Review: Nat’s What I Reckon: Hot Dogs Probably Aren’t Real at Astor Theatre
Nat’s What I Reckon: Hot Dogs Probably Aren’t Real at Astor Theatre
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Did we find out why hot dogs probably aren’t real? No. But we did learn a little bit more about content creator, comedian, musician, isolation cooking champion, and mental health ambassador Nat’s What I Reckon in this funny yet earnest Saturday night romp at the Astor Theatre for the Perth Comedy Festival.
Nat won the sold-out crowd over immediately with his self-effacing vibe, admitting that he’s always shitting himself as he starts a show. On that note, with empathy, he ensured us that this is not the kind of show where you will get hassled for needing to get up to head to the bathroom midway through proceedings, putting the audience at ease. Behind us, we could hear a woman excitedly mention with awe in her voice, “He’s got better hair than me!” We didn’t turn around to verify this claim, but with Nat’s shining tresses, it’s a safe bet that she’s not wrong there.
The evening that followed was an easygoing bit of hilarity, with even the setup to Nat’s soundboard being quite hilarious: why on earth are his tools on an ironing board, if not for a funny little visual gag? The man, for sure, seems more than happy to commit to the bit. But then, the thing is, it’s easy to imagine that Nat actually really is the person he presents himself to be—one of those rare personalities in the performance and entertainment world who just is himself—whether on stage with his soundboard-ironingboard, or on our screens in his kitchen, teaching us that we absolutely don’t need jar sauce in language that would make our mothers blush.
While Nat already had a strong comedy following prior to COVID, with a stand-up tour of the nation being cancelled just as COVID turned up to fuck shit up for everyone, arguably, his turn to cooking videos during lockdown earned him even more popularity than ever before. At least, that’s where this reviewer first came upon this down-to-earth, hilarious pottymouth!
The set was varied, including anecdotes of social media encounters and weird TikTok-suggested videos to get yourself lost in (such as horseshoe cleaning tutorials). Conspiracy on social media turned out to be a bit of a theme, with sound effects from Blade Runner and X Files to match. This was all interspersed with bits of honest and vulnerable life story sharing, with a focus on the neurodivergent experience. A highlight of the night was a slideshow of some real-life comments he’s received on his socials from, shall we say, less than savoury types of people. Nat’s ability to laugh at himself and his lack of ego in sharing the crappy things people say to him are endearing, and along with his clear gratitude towards co-creator, designer, and producer Julia Gee AKA “Jules,” was lovely to observe.
Nat talks about being neurodivergent openly, which is important in our increasingly polarised contemporary moment; he just is himself—warning the audience that there will be no segues in this set as we bounce from topic to topic with little to no structure and even observing at one stage that it might be a good idea for him to come up with endings to some of his jokes. And you know what? With this guy, this approach works!
The thing is, this mental health advocate really puts his money where his mouth is. For the past two years, he’s acted as an ambassador for Beyond Blue’s Big Blue Table event, raising much-needed funds for their 24-hour Support Service. During his set, he mentioned “us blokes are responsible for most of the bullshit,” which was poignant in light of the recent National Rally Against Violence. In one of the more profound moments of the show, he rightly observed that looking into the past is called learning. There’s a lot of people who can learn a lot from this funny man, to be sure.
MELISSA KRUGER