Jason Chong’s Reel Life – Glam Adelaide Review

Jason Chong seems to be turning into more than just a stand up comedian. As one of Adelaide’s great funny men, his engaging nature and ability to connect with the audience appears to be spurning him on to experiment more and more with multimedia. When the audience is on your side, it’s easier to take a chance. Chong not only grasps this opportunity, but he makes it work.

What begins as a stand up routine quickly degenerates into a very complex interactive adventure, where reality and fantasy blend almost seamlessly. Even where things don’t go so smoothly, Chong’s affable nature makes it work regardless.

In Jason Chong’s Reel Life, his routine is interrupted by a devil and an angel over each shoulder. When the angel is accidentally roasted, Chong’s evil doppelganger lets rip and it’s up to the real Chong to fight clones, outwit Diablo and rescue what little remains of his conscience.

With some slight of hand, fast changes and flights of imagination, he steps in and out of the projection, throws and catches things between the two realities and converses with multiple selves. It’s clever stuff, reliant on exact timing and placement, which is what Chong delivers. Even at his preview performance, there was nary a missed beat.

The comedy is hard and fast, ranging from bad puns and fart jokes thought to pop references and biting commentary. There’s something for everyone with the visual escapades just as hilarious as the verbal punch lines.

Kudos go to the un-credited filmmakers and animator for their skills at making the interactivity work. It’s a well planned show, tightly rehearsed and delivered with all the side-splitting madness you’d expect from 2009’s Adelaide Comedian of the Year.

GLAM Adelaide Arts Critic, Rod Lewis, 13th February 2010

Original article: http://www.glamadelaide.com.au/main/jason-chong’s-reel-life/