jonno

The Age

The landscape of Jonno Katz's peculiar imagining is littered with shards of identity, spiralling desire and some genuinely good laughs.

One of a handful of Comedy Festival shows that truly strives to enlarge the vernacular of comedy, Cactus takes its audience on a tour of a psyche that is, in turn, Lenten and lush.

Splitting into cartoonish facets of a single identity, our wilfully absurd protagonist strives to make it through the desert of the self.

A carnival of boundless imagining and endlessly mutating self, Cactus is something like the kicking love child of the Wachowski Brothers and Andy Kaufman.

If you don't mind an untethered space walk in the orbit of the self, you'll be mesmerised by Katz's brave offerings.

- Helen Razer

Fairfax Digital

What exactly is Jonno Katz's Cactus - The Seduction? I've seen it, but I still don't know. Is it stand-up? A one-man play? A character comedy? All of the above and more?

Cactus is out there. Katz takes the audience on a journey into his psyche - or, more accurately, the psyche of some guy named Phil. Wandering through the desert, Phil begins to hallucinate and is joined by two new characters, each representing a different part of his personality.

Katz's debut show at last year's festival, Uber Alice, was similarly erratic in style, but Cactus is a cut above his earlier effort, particularly when it comes to jokes. This year the weirdness doesn't overwhelm the humour, and Katz is quickly able to get the audience on side and keep them there. A personal favourite was one character "expressing himself" by becoming a horrific, yet hilarious, monster. Katz also leaves some questions unanswered, like: what the hell is the Eric character writing with?

If he continues to improve, Katz may one day be hailed as a twisted comic genius.

Incidentally, you may not be touched by Katz's performance, but Katz will be touched by you in the end. And I mean that quite literally.

- Craig Platt

The Program

Imagine a man in a blue, pinstripe suit playing tonsil hockey with the air in front of him, pretending to be making out with the (very good looking) audience. Is this your vision of love?

Meet Jonno Katz. His latest show, Cactus – The Seduction explores notions of fantasy versus reality and what happens when the two meet each other head on.

Katz plays three main characters during the performance, who are travelling together in the desert. There is Yuri, the Russian polevaulter who is also a compulsive liar; Phil, the central character who obsessively keeps a journal; and Eric, the hopeless romantic searching for love in a desert. Katz has an excellent onstage presence, though his antics as a shapechanger later in the show are a little disturbing. His ability to switch between characters, past situations and present events is thoroughly enjoyable. The only confusion that is caused is the audience wondering how the story he is telling relates to the actual plot.

But Katz’s tangents are the joyful moments of Cactus – The Seduction. One minute he is talking about figures in the mirror as a metaphor for humanity, the next he is playing a character who is only interested in eating his friend’s piece of cake. Somehow everything can be related back to Lost in Translation. Katz also raises the important question of why Brazilian waxes are inherenty Brazilian, and muses about what an Australian would look like. How about a British? A hot cup of tea, perhaps? And why exactly does he have a red clown nose?

Cactus – The Seduction is filled with witty word plays. “Anyone else here have problems with loneliness?” Katz asks the audience, “Oh, just you?” Not even the natural elements can escape being jibed. During one of Phil’s hallucinations caused by heat exhaustion, “The wind was playing tricks. Eight of clubs.”

Katz’s greatest achievement for the night is crowd surfing from the stage to the back of the tiny, overheated venue, with audience members staying in their seats while they carry him along. Rock’n’roll!

Parodying the idealistic views about relationships, first loves, sex and emotions, Cactus – The Seduction has been described as “Pants-wettingly hilarious” by the Toronto Eye Magazine. Be sure to bring your nappies to this show.

