This review was originally hosted elsewhere but get bent Jordan Shanks, I will put this up in as many places I can find. Let’s play Streisand Effect. Mr “FREE SPEECH MAN” does not like it when someone actually exercises theirs.

SOLD OUT SHOW

Comics Lounge, Saturday 8th April, Late Show

I admit I was not going to see Friendlyjordies after last year as I did not think much of the show at all. Seemed like that one was the show he had to put on and this is the one he actually wanted to do but could not as the court case was still ongoing at the time. He already seems to have unlocked what you really have to do to succeed in the Australian entertainment industry, have one big hit and then tour RSLs and Leagues clubs until you go out in a box. Don’t rely on anyone else but yourself for promotion and do not expect anyone to like you. I had liked his 2021 show and the 2019 one.

After the outcome of the court case and the firebombing of Friendlyjordies house I couldn’t not come to see the show could I? There was a specific warning not only not to record or photograph the show but also not to take any notes. Jordan also asked people not to discuss specifics at all. First time I have seen the notice that lawyers that acted for John Barilaro were not allowed into the show, has happened in the USA with Madison Square Garden.

Before the show there was a specific warning sent out from management not to act the goat. It seems people in previous shows had been disruptive to other patrons. The Comics Lounge does have the air of the coliseum at times and is a big barn so there are a lot of people there. Also a lot more mixed than I thought it would be including younger people bringing their parents along which is not something I thought I would see.

This show presents the story of the court case from Friendlyjordies perspective as all the media reporting across the board has followed the same line. Only after the court case and another enquiry and ICAC hearings was anyone even remotely negative towards John Barilaro.

I think instead of Media Watch they should just have Franco Cozzo turn up at the newspaper and punch people, hey it worked in the 1980s! MEGALO! MEGALO! MEGALO! I PUNCHA YOU IN THE FACE-O!

History doesn’t repeat but it often rhymes. Rodney Rude and Kevin Bloody Wilson were in court for most of the 1980s and arrested while trying to do their shows. Used to be the Vice Squad in Melbourne that would shut down the gigs of the band I Spit on Your Gravy for “obscenity” and once arrested front man Fred Negro for spitting on the footpath. This already a doco about that so go see it if you want.

Dave Warner’s From the Suburbs got into grief from trying to play their song “Half Time at the Football” which hardly has anything in you wouldn’t find in a normal rap song these days.

Back in the day they also used o use obscenity charges to silence people they did not like. Fred Negro got pinged for his handbills but not for the booklet that defamed Fred Nile as the judge said “anyone possessed with reasonable intelligence would not buy it”. How is a judge from the 1980s more open than one from the 2020s?

From what comes out particularly with Google dropping their legal defence, there is an air of “Forget it Jack, it’s Chinatown” there is something far more important at stake they decided to throw one content creator under the bus to protect the wider access to information on the internet and took a stand.

Quite a lot of paying out on people in this show but it really does seem a lot more justified this time as Friendlyjordies shows specifically what they said to get him so upset. I can’t say what he said or did with them at all but some of them cop it pretty bad.

Overall, yes it’s a pretty good show. He even seems to be coming around on Melbourne even though he says he wouldn’t want to live here. I would recommend going to see this show if it is on near you and you get the chance, it surely isn’t ever going to be online at all so if you want to know what is actually in it the only way is to go see it.

Link:

https://www.friendlyjordies.com/