by Laura Ferguson
I bought tickets to Frickin’ Dangerous Bro as soon as I saw they were for sale. I had an excited thrill in my chest to show my partner this year’s iteration of one of my absolute favourite shows of 2018. I had talked Frickin’ Dangerous Bro up a lot in the twelve months since last years Fred Award nomination for Best Show and compared every skit show since with 2018’s Humble. Now, I admit, this is a bit of a frickin’ dangerous strategy that often sets the unknowing performers to fall off a pedestal they didn’t know were they on. As I chewed my thumbnail in my seat, anticipating the start of the show with my partner jiggling excitedly beside me, I wondered if I had done them a disservice. I was so wrong. The lights go down and BAM the hilarity begins immediately. 2019’s Legacy is exactly that, carrying on the excellence the trio have already achieved and carrying it to even greater heights.
Frickin’ Dangerous Bro is known for tightly-scripted, witty, social commentary skits with bouts of audience interaction and improvisation between each vignette. This year the trio also asked the audience to write down what we would like our legacy to be. These were used to hilariously rib us for being too twee, too arrogant or being far too immersed in our very Wellington brand of pretentiousness. “You only want to dress in clothes someone has died in?!” Assadi exclaims when confronted with an audience legacy slip of wanting to have a wardrobe consisting only of recycled or upcycled clothing. “Ugh, we can’t make fun of this, it’s useless!” Ross says, shaking his head in disappointment to a slip reading the person would like to leave behind less hurt than they caused. The room is loud with laughter at ourselves and their outrage at us.
The skits themselves answer questions I didn’t know needed answering. What if children were allowed to be on the police force? Or what happens when this generation gets old? There are also micro skits that consist of only one or two lines which highlight the cleverness of Frickin’ Dangerous Bro with their incisiveness and wit. Assadi, Roque and Ross also discuss what they would like their legacies to be, making fun of each other the same way they made fun of us with ours. Some of my favourite parts came from this with improv thrown into skits regarding their legacies that not only make the audience laugh but make the comedians laugh as well. With a single word, “Babette,” Assadi managed to completely derail the beginning of one skit, meaning they had to reset while we laughed our asses off. Similarly, Roque ended one skit with “They’re so hot” regarding his own legacy wish, elevating our already large laugh response to the skit even higher.
Ok, this is kind of gross, but you know when you laugh so much and so hard that you kind of dislodge something in your chest so you also have to clear your throat? (Sorry y’all if this is just me.) I had to do that so much in this show, I laughed and laughed until I had to cough and splutter as courteously as I could. Legacy is everything I hoped it would be and a great introduction to Frickin’ Dangerous Bro for the friends I brought along. It is a show I would love to see again, and I will be trying to find time to see Assadi, Roque and Ross’ solo shows. I left with a bubbly and excited crowd, cheeks sore and feeling jubilant. Legacy is energising, fun and beyond hilarious. Damn, now I’ve written this I wanna see it again, I wonder if there are still tickets left…
Frickin’ Dangerous Bro's Legacy is on at BATS theatre at 9.30pm until Saturday 11 May. You can find tickets here.