BY DAVID MCLEAN
MELBOURNE, VIC. — Hell on earth could well be a corporate training session where recruits are ‘onboarded’ – an odious word if ever there was one – but, for Andy Balloch, it represents an opportunity to chastise and satirise and, for that matter, demonise everything problematic in society.
His Welcome to Hell contribution to the Melbourne Comedy Festival has him inducting his audience into the protocols of selling hell to the rest of the world. He does this in his highly camp but energetic manner, where impromptu asides seem like just another part of the routine.
Satan’s employee of the month is Ramone, who is charged with integrating the new recruits, which just so happen to be the audience. Our free lanyards identify us as such as do our cries of ‘bit by bit’, which we are encouraged to contribute when called upon.
This devilish detail should not be overlooked as we are all potentially capable of a little evil. We believe reruns are better than the original. We lose ourselves in social media. According to Ramone, these are all devilish inventions designed to make the world far worse than it is already.
The accompanying slide show presentation is a cruel reminder of just how reductive the corporate world is, but Balloch uses it to good effect to maintain a structural continuity. Who would have thought that hell was such an organised place?
The energy and intensity of the presentation compels it along with Balloch’s ineffable logic, highlighting just how effective hell has been in getting its product out there. Our politicians, our institutions and even the everyday person in the street all succumb to close inspection.
It seems that hell is actually winning and, given the state of the world today, who can deny Ramone’s success.
