 It's often easy to overlook the importance of performance in comedy, Well, it's easy to do it in Australian comedy, where most sketch performers and talk show face-pullers could give your average side of a barn a decent run in the broadness stakes. But this year's nominees all in their own unique way served to remind us that there's always further to fall.
Much as Kenny himself is a painful, one-note, surprisingly pointless character whose entire act revolves around spitting out the kind of toilet wall witticisms given away for free at any slightly seedy pub's back bar, Jacobson's ability to string this one note out across film and television for two years and counting must be applauded. Sadly for him, this award isn't for "best comedy businessman" - and if it was, he'd have to get in line behind Steve Vizard for the next decade at least - so the focus stays on his acting. And as the only thing even slightly memorable about his performances as Kenny is the lisp, and Jacobson has that in real life, this award is richly deserved. Jason Gann can play one character. Unfortunately, it's himself. And while dim-witted bogans usually get a good run in Australian comedy, that's usually because the people behind the character are, you know, funny 'n shit. As for Paul Fenech, he just can't act. That's all there is to it. When he creates his own characters, he can't act. When he writes his own dialogue, he can't act. When he's obviously just mucking around with his mates in front of the camera, he can't act. Then he surrounds himself with people who also can't act and gives them more difficult dialogue to read - and even then, compared to them, he still looks like he can't act. If you stood him next to a photograph of a log, he'd be out-acted by the photo. If you stood him next to a photograph of himself, he'd be out-acted by the photo. If you stood him next to a photo of himself holding a photo of himself, SBS would turn it into a six part series.
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