Review by Lucy Holz
Household name and beloved Australian comedian Aaron Chen has made the trek to Edinburgh Fringe. Having won numerous awards in his home country, Chen is known for his appearances on Taskmaster Australia, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee and numerous panel shows. He has remained at the forefront of Australian television, recently playing the role of Webmaster George in the hugely popular legal comedy Fisk.
But Chen has also started making a name for himself overseas, having recently relocated to the US where he is taking the comedy scene by storm. And luckily for those of us at Edinburgh this year, he’s decided to take his current work-in-progress show to the festival. Although it isn’t billed as a WIP, he promptly informs the audience that he sees all his standup shows as works in progress and part of the joy of comedy is continuing to propagate and prune his ‘funny garden’.
Chen puts on a work-in-progress show that produces more laughs than many comedians can hope to receive in a fully polished set. Ranging from anecdotes about life in New York to quirky puns and one-liners, he uses every technique at his disposal to pull laughs out of his audience.
Constantly checking his notes, this show is obviously extremely fresh and it feels exciting to witness such new material being tested, and experience so much of it perfectly hitting the mark. It feels like the inception of a flawless comedy special, being workshopped in front of our eyes.
Chen’s most successful material follows his observations as a newlywed, his experiences online and hilarious crowd work. The show is advertised as an hour but tonight only runs for 45 minutes, and feels like it will be vastly different every night, particularly as Chen thinks of more Edinburgh-focused content to add to his set.
This show has effectively wet my appetite for Chen, leaving me desperate to see the finished product when it is completed. If this teaser is anything to go by, it’ll be up there with the best of the best.
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