Tiffanny Junee

Remembering How 2 through a Masterclass in Language, Timing and Human Connection

Last night, I ventured through heavy Sydney rain, to see Rob Carlton’s Virgin in a Knife Fight at The Factory Theatre as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival.

I did not know what to expect, despite knowing Rob to be a consummate performer. I was not disappointed.

The marketing, quite rightly, list Rob’s many accolades. Logie-winner. Actor. Producer. Writer. MC.

He’s a performer with a long and impressive career across both Australian & International film television, theatre and live events.

But what I witnessed last night was something more intimate and far more interesting than a list of credentials.

It was a masterclass in the art of language and conscious performance. My gut response, this is what it must have been like for the audience at The Globe Theatre when William set his work in motion.

From the moment Rob stepped onto the stage, the room was with him. Not because he demanded attention, but because he earned it.

Rob’s presence was immediate, generous and precise. He understands timing, but more importantly, he understands people.

So he knows how to take an audience by the hand and lead them into a story before they have even realised they’ve agreed to follow.

Virgin in a Knife Fight is not comedy that dumbs itself down in pursuit of easy laughs. Nor is it noise masquerading as entertainment.

Virgin in a Knife Fight is intelligent, crafted, emotionally alert storytelling delivered by a performer who trusts the audience enough to bring them with him.

The joy for me, watching Rob as a performer, was in the conscious construction of language, the cadence of his delivery and the connection he forms with the people in front of him.

Every pause, every shift in tone is working to artfully layer his performance.

Every story is held with the confidence of someone who knows that comedy is not the opposite of seriousness, but often one of the most powerful ways we metabolise it. And for me, it was the humanity of it.

An hour with Rob Carlton – a one man show called Virgin in a Knife Fight  is vigorous, funny, heartfelt and deeply connective.

What I loved about it most? Is that he doesn’t flatten himself to be relatable. Instead, he lifts the room with intelligence, warmth and craft. That is worth leaving the house for, especially in a downpour!

In an age where so much performance is mediated, shortened, edited and algorithmically served to us, there is something quietly radical about sitting in a room with a master storyteller, like Rob, and remembering what live performance actually does.

It reconnects us – to language and each other through laughter – and ultimately, to the shared human experience of being surprised, moved and delighted in real time, by the adventures of One.

Rob Carlton’s Virgin in a Knife Fight was the best $40 I have spent in a long time. You want proof? I’m back here, blogging! :)

So, if you are in Sydney and you can make it either tonight or tomorrow night (I think Saturday is already a sell out), do yourself a favour, head out early and grab yourself a Pizza from the boys there – it is the best I’ve had outside of Italy!

And lastly, to Rob – Thank you! F*$kIng loved it!