COMEDY: LAWRENCE LEUNG LEARNS TO BREAKDANCE

PREVIEW BY AMELIA GROOM

According to funny man Lawrence Leung, audiences should go to his show expecting ‘crap breakdancing, sibling rivalry, and the bizarre journeys we all go on in the quest to be cool.’ For everyone who has lived in the shadow of a cooler sibling, Lawrence Leung Learns to Breakdance will strike a chord.
The one-man show is based on the hip-shattering pursuit of coolness Lawrence went on one summer, and how he ended up stumbling head first into a hardcore breakdancing championship, in an elaborate attempt to settle the score with his brother.
‘I’ve basically been in my brother’s shadow my whole life. He plays bass in a band, has facial hair, gets all the ladies,’ Lawrence says, ‘while I grew up with rubik’s cube and really love puzzles.’
Lawrence, who has also done breakfast radio in Melbourne for the last few years, recently moved to Sydney to work on a six-part series for the ABC ‘ a one-man show that combines his favourite genres: documentary, comedy and adventure. He has written sketches for The Chaser’s War on Everything, and they are producing the program.
‘I trip over a lot so when I was young I started to incorporate it – I pretended I did it on purpose to be funny,’ Lawrence says of how he ended up in comedy, ‘then when I got older and less fit I had to turn to more verbal forms of humour.’
‘There’s a lot angry men up on stage, but I like comedy about things people love,’ he says, ‘I admire comedian Andrew Mcclelland [also performing for the Cracker Comedy Festival] – he does stuff about pirates, or about his love of mix tapes.’
‘I did a series of solo shows based on nerdy obsessions – I’ve done ones about writing love letters to girls, ghost hunting, rubik’s cube, card cheats and cons, secret societies – but this one [Lawrence Leung Learns to Breakdance] was the most popular.’
So popular, in fact, that it was named Best Australian Act at the 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. On at The Studio from this week, Lawrence Leung Learns to Breakdance marks Lawrence’s Sydney debut and is a certain Cracker Comedy Festival highlight.

Lawrence Leung Learns to Breakdance
Until April 26
The Studio at Sydney Opera House
$23-28
Bookings: 9250 7777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com