By Peter Maddern
A new face to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival and indeed one to our shores is Welshman Ian Shaw.
His show, A Bit of a Mouthful, combines a series of self written or adapted songs on a disarmingly wide range of topics; from the paucity of delights of ‘super foods’ to a lament about shit singers ruining others’ songs. His best was probably his take on adolescent on-line anagrams and abbreviations, using his 18 year old nephew as source material. Though others looking for more traditional fare may have preferred his various Joni Mitchell numbers and a very humorous attack on the nasally charged repertoire of her one time partner, James Taylor.
Between, Shaw, looking every bit a cross between Elton John and our own Bert Newton, indulged in quick fire chat including a delightful recounting of his bed wetting days.
There was a certain caution about Shaw’s show that one suspects came from confronting a new audience (and maybe the jet lag in reaching them) but one also senses that when warmed up with a few heart starters and fully confident of how his humour will be received (excellently I would propose), Ian Shaw will deliver a big mouthful of outrageous entertainment.
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