JFL Toronto Review: Conner O'Malley
Filed under: Reviews, Festivals
In an effort not to bury the lede: You're going to want to see Conner O'Malley.
In a time when the news is overwhelming and it feels like satire might be dead – because reality is just too over the top – his show on Saturday at JFL Toronto was actually kind of healing. It made me laugh in a way that almost knocked me off balance and I didn't see coming. I can only describe it as reverse gaslighting.
While I don't want to pigeonhole what he's doing, I would describe it in the similar trend of Tim Robinson's I Think You Should Leave. In both worlds we are seeing what would happen if we met an internet troll in real life, but specifically if that troll tried to do stand up comedy.
Most people who know me know that I love "High Status Idiots", and Conner O'Malley is giving a masterclass. Maybe the hardest thing in comedy is playing an idiot well, so it's easy to be deceived about how dense and precise the writing actually is – all the while proving the point that conservative comedy doesn't really work, because punching down isn't just unempathetic and cruel, but makes you sound out of touch, if not straight up insane.
This is the part that feels the most healing and gets the biggest laughs. Most of comedy is about sharing common but personal experiences. So most of the humour is actually us laughing at him trying to be a relatable person, and falling hard on his face.
As I sat in the crowd, I felt an incredible relief wash over me, as if to shout, "Hallelujah! We can all laugh at terrible people again!" In a time when we seem to be being trying to be moderate about almost cartoonish issues ("the earth is dying", "Nazis are back", "do women deserve rights?"), it was so healing to hear a wave of strangers laughing along with me. The more insane O'Malley's rhetoric got , the harder we laughed, and the less alone we felt. I left the theatre with such a feeling of relief and peace. A true reverse gaslighting.
Tags: JFL Toronto, Conner O'Malley, Just for Laughs, stand-up, experimental comedy, satire, I Think You Should Leave
Related Posts
- JFL Toronto Interview: Stand-up, writer, and actress Chloe Radcliffe
- JFL Toronto Review: Sarah Millican - "Late Bloomer"
- JFL Toronto Review: John Mostyn
- JFL Toronto Review: The Alternative Show with James Adomian
- JFL Toronto Interview: Comic and impressionist James Adomian
SBM on Social Media