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Eben Rojter : Scribbler
Grace Darling
Basement
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Five Stars
Walking down a flight of stairs that is an absolute death trap is the Grace Darling basement and it’s here that Eben Rojter begins his show. It’s a dark room with a black curtain and not a whole lot of space between the audience and the stage, making it very intimate.
“Ooh, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this evening’s performance of Scribbler as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Now, please welcome to the stage, a man who needs no introduction. Which kind of makes me wonder why he asked me to introduce him in the 1st place. It’s eb… Oh, I can’t pronounce that name. It’s the Scribbler guy.”
Out from behind a curtain Eben arrives and the first order is to teach us how to pronounce his name- a name he’s pretty sure his parents gave him by smashing their hands on a typewriter.
Playing his first solo show in the Comedy Festival, Rojter is at ease on the stage. He’s so relaxed giving his performance that the audience is instantly involved, his crowd work is exceptional. Whether he’s offering dating advice or giving audience members new names, he’s great at building rapport.
“I will say for participation, people do get rewards in my show. Something this way comes.” he tells us. Rewarding the audience for being part of the show is a unique and fun concept.
Rojter has fantastic stage presence, and being a trained actor is certainly shows- he’s quite at home in front of an audience. He riffs with the crowd while throwing out packets of chips he allegedly stole from Woolies.
From talking about living near the Sexual Health Clinic to his experiences being single for most of his twenties and thirties, Rojter is cheeky, charismatic and loves getting everyone responding to his performance. It’s like we are all invited to banter along with him, and he’s quite good at it-he’s having a great time. The audience are having a great time along with him, some having opened the stolen chips he’s passed around and casually eating them.
Finishing with an out of tune ridiculous song about guns that is just some weird strumming he ends the show on a high note. It’s a random addition but it works, because it’s utterly ridiculous.
Eben Rojter may have been away from the comedy circuit for a while, but he delivers such a fantastic performance it’s unclear why he left. With a busy theatre performance schedule, hopefully he makes the time to return to comedy stages more often.
