This review was written for mindshare, a creative community and online mental health publication. Reflections are by mindshare writers with lived experience of mental illness, specifically critiquing through a mental health lens. Content may contain triggering themes. 

For a hippy bogan sporting serious rope-like dreads, Fabien makes for a great storyteller. His self-effacing narrative delivers the right level of comedic embellishment mixed with good timing, a sprinkle of purposeful expletives and a wet dob of highly tuned talent.

Unknowingly to the audience, Fabien has well-crafted the start of the routine to twist and turn into a surprise delivery that shouts a distinct hint of how the story wraps up. Of course, you only realise how he managed to do this by sitting though the well managed and full narrative.

Boiling down the key elements of Fabien’s show its clear he is a keen observer of social malaise and how people react to his looks. His story weaved around being mistaken for a boyfriend of a neighbour through to the dating issues every father faces when raising a teen daughter. Then onto being mistaken for being homeless and then being confused by a homeless gentleman as a past agitator. The wine bottle and car key sketch had the audience in stitches. It was worth the admission price just to witness that!

So, for a show that Fabien described as about nothing, I found there was a lot to take in here. Fabien is extremely likable and despite his self-deprecating personal failings, they are in my view actually his strengths. Don’t be fooled into believing this is a person with low self-esteem, no not the case! We witnessed a charging chariot full of life experience, learning and expert timing.

Fabien’s life message was crystal clear – don’t judge a book by its cover because you may miss out on what lies inside and be kind to people regardless of their station in life as they are after all human beings gripping to this blue egg and spinning around in this galaxy all looking for some meaning. To find meaning is to band together and recognize commonality and start from there. 4 Stars.