There was not an empty seat left in The Comic’s Lounge as My Cousin Vlad, in his trademark immaculate business suit and oversized bright orange Oakley sunglasses bounced onto the stage to a highly energised and diverse audience, ranging from millennials to baby boomers.
Due to high demand, his second national tour, People Have Still Lost It, which sold out at the Athenaeum Theatre earlier this year has returned to Melbourne. It’s a follow-up to last year’s successful show People Are Gonna Lose It.
My Cousin Vlad, is one of the new rising stars on the Australian comedy scene since emerging in 2019. A Sydney based real estate agent by trade, a job he rarely does now, Vlad began his comedy career while working in his family’s real-estate business.
In between selling houses and using his agency skills that he has homed in, he started entertaining office colleagues and shortly afterward gained a wider following by making online comedy. In no time at all, he has become a fully-fledged comedian.
Vlad’s efforts in this have paid off, reaching over 3 million views across his Tik Tok and YouTube channels with hilarious sketches and videos ranging from song parodies to absurd clips of talking to the camera in his car on anything from his parents, to making fun of real estate agents. His podcast show, Dat with My Cousin Vlad has also proven to be popular.
My Cousin Vlad follows in the footsteps of fellow comedians like Gab Rossi and Joe Avati (Italian), and George Kapiniaris (Greek) in drawing on his observations as a wog Australian in a mostly Anglo-Australian society. The audience was constantly in rapturous of laughter throughout the show with Vlad’s stories about growing up in a traditional Macedonian family and noting the difference between his family and his non-Macedonian neighbours. “My Aussie friends had tea at their place while my mother was cooking dinner for hours with a cauldron that you see in fairy tale stories. At least we never ran out of food. And I couldn’t believe the Aussie kids swore at their parents and got away with it. I would be dead if I did that!” He received plenty of applause when seamlessly shifting from the Macedonian accent to the Australian accent.
Like walking on hot coal, he jumped from one topic to the next, his jokes and rants ranged from everything to Gladys Berejiklian, to Covid masks, to being a dad, to complaining about almost missing this show due to his plane being cancelled and having to drive down from Sydney. No one and nothing is safe from Vlad’s humour and quick observation.
Included in the show were projector slides of memes and photos of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala with Vlad’s funny but somewhat crude commentary on it.
To wind things down, he played the guitar and sang a parody song of a Stevie Wonder number, that he dedicated to his wife, whom he referred to as The Mrs. Pty Ltd throughout the night.
People Have Still Lost It was high energy, hilarious, and at times unpredictable. I found constant swearing perhaps not so necessary, however, the hilarious innuendos were worth seeing and worked as a great companion piece to his online presence. Vlad has a lot of value, just like the houses he sells. Watching this performance was a little like watching Eddie Murphy in his Delirious comedy special, where the vibe of the night and the constant interaction from the audience made you feel like you were part of the show and not just watching it. To buy tickets to future shows, go to – www.mycousinvlad.com
Review by Jake Freeman
