When I walked into The Velvet Lounge last night, I had zero idea what to expect. I’d never heard of Josh before, or read anything about him (apart from a review of his Melbourne show comparing him to a young Ross Noble, whatever that means).

The show started with an introduction made by him in the back of the room. He got up on stage, introduced himself, and already had the audience laughing. Dude is hilarious. Whether it’s self-depreciating humour about his former job, long-winded stories about primary-school love, or mimicking audience members, Josh Makinda had the audience in his palm. I don’t know how else to review a comedian, but I laughed for a solid fifty minutes, you probably will too.

A large part of his act is audience interaction, something he pulls of with style. Slight interrogation about relationships and jobs, and he finds something to ramble about. At one stage he was mimicking the witch cackle laugh of an audience member, which slowly transformed into monkeys with bananas, and it was freakin’ hilarious. The most impressive part (to me) was the in-jokes. He managed to craft inside jokes with the audience in fifty minutes of standup,referencing them throughout the show with ease, as if the whole Arrested Development series was compressed into one set.

I honestly don’t know what to tell you, apart from urging you to go and see Josh Makinda. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, and rush tickets are available (usually) between 10am-3pm. He plays at the Astor Theatre tonight and tomorrow night, tickets are available from here.

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