By Jennifer Beasley.
The rubbery comedic talents of Filips excel in his playful physicality and exceptional ability to make fun of himself.
MICF, we have to stop meeting like this.
Once again, I have stumbled upon a great up-and-coming talent. Choosing what acts to see based on how emerging they are has uncovered a gold mind. In this case, Casey Filips, aka, his inept persona, Tobias Finnley-Fraser.
Having won awards at the Edinburgh Fringe for ‘The Pick of Fringe’ last year, Filips brings his madcap show to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, much to my great delight.
The set-up is an Audition. Audition No. 86 in fact, as Finnley-Fraser, pretentious, overly confident and over-acting tries out for a film role. We, the audience, are now the auditioning panel.
Can Finnley-Fraser pull this off? Will he win over the production company? More importantly, does he win over the audience? A resounding YES!
Channelling a mix of Austin Powers, Mr Bean and a good measure of Monty Python, the character Finnley-Fraser is the actor everyone avoids. Tripping about the stage, with hyper expressive facial expressions, Finnley-Fraser brings out his printed 5 star reviews – although they are from Uber Eats customers! A veteran of over 300 hundred professional auditions, Finnley-Fraser is yet to land that big roll that will give him the adoration he so richly deserves.
Luckily, all that is about to change. With the gracious participation of ‘Sharon’ (Who at one stage is a Bob but I think he’s a Greg. Well, he’s a person so that’s all that matters) and with the enthusiastic support of my best friend, Kevin (who is now a manatee- we’ll get to that), Finnley-Fraser gets to play the role of his life.
Filips is an amazing physical actor. Every part of the stage – on, off, in and out- is used, and he has the greatest physicality and facial mobility of any performer I’ve seen for years. The audience was in fits with his clumsiness, extreme expressions and the on-point pretentiousness of the dreaded ‘method actor’. Gave me flashbacks when I worked on film sets.
Audience participation is ‘de rigour’, even if it’s as simple as singing a vocal warm up exercise (that degenerates into an existential crisis) and calling out prompts so that the forgotten ‘lines’ for the audition are replaced with random phrases to hilarious results.
A soft spot followed where Finnley-Fraser left the room, leaving Sharon/Bob/Greg/Person on stage speaking to the agent on the phone, until he returned to deliver chippies from his Menu Log gig. It’s usually not advisable for the comedian to leave the room, as that’s when the energy leaves as well.
However, Filips is a consummate actor and comedian and was able to propel the audience into side splitting laughter as his persona auditioned his own scene. Playing a female manatee.
With an over articulated and Attenborough nasally voiceover, Finnley-Fraser, with a pair of pantyhose on his head so the ‘legs’ hang down like ‘fins’ and a hole cut out of the crutch (God, even writing this I’m laughing it was so absurd!), the female manatee calls out for her mate. Taking this as a cue, my normally quite and reserved friend answers back. Holey Saint Sea Cow! Well, someone had to do it, so to thunderous applause, Kevin, now the male and wearing a matching pair of tights on his head, and labelled a ‘very horny’ manatee, partakes in the mating dance with the female manatee. Too many ‘verys’ in front of funny to describe how ridiculous and cleverly humorous this is.
The applause and laughter are thunderous as the ritual concludes, ending in Finnley-Fraser getting the attention he deserves.
The audience left on a high, and the feedback the participants gave me was
It’s a brilliant show’. And the audience is always right. Filips has an engaging manner and comes across as a beautiful person. His fiancé Bec Satkunum is his producer, Hannah on Tech and his gorgeous parents at the exist selling merchandise to fund his next trip to Edinburgh. Beautiful to see so much support and love there.
Kevin, of course, bought the Manatee Cap and Filips kindly signed it. We have never discussed a show for as long as we did after we left, it’s definitely one that stands out from the crowd.
Support Filips at his show. With only 1 week left at MICF you do not want to miss this exploration of absurdist comedy. Be quick and see him before he gets too well known! Follow him at:
Casey Filips (@caseyfilips) • Instagram photos and videos
Casey Filips: Virtuoso now playing at Melbourne Town Hall at 9:00 pm (8pm Sundays) until 20th of April.
