Returning to the Adelaide Fringe for the first time since 2018, cult comedian David Correos has only gotten sharper and more focused with time. Luckily that’s not too focused, as Correos enters a chaotic comedy trance state that showcases his overactive mind.

Burying the lead with some conventional stand-up, Correos quickly diverts into absurd sketch sequences and freestyle rap, deconstructing each bit with the audience along the way. Correos occupies the surreal space between planned bit and spontaneous accident. The result is exciting and genuinely fun in a way most similar comedians don’t pull off. The more the comic deconstructs each bit, the funnier it gets, as the audience is invited along for the ride.

It’s hard to describe much of what happens without spoiling it (at one point he pleads ‘don’t tell anyone about this bit’), but with Correos, the less you know beforehand, the better. He is the kind of comedian you stumble upon by accident late one night, that you excitedly attempt to describe to your friends the next day before conceding ‘you just have to see it.’

It would be easy to categorise Correos as insincere. He goes as far as to telegraph his own Fringe Reacts with words like ‘poignant’ and ‘heartfelt” to sell more tickets. However, his’ honesty and authenticity is on full display throughout the show, whether its in the conventional stand-up bits he eschews, or in his own admittance that he prefers to play in the tension of a bit gone wrong, seeing the whites of the audience’s eyes. This is a show about forging a connection with the audience to create something that feels truly organic and spontaneous. There is also a bit called ‘Dumb Spider-man’ which was very funny.

David Correos – Touching My Active Mind is playing at Rhino Room in Drama Llama until the 8th of March

Tickets HERE

By Jacob