Show reviewed: 17/03/26

Show rated: From one clarinet playing loser to another, 5 stars!

As a reviewer I’m not meant to have favourites but to be honest I am a bit of a fan of Ryan Mason as an Adelaide comedian. It has been an absolute privilege of watching Mason mature as an artist and develop his material over the last few years in Adelaide comedy scene. I have seen earlier versions of Ryan Mason Disappoints His Parents and each time I watch this production, it stays fresh, funny and relatable. I don’t think of it as recycled so much as upgraded for 2026!

Ryan has a gift for droll storytelling with situational humour and if I’m going to listen to a straight white guy make a mockery of politically correct culture and leftist politics, it’ll be him. He knows just how far to stretch jokes without losing the audience because of his self depreciating nature and his innate jocularity that features in his comedic material. He is clever in his material writing, can world build in ways that you can visualise his anecdotes as they are being narrated by him and he has excellent timing, knowing exactly right when to snap to the punchline of a joke.

One of the themes in Mason’s show is identity and that of trying to make your parents proud…as someone with one of those families that provide material for my own creative subject matter, I enjoy his anecdotes about trying connect with his father the best. My thing with my father is that he reads my reviews and then I have to explain nineties cultural references to him…