In his trademark Adidas tracksuit and TikTok filter-confusing moustache and spectacles, crouching his tall frame down to emphasise certain punchlines, Daniel Muggleton brings just a little eccentricity to his otherwise easygoing, relatable material. The Australian stand-up has recently crossed a personal threshold, becoming a father for the first time. But at 36, he’s woken up to the realisation that he’s still figuring out how to be a man, and in no way match-fit to be a role model.
Perhaps doing better than his feelings averse own father, who kept significant family information from him for decades, he’s also blessed with rather more self-awareness than the late boxer George Foreman, whose egotistical christening of his kids Muggleton absolutely pillories, pointing out the logical extreme that the glorified grill salesman should have pushed it to. Mind you, the comic can see the trade-off of in skills and overt masculinity than men like himself have dispensed with in return for some emotional articulacy, though the limits of that are foregrounded in the act out he depicts of a tense Christmas Dinner, the low-level battle of the sexes he wages with his partner in front of the rest of the family an amusing study in deflection and passive-aggression.
Drily witty about the UK’s new porn viewing legislation, he’s less inspired on more established distinctions between this country and his homeland, his outsider’s eye and the legacy of two years spent living here affording him some solidly entertaining observations.
Daniel Muggleton: You May Be White, I May Be Crazy, Laughing Horse @ The Pear Tree, until 24 Aug, 4pm