MICF 2025: Julian O’Shea – One For The Record Books Review

1 April, 2025 timchuma 0 Comments 3 categories

I had missed Julian’s show at the Melbourne Fringe last year so was interested in this one, actually he asked me to come along but this will be an impartial review regardless as I already watch his videos on YouTube and also got a Guiness Book of World Records for Christmas, even ending up doing projects at school based on some of the records or was that stamps? I was very much one of the same types of kids that Julian seemed to be when he was younger.

Julian has another show in the festival but that one is more in line with his YouTube videos. I have seen Youtuber shows before, the less said about some of them the better. I have nothing against most of them I just don’t feel the need to see them if they are popular enough already.

This show covers not only Julian’s interest in the Guiness Book of World Records but also trying to break them himself. I already knew about the fee they charge to send an adjudicator and that they stopped accepting submissions for some records such as sword swallowing as it was too dangerous. Just doing something for “the longest time” is not really something they do these days due to some deaths in previous record attempts.

The King of Kong already covered a particular record attempt relating to Donkey Kong so I knew they had a separate book just for video game records for a fair while now. Did not know they no longer put all the records in the same book. That would be a kick in the pants taking all that time and effort and all you get is a certificate which someone can go out and break by not much and get in the book.

I am being deliberately vague about what records are broken by Julian in the show as that’s half the fun of the show! There is a train involved and some Tom Scott like shenanigans with the international date line. I also liked that “in the southern hemisphere” gets a run, famously used by furniture showroom advertising and people trying to big note themselves. Most of the southern hemisphere is water so you are not competing with much!

It is a well meaning and good intentioned show and he only partly has a rivalry with one particular record breaker. I would recommend this to a wider range of people than I would a normal show and it is not too late in the evening so you could take the younger or older members of your family along and still get home not too late.