What did you want to be when you grew up? Did you want to be a doctor? A butcher? A schoolteacher? A movie star? How about an intergalactic space fighter? Or a time traveller? Maybe you wanted to transcend existence itself and become lord and master the known multiverse?!?
Well, Jeromaia Detto is going to bring out that childhood sense of wonder, adventure and fantasy. He is going to show that you are never too old to grow up all over again. Most of all, he is going to show you an hour of outrageous laughs in his one man comedy show performance playing as part of the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Jeromaia Detto perform several times over the last few years. But only ever with fellow comedian Jon Walpole. In his comedy duo Jon & Jero together with Jon Walpole, the duo mix sketch comedy with improvisation such as child friendly choose your own adventure styled ‘Jon & Jero: Stuff‘ and their other show, ‘Jon & Jero: Improv Narrated by Comedians‘ which provided much more adult oriented hijinks.
So, this is the first time I’ve managed to catch Jeromaia solo and I was not disappointed. Performing for over 10 years as a comedian, Jeromaia has damn near perfected the art of making an audience piss themselves with laughter. His silly, playful and infectious personality on stage exudes the right kind of energy for clowning around.
Walking into the theatre for ‘When I Grow Up…‘, you see clothes, toys, props, rags, costumes and other knick-knacks scattered across the stage, like a child’s room in need of a good clean up. This sets the scene for the hour of antics where Jeromaia is exactly like a kid making up his own fun on the fly!
The audience are encouraged (by a strange, Groucho Marx looking man who vanished as soon as he appeared) to write down whatever you wanted to be when you grew up. Whether it be a serious ambition, a complete pipe dream, or something you just made up because you thought it was funny at the time. The suggestions go into a hat and are randomly selected by Jeromaia to bring to life with whatever props and gadgets and outfits he has at his disposal!
Jeromaia is incredible at making even the most unlikely suggestions hilarious with his quick wit and award winning talent. Still, a show like this really lives or dies by the receptivity of the crowd and the material the artist has been given to work with. The more people in the audience and the more we go along with the show, the more fun everyone has.
On opening night, Jeromaia was an astronaut mining a faraway planet, a princess riding a little pony, a stuntman in a fight for his life with a well-armed baby, an acrobat, happy (and sad), an opera singer singing “Bad Boys” and a tree… As nuts as it sounds, the tree was possibly the best sketch of the night, and such is the bonkers and whimsical nature of this show.
There were a few hiccups on opening night with the sound effects and tech brought to the show via a soundboard operator which weren’t quite as quick or in sync with Jeromaia as they could have been. However, this led to moments of guffaws as there’s something funny about hearing a confused “What?” coming from the rear of the room when the board-op doesn’t understand a direction.
Overall, Jeromaia Detto’s ‘When I Grow Up…’ is a light hearted, enjoyable and interactive experience which showcases Jeromaia’s wonderful gifts as a showman and improvisational comic. Completely unscripted and unpredictable, ‘When I Grow Up…’ is the kind of show you might find yourself returning to again and again, guaranteed to inspire fits of laughter from the audience even when things don’t go as planned. In fact, sometimes it’s even funnier when they don’t.
Jeromaia Detto’s ‘When I Grow Up…’ is now playing at Festival Hub: Trades Hall – Old Council Chambers as part of 2024 Melbourne Fringe until October 13th.
For more information and ticketing, visit:
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/jeromaia-detto-when-i-grow-up
https://www.jeromaiadetto.com
https://www.instagram.com/jeromaia.detto