David Quirk: Approaching Perfection: Connections And Communications at The Garden Of unearthly Delights – Adelaide Fringe Review

The Garden of Unearthly Delights - The Spare Room, Wed 2 Mar David Quirk returns to the Adelaide Fringe to talk about what has been going on in the past year, and there is a lot he needs to catch you up on. As he tells the audience, Approaching Perfection is a show about connections and communications. He uses today’s modern ways of communicating - Facebook chat, text messaging - and the ways we connect with other people in our world, whether it is family members or the store person at a North Adelaide pharmacy, as his inspiration. This included reading text message conversations with his friends, and the unfortunate instances of auto-correct that can sometimes turn out to be brilliant. Quirk’s observational humour was spot-on, such as when he describes what he sees on the Melbourne tram and reading excerpts found from a strange book at his dads, which he brings to the show as an impromptu book reading. His asides to the audience were great. I enjoyed the parts when he referenced the make-up of the stand-up comedy process (he passed out copies of his set-list, so if he had to cheat at least you knew exactly what was coming, and he did a very clever bit at the opening of the show that involved lighting which I will not reveal here). He also used props and photographs, especially in an amusing investigative piece about Paracetamol. Some parts didn’t quite seem to work, but as the title of the show suggests, Quirk is still working through the material (while sound effects including a rain/white noise machine worked, others didn’t). But in the end it feels like you are just having a chat with a mate, listening to him re-tell stories about what has happened at the chemist that day, and his down-to-earth persona makes it an enjoyable show. Elizabeth Harnett David Quirk: Approaching Perfection continues at The Garden Of Unearthly Delights - The Spare Room from 9.30pm until Sun 13 Mar. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets.