Review: Nick White:Teenage Dream at Trades Hall - MICF

Review by Benjamin Lamb

There’s something in the air whenever we hit the season of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. People are happier, and seemingly every corner of the city is made into a makeshift comedy theatre. Tonight we embark upon the Trades Hall for Nick White, who’s gotten a bit of a following with his characters on Instagram and Tiktok.

Perhaps best known for the ‘every dull coworker’ Carli, Nick’s characters are extremely well written and thought out, to the point where the crowd were wondering what we’d see tonight… is it set to be an hour of White’s best characters? The lights dimmed and we heard what we all wanted to hear. “Ladies and Gentleman, Carli Furplam. Nick, as Carli, ‘opened’ for Nick White, and I’m not hyperbolising when I say this is the perfect character. Carli inhabits Nick like a good virus. Every little thing is done in the world of Carli, while perfectly displaying ‘every dull co-worker’, with long nonsensical tangents. 

Carli knocked out a bit of crowd work, a joke, then perfectly ‘warmed us up’ for Nick White. 15 minutes of Carli, then Nick, who kicked off with a story about a recent trip to Japan, a great starting point for the subsequent half an hour or so.

I found the stronger elements came when the audience had to work for the joke a little bit more. Like the kind of joke that was delivered, then laughs came in waves as audiences caught up to what he was talking about. 

He talked about dreams, the Bondi Vet, and much more, we were spoilt with the amount of stories thrown our way. 

There’s almost nothing negative about Nick White’s Teenage Dream, it’s a carefully constructed show that brings us exactly what it says on the cover — performance wise, there were moments where jokes maybe didn’t land as well as he wanted them to, and this would lead him to fall back into the Carli character, which often got the laugh back. Which made this reviewer wonder, what would an hour long show from Carli look like?

If Australia had their own version of Saturday Night Live, Nick would be the perfect cast member - he’s got a unique point of view, great characters, and looks comfortable on stage. Nick White’s clearly a comic on the rise, he’s getting a name, sold out crowd after sold out crowd, and who doesn’t love Carli Furplam?

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