9-Year-Old Musical Comedian Review By Will Winter

At least, that seemed to be the rule of thumb in 9-Year-Old Musical Comedian, Nathan Roach’s one-man comedy hour held at Erskineville Town Hall’s spare room from the 1st-5th of September.

Armed with just a guitar and powerpoint presentation, Roach took us through a series of comedy songs inspired by his favourite childhood band Flight of the Concords, which he wrote from when he was a kid until he finished high school. His musical time capsule was light and endearing, including classics like the aforementioned ballad for a brekkie eggs and bacon roll, as well as his written-for-charity style song for the kākāpō, an endangered Kiwi bird, which didn’t actually lead to any charity.

While the show started relatively sweet, as he grew up, moved schools, and lost touch with his friends, the songs Roach sang became bitter, sardonic even. Suddenly he was a teenager pissed about the state of the world, and writing diss tracks against his niece for getting more praise for her drawings even though it ‘looked like mudcake and she doesn’t even have a job’.

Flashing through his teen years, the songs still landed when sung by the twenty-six year old Roach, even with their juvenile rhymes like ‘goldfish funeral / flushed down the urinal’. The funniest bit, though, was his continual drum solos, which featured a short pre-recorded drum sample that had absolutely no follow through at every song’s bridge.

Whether he lamented the inherent sadness of a carrot in a fruitbowl, the death of his childhood goldfish, or the lack of appreciation for his art skills compared to his niece, Roach had a consistent knack for finding the charm and rhyme in these small moments. He also spun those stories into kind anecdotes between the songs, including that last one, which became a lesson on supporting the passions of kids, such as his own songwriting.

Overall, the show was a pleasant time which mostly left me curious what sort of comedy Roach would concoct now. Is he still writing musical comedy? While he clearly still adores the form, I wonder how he feels about its place in his 20s, as purely to be reflected on or to be developed.

His retreading of his childhood ambitions was very sweet but left me wanting more. I’m excited to see what new original works Roach develops in future, perhaps turning his pen and observational eye towards the curiosities of adulthood.

At least we can say for certain that his claim of being a nine-year-old musical comedian is real: when Roach told us about the song Organ Donor, a spiteful stomper about being the second fiddle to his medical student brother, he shared that he wrote the original lyrics scrawled on his brother’s old university notes. His mum in the audience shouted out ‘it’s true!’ Perhaps Roach is more than just an organ donor after all.

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Will Winter attended 9-Year-Old Musical Comedian on Friday 4 September at Erskineville Town Hall.