By BRUCE DENNILL
Nik Rabinowitz’ Pension Killer / Theatre On The Square, Sandton, Johannesburg
It’s always for a comedian to have a theme around which to build a marketing campaign for a new solo show. If nothing else, it comes across as less smarmy than a poster that says, “I’ll be the smartest person in the room – just come and enjoy me easily staying ahead of you all night”. But regular attendees of such shows will know that the title of a piece and the blurb in the press release are mere details when compared to the quality of the writing, its delivery and the energy of the performer, and in all of these areas, Nik Rabinowitz reliably knocks it out of the park, continuing to do so – hilariously – in his latest show.
Ostensibly, the title of the piece has to do with Rabinowitz’ father being well advanced in age when his son arrived, meaning that his pension was spent on raising his child instead of buying a yacht or some such. There are also threads exploring Rabinowitz’ own mortality and the realities of life as it is as opposed to how it was it expected to be.
Those ideas don’t really impact too heavily on the topics that inform Rabinowitz’ flow, which involve an entertaining mix of everything from South African current affairs (a useful way to get a mainstream audience onside, and handled here without the odd passive-aggressive snarkiness of most local comics), tales of family life past and present, the triumphs and trials of being Jewish, incisive observations of human behaviour and the weaving into all of this improvisation based on responses from audiences members in the front row, who might consider not sitting in his eyeline next time.
Rather, Rabinowitz’ experiences of the last few years and the ways in which his perspectives have changed as he has aged are reflected in the tone of his performance. He has always been an assured, aware performer, able to determine the pace and mood of a set with practised ease, but it feels, now, like he has added an edge to proceedings. He still eschews the caustic barbs that make so much stand-up an exercise in sullenness rather than silliness, keeping a smile on both his and his audience’s faces throughout. But with the filter his observations are all passed through now including depression and other challenging experiences – the sharing of which adds a layer of vulnerability that pairs curiously beautifully with the knowing buoyancy of the rest of his material – there’s an undeniable sense of his comedy coming from a real and complex place that’s not always fun to occupy, even if clever humour (sometimes bitingly dark; sometimes intelligently daft) can be drawn from it.
Add to this polished comic timing and physical accompaniments to his fast, fine-tuned wordplay and Pension Killer is confirmed as another superb chapter in Rabinowitz’ unfolding odyssey.
And if much of that goes over your head, just go and see the show because it’s incredibly entertaining to watch the smartest person in the room be this brusquely generous with his insights and his talent for making people cry with laughter.
