A high-energy house music AV montage of highlights from the eponymous young Aussie Joel Creasey’s various international television appearances to date precedes his upbeat entrance.  Hitting the ground running in supertight black pants and Armani boots for his New Zealand stage debut, he launches right into his cheerful tirade of shameless self-promotion.

Flagrant extrovert Creasey is well on the way to the fame and fortune he patently covets with his intensely verbose, naturally sociable chat.  Dropping such luminary names as Kendra Wilkinson, whose show he’s appeared in as her ‘best friend’, and Russell Crowe with whom he had a public online feud, his bright and breezy demeanour belies an undercurrent of unapologetic bitchiness.

Born and based in Perth, Joel’s pet hates include Melbourne (a giant latte wrapped in a scarf), homophobes, hipsters and various celebrities he’s worked with or encountered personally.  Proudly sharing numerous examples of his masterful ripostes in online combat, his semi-spontaneous narrative also takes us into more awkwardly personal territory, clearing up certain disputes you may have read about if you follow the Australian tabloids.

His evident homosexuality is by no means any kind of political agenda-driven focal point, despite being a central factor in a number of personal yarns surrounding past boyfriends and crushes.  Rather, Joel heralds a long-overdue new generation where such gender and sexuality issues are simply normal aspects of the overall character, unremarkable in themselves.

Clearly experienced in playing large crowds, he consistently entertains the hundred-odd opening night theatre crowd with natural ease.  The masterfully casual ability with which he structures his comic narratives makes him one to definitely watch, to the degree I recommend booking early before this best-kept next-big-thing secret is discovered.

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer