Tommy Dassalo: Spread

Last year, Tommy Dassalo's festival show drew on his childhood battle with cancer.  This time, the material is no less personal, only now he's looking back even further. Dassalo's great claim to fame has always been the fact that his great-grandfather, Fred, invented Vegemite.  When this fact about himself and his heritage was questioned, Dassalo was prompted to explore Fred's story.   The show alternates between straight stand-up from Dassalo and “flashbacks” where Dassalo “becomes” Fred by donning a hat.  Fred's parts are by far the less successful.  Dassalo's strength is his own personality.  He has a gentle, nice guy charm that has an audience quickly warming to him.  His comedy is likewise gentle - not uproariously hilarious for the most part but still with enough well earned laughs to win an audience over.   The biggest laugh was for an (apparently) accidental Freudian slip that I'm sure will now become a regular part of the show.