Comedy Review: David Correos

By Andra Jenkin

Date / Venue: Thursday May 3rd, 2018 - Q Theatre, Auckland

It's freezing on Queen Street, but outside the Q theatre where he will perform in only a few minutes, David Correos is naked except for a pair of colourful undies. He's cavorting around in the cold, monstering those passing by, thrusting into their hands, flyers for his new show, The Correos Effect. He's on all fours on the concrete twerking at the punters, and I have to admire the commitment to a bit.

Correos (pronounced Cor-ray-os) will perform at the Q Theatre in Auckland at 10pm from Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th of May, and in Wellington at the Fringe Bar at 7pm from Tuesday 8th to Saturday 12th of May. With the sheer physicality of his performance, I can't imagine how exhausted he will be by the end of it. 

Inside the theatre the seats fill up fast. David is out front welcoming his audience to his world, a place where he is comfortable, and we are too, in our cosy seats. But not for long. We're all made to stand while he does a re-shuffle, until he has us exactly where he wants us. 

Correos won the Billy T Award in 2016, and is fresh from six months of touring around the world- it shows. He's not here to play it safe, or be relatable, or be anything you're used to and know, so strap in, and let him take you on a strange, twisted journey to a place you've never been. 

Here is a man who will literally do anything for a laugh, and you know you're going to give it to him. Fluctuating between extreme and vulnerable, sometimes contriving to pull off both at once, Correos does not let up for a moment and it's hysterical. 

He's at home on the stage and in his skin and is clearly having as much fun as we are. I could tell you about the costume changes, music, props and audience interaction, but nothing would prepare you for the properly weird trip to another realm, where edgy does not begin to describe the show or the showman. 

Here is David Correos being David Correos and no one else, as hard as it can possibly be done. He's imaginative and messy, disturbing and sexual, he's hilarious and astonishing and he's inside my brain box. Next to me a veteran of many a comedy show was laughing so hard I thought she was going to rupture something. She was not the only one in the audience in serious danger of laughing so hard they might just hurt themselves.

The Correos Effect is riotous comedy, and mondo amazing, shock and awe, disturbing and brave. Correos can make one word do the work of many, but no matter how many I use, I won't be able to paint a picture of his brilliant insanity. I give it all the freaking stars, and a couple of planets, definitely Uranus. 

Just go see it, I promise you will never see anything else like it.