Nick Caddaye was puzzled to discover that some ladies stole this picture. We were too.

The 10th Anniversary Of Failure
Starring: Nick Caddaye
Appearing at: Trades Hall, Melbourne, for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Nick Caddaye has now participated in ten Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. The first were with improvised comedy troupe the Improbables, whose alumni also include Lawrence Leung, Andrew McClelland, Yianni Agisilaou, Adam McKenzie and Christina Adams. He’s also done shows with Alastair Gowing as Mr Al and Mr Nick; he’s directed shows, worked at venues and founded a sketch comedy troupe, the Anarchist Guild Social Committee… And now, he presents this solo stand-up show.

The premise is that his hard work has got Caddaye nowhere. Where’s his cult TV show? Where’s his radio announcing gig, his awards, his legions of highly aroused female fans? (Well, I’ll get to that later.) Ten years on, he’s still at the venue where it all began, drinking extremely cheap champagne and begging his audiences not to steal his party supplies as they’re the only props he can afford.

Caddaye has a wonderful stage presence. His polite misanthropy is unlike anyone else doing comedy in Melbourne. Perhaps it’s his goatee, his dark Mafioso-esque suit, his dry, clipped delivery and the sense he gives of having his low expectations of life and other people confirmed at every turn.

But there’s also an occasionally absurd self-deprecation. Who else would celebrate ten years of comedy by calling it “failure”