- Lisa Pham

Beat

Surreal comedy. It's a dicey one. More often than not, the surreal outweighs the comedy. It can happily be reported that Jonno Katz has avoided the usual traps and produced something suitably bizarre and suitably funny.
Cactus is a multi-layered theatrical stand-up piece. On one side, Jonno is talking to the audience in his own interesting take on classic stand-up. This take involves trying to pick-up and snog the audience en masse and promising to tell the story of the loss of his virginity. On the other side, reffered to as "reality" for much of the show, Jonno plays three characters walking through the desert: Phil, a Russian liar named Uri and another guy called Erik, who has a crush on Phil. Both parts of the show include character flashbacks.
Jonno's comedy is the sort that could capture hundreds of people at once. Unfortunetly, this night there were about 25 people in the audience. And a lot of them came late, missing his visualisation excercise.
Along with an engaging narrative style, much of Jonno's talent lies in his physical humour: A lot of people (your humble reviewer included) have an inbuilt resistance to physical humour on stage. Poking funny faces doesn't cut it these days. For instance, there's a moment where one aspect of Jonno's imagination is talking to another, telling it to express itself more. This is followed by some jumping around the stage and yelling, which at first just seems silly but then develops into...well, let's not spoil it. Just accept that it ends up as one of the strangest, funniest bits of the show.
If there's anything else to be said about Cactus, it's that the show involves crowd surfing. And remember, there were only about 25 people...

- Daniel Corbett

Inpress

Phil is on a journey of self-discovery. Walking through the desert with his two companions, Phil contemplates his life, loves, the prospect of dying and the near loss of his virginity. Sharing the stage with a range of characters including Self Doubt and Self Love, Phil dips in and out of consciousness sewing together seemingly meaningless moments into a thoughtful layered story. Disarming, and infinitely likeable, Phil wrestles with a few of the more difficult aspects of being human; loneliness, humiliation, unrequited love and death.

Jonno Katz is a well-trained and talented actor. Jumping, popping, slipping and sliding in, and out, of characters, he is comfortable enough in front of his audience to allow them to find their own way to the humor of his act. Katz has a knack for placing scenes in a tangled yet ultimately logical sequence - just when you feel like giving up on narrative, he brings it back on track. This show is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It's not outrageously funny - your sides won't split - but if you are looking for a show that isn't shoving gags in your face, Cactus - the seduction will let you get the joke in your own time.

