Melbourne-based comedian Nick Robertson brought his stand-up show Leave to Enter to his hometown of Brisbane for one night only, performed in the Good Chat Comedy Club on Petrie Terrace. Making his solo stand-up debut, Leave to Enter was driven by the story of Robertson being refused entry to the United Kingdom; a paperwork issue turned into hours of detention, dissociation, a whirlwind one-day trip around Edinburgh, and multiple viewings of Scooby-Doo: The Movie.
Woven around this story is plenty of commentary, including tales of Melbourne house parties, an enthusiastic Uber driver, a federal officer who may have recently rewatched Taken, and readings from the diary of his 22-year-old self. Although he seemed to lose his place once or twice, Robertson had an earnest, fast-paced delivery, and the facts of his experience were interspersed with self-deprecating humour and memorable turns of phrase (you’d better believe I will be adding “oat milk presenting” to my personal vernacular).
The show was built on a clear framework and returned frequently to alliterative advice from Robertson’s mother, his obsession with the mobile game Candy Crush, and the live-action Scooby Doo movie. He abruptly but effectively switched between light-hearted anecdotes and recounting serious situations, and would occasionally comment on how a joke had landed with the audience in real time. The jokes were also intertwined with moments of very genuine sincerity and vulnerability that brought the whole thing together.
Nick Robertson’s Leave to Enter turned a personal ordeal of sleepless anxiety and international bureaucracy into an hour-long stand-up show that balanced its overtone of self-deprecating humour with moments of relatable vulnerability.
Leave to Enter was performed at Good Chat Comedy Club, Paddington on 24 September 2023
Backstreet Brisbane 
Leave a comment