workmates in one area. A standard comedy night is just two or three comedians; you go to Edinburgh, there’s hundreds. It’s a fantastic opportunity to catch up with, and exchange ideas with, hundreds of people.

“I was lucky enough this year to do Fringe Sunday, which is an event down in the meadows, and they have about 100,000 people come along. I was in a tent at 11am and there would have been about 800 people jam-packed into my free show. I don’t know where else you can go and do such an enormous show before lunch. The whole month is like that - it’s just one high to the next. You get to flex your comedy muscle and try different stuff.”

A free show in Scotland? No wonder Webb had no trouble packing them in. Surely the Scots are drawn to anything prefaced by the word ‘free’?

“Yeah, but they expect free beer, then, and it can get ugly with the Scots if there’s no free alcohol - or, at the very least, free deep-fried food,” he laughs.

Edinburgh Festival 2006

“Foolosophy”

Professional Reviews

Lindsay Webb-“Foolosophy”

****

SW “Three Weeks”

For his first hour long fringe show Lindsay Webb did a good job. After assuring us that he wouldn’t pick on us if we moved closer to the front, Webb quickly launched into what was basically his life story. Luckily, it was funny and contained lots of reference to the title of his show – Foolosophy (my favourite being the theory that the closer we are to the toilet suddenly the more desperate we are to go). Despite all the good stuff, there were a few dodgy jokes as well, but this is probably due to the fact that Webb had an hour to cover- overall though, it was a very good attempt in his Edinburgh Debut.

Lindsay Webb – “Foolosophy” – Comedy

Kitty Hudson “The List”

A simple yet clever theme allows Webb to use his life as subject matter with immediate comedy value added. He charts a straightforward path through life from birth to maturity in a way that all can relate to, yet from a new angle and through a succession of charming anecdotes he catches universal human foibles down to a T. First class Aussie humour with a fresh twist.

Lindsay Webb – “Foolosophy”

 
***

JAY RICHARDSON- “The Scotsman”

CAFE ROYAL FRINGE THEATRE (VENUE 47)

SOMETIMES an audience defines a stand-up gig as much as the comedian. This is Lindsay Webb's first Fringe and he attracted a weird crowd this evening.

Starting uncertainly, this Australian was encouraged by a steady trickle of latecomers, some arriving after 20 minutes, and one man who laughed uproariously at even the weakest gag.

But frustratingly, the front row were enjoying their own conversations and laughing over his set-ups. This visibly irked Webb, who was clearly still fathoming which of his cultural references would translate to the UK; he was receiving few reliable indicators from those before him.

Foolosophy is a very personal account of the way people try to fool you in life, from Webb's parents, to his teachers, to encounters with women and policemen.

Reasonably amusing throughout, it's the story of a farmboy resisting authority and struggling to fit in. And the turning point is one very good routine about attending church and a certain breakfast cereal, which immediately had the entire audience laughing from the same hymn sheet.

Nobody seemed more pleasantly surprised than Webb, who's obviously still developing but is a good-natured, blokey comic with real promise.