- Liz Vun

Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Age The landscape of Jonno Katz's peculiar imagining is littered with shards of identity, spiralling desire and some genuinely good laughs. One of a handful of Comedy Festival shows that truly strives to enlarge the vernacular of comedy, Cactus takes its audience on a tour of a psyche that is, in turn, Lenten and lush. Splitting into cartoonish facets of a single identity, our wilfully absurd protagonist strives to make it through the desert of the self. A carnival of boundless imagining and endlessly mutating self, Cactus is something like the kicking love child of the Wachowski Brothers and Andy Kaufman. If you don't mind an untethered space walk in the orbit of the self, you'll be mesmerised by Katz's brave offerings. - Helen Razer Fairfax Digital What exactly is Jonno Katz's Cactus - The Seduction? I've seen it, but I still don't know. Is it stand-up? A one-man play? A character comedy? All of the above and more? Cactus is out there. Katz takes the audience on a journey into his psyche - or, more accurately, the psyche of some guy named Phil. Wandering through the desert, Phil begins to hallucinate and is joined by two new characters, each representing a different part of his personality. Katz's debut show at last year's festival, Uber Alice, was similarly erratic in style, but Cactus is a cut above his earlier effort, particularly when it comes to jokes. This year the weirdness doesn't overwhelm the humour, and Katz is quickly able to get the audience on side and keep them there. A personal favourite was one character "expressing himself" by becoming a horrific, yet hilarious, monster. Katz also leaves some questions unanswered, like: what the hell is the Eric character writing with? If he continues to improve, Katz may one day be hailed as a twisted comic genius. Incidentally, you may not be touched by Katz's performance, but Katz will be touched by you in the end. And I mean that quite literally. - Craig Platt The Program Imagine a man in a blue, pinstripe suit playing tonsil hockey with the air in front of him, pretending to be making out with the (very good looking) audience. Is this your vision of love? Meet Jonno Katz. His latest show, Cactus – The Seduction explores notions of fantasy versus reality and what happens when the two meet each other head on. Katz plays three main characters during the performance, who are travelling together in the desert. There is Yuri, the Russian polevaulter who is also a compulsive liar; Phil, the central character who obsessively keeps a journal; and Eric, the hopeless romantic searching for love in a desert. Katz has an excellent onstage presence, though his antics as a shapechanger later in the show are a little disturbing. His ability to switch between characters, past situations and present events is thoroughly enjoyable. The only confusion that is caused is the audience wondering how the story he is telling relates to the actual plot. But Katz’s tangents are the joyful moments of Cactus – The Seduction. One minute he is talking about figures in the mirror as a metaphor for humanity, the next he is playing a character who is only interested in eating his friend’s piece of cake. Somehow everything can be related back to Lost in Translation. Katz also raises the important question of why Brazilian waxes are inherenty Brazilian, and muses about what an Australian would look like. How about a British? A hot cup of tea, perhaps? And why exactly does he have a red clown nose? Cactus – The Seduction is filled with witty word plays. “Anyone else here have problems with loneliness?” Katz asks the audience, “Oh, just you?” Not even the natural elements can escape being jibed. During one of Phil’s hallucinations caused by heat exhaustion, “The wind was playing tricks. Eight of clubs.” Katz’s greatest achievement for the night is crowd surfing from the stage to the back of the tiny, overheated venue, with audience members staying in their seats while they carry him along. Rock’n’roll! Parodying the idealistic views about relationships, first loves, sex and emotions, Cactus – The Seduction has been described as “Pants-wettingly hilarious” by the Toronto Eye Magazine. Be sure to bring your nappies to this show. - Lisa Pham Beat Surreal comedy. It's a dicey one. More often than not, the surreal outweighs the comedy. It can happily be reported that Jonno Katz has avoided the usual traps and produced something suitably bizarre and suitably funny. Cactus is a multi-layered theatrical stand-up piece. On one side, Jonno is talking to the audience in his own interesting take on classic stand-up. This take involves trying to pick-up and snog the audience en masse and promising to tell the story of the loss of his virginity. On the other side, reffered to as "reality" for much of the show, Jonno plays three characters walking through the desert: Phil, a Russian liar named Uri and another guy called Erik, who has a crush on Phil. Both parts of the show include character flashbacks. Jonno's comedy is the sort that could capture hundreds of people at once. Unfortunetly, this night there were about 25 people in the audience. And a lot of them came late, missing his visualisation excercise. Along with an engaging narrative style, much of Jonno's talent lies in his physical humour: A lot of people (your humble reviewer included) have an inbuilt resistance to physical humour on stage. Poking funny faces doesn't cut it these days. For instance, there's a moment where one aspect of Jonno's imagination is talking to another, telling it to express itself more. This is followed by some jumping around the stage and yelling, which at first just seems silly but then develops into...well, let's not spoil it. Just accept that it ends up as one of the strangest, funniest bits of the show. If there's anything else to be said about Cactus, it's that the show involves crowd surfing. And remember, there were only about 25 people... - Daniel Corbett Inpress Phil is on a journey of self-discovery. Walking through the desert with his two companions, Phil contemplates his life, loves, the prospect of dying and the near loss of his virginity. Sharing the stage with a range of characters including Self Doubt and Self Love, Phil dips in and out of consciousness sewing together seemingly meaningless moments into a thoughtful layered story. Disarming, and infinitely likeable, Phil wrestles with a few of the more difficult aspects of being human; loneliness, humiliation, unrequited love and death. Jonno Katz is a well-trained and talented actor. Jumping, popping, slipping and sliding in, and out, of characters, he is comfortable enough in front of his audience to allow them to find their own way to the humor of his act. Katz has a knack for placing scenes in a tangled yet ultimately logical sequence - just when you feel like giving up on narrative, he brings it back on track. This show is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It's not outrageously funny - your sides won't split - but if you are looking for a show that isn't shoving gags in your face, Cactus - the seduction will let you get the joke in your own time. - Liz Vun