In his debut appearance down under, BBC journalist Louis Theroux packed out Brisbane’s QPAC Concert Hall over the weekend (1 October) for a night of laughs, poignancy and reflection in his show, 'Louis Theroux: Live On Stage!'.
With the delightful Julia Zemiro at the reigns as host, Louis gave Brisbanites the opportunity to take a deeper look into the many stories involved in his world-famous documentaries and provided an insight into what really goes on behind the scenes.
With almost 20 years of making docos under his belt, Louis has made a name for himself as the tall, gangly Brit with the gentle, yet determined nature; and it’s this combination of personality traits that have enabled him to get extraordinarily close to his subjects, while also being able to ask the tough questions.
The first half of the show took the audience on a journey through Louis’s life and his break into the industry, with his first documentary gig starting in the US with Michael Moore’s 'TV Nation'. It was this grounding and foundation in reality TV documentary-making that led to Louis’s very own BBC TV series, 'Weird Weekends'.
Over the span of his career, Louis has been committed to reporting on the human condition and providing viewers with an insight into different ways of life, from swingers clubs, families dealing with severely autistic children, porn stars, child sex offenders, Nazis and most recently Scientology, which is the subject of his first feature-length film, 'My Scientology Movie', just released locally.
In each story, despite the subject’s perhaps unusual or unfavourable beliefs or lifestyle, Louis has the ability to show the human, vulnerable side of each individual and it’s this unique intuition and talent that is undoubtedly the key to his universal success and appeal.
In the second half of 'Louis Theroux: Live On Stage!', Louis spoke further to his colourful career and also touched on the infamous late British entertainer, Jimmy Savile, who he filmed approximately ten years prior. Unbeknownst to Louis at the time, Savile would later be found to have sexually abused many, many children during his time as a TV personality and this revelation was something Louis admittedly found terribly disturbing and even left him questioning his own judgment.
Despite some of these darker moments, Louis continues to try to unite people by highlighting not only our differences, but also our similarities, looking for the uplifting in the most sordid of circumstances.
An immensely entertaining evening, Louis Theroux is as charming in person as he is on camera and will undoubtedly go down as one of the best, most popular documentary makers of all time.
★★★★★
