Lawrence Mooney’s latest tour ‘Embracing Your Limitations’ is on the surface about mocking self-help gurus and those who look to them for guidance.
It is human to look for answers and try to make sense of this thing called life, a yearning that goes back to our very beginnings.
Yet lately, a lot of things have not been making sense and answers have remained elusive. As Lawrence observed on opening night, if you are in a tent down by a river listening to a man preach how to live – something is missing.
Actually, the theme of the show is only a loose framing device, used to unpack observations about life from a middle age perspective. Middle age is where you reckon with some disappointments and rally forward. Where, if you do not find peace, you at least acknowledge you’re not planning to make peace with anything anytime soon. Rich, fertile ground for a savvy comedian like Lawrence, who skewered Peter Dutton, woke lefties, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Billy Joel, AA meetings and budget airlines with equal aplomb and had the audience cheering him on.
The only moment of controversy came with his take on Arnott’s Assorted. Undeterred Lawrence, like a true master, doubled down relentlessly for one of the biggest laughs of the night. The crowd eating out of the palm of his hand, if not his biscuit tray.
The Pleasuredome proved an appropriate venue with its carnival aesthetic and slight remove from the main Powerhouse building. There was an edge of keeping things real with a few friends, a pub vibe without the pub. Encouraging the party getting loose, Lawrence interacted with the crowd without fear, and they answered him back in kind.
There maybe are no answers in life, but there are plenty of laughs to be had, and when you share a few, you certainly find life worth living. If that is the main KPI for a stand-up, Lawrence Mooney just continues to smash it.
