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Melbourne Fringe 2017

Kosher Bacon

Michael Shafar

Genre: Comedy, Spoken Word, Stand-Up

Venue: Lithuanian Club, 44 Errol Street, North Melbourne

Festival:


Low Down

Building on from his previous stand-up show Jewish-ish, Micahel Shafar debuts Kosher Bacon at Melbourne Fringe

Review

Michael Schafar is a man on the threshold.  With a long term girlfriend and full time job under his belt, the world awaits him.  And it is from this precipice that his observations about the contradictions of everyday life begins his show.

Shafar kicks things off by telling us that he still lives with his parents (the bane of the avocado generation).  With this comes the obligation of enduring his dad’s dad jokes and being his mother’s breakfast companion, where topics of conversation know no bounds.  The moment that hastened his desire to leave home involves one such conversation and Shafar’s retelling of it is a delightful moment in the show.

It’s a polished, fun and a delightful 45 minutes with Shafar, who weaves effortlessly from contradiction to contradiction ranging from ISIS to V8 supercars; God to bar-mitzvah DJs.  The theme of family permeates his show and it’s off this thread that he effortlessly pulls in life’s contradictions into his narrative.  It makes hearing about how he and his siblings share a night out to celebrate their parents’ 34th wedding anniversary especially cringe-worthy yet belly-achingly funny.

In a rather indelible contradiction of his own, Schafar finishes his show by thanking his sponsors (through the help of visual aids).  I wonder if he knows?  And if he doesn’t, at least he’s unapologetic about it.

Admittedly I left his show feeling that the story about his future nuptials was somewhat incomplete. But for now I take comfort in knowing that he is confident, self-assured and self-aware to navigate the world of kosher bacon and other such delights and very much look forward to seeing him next time!

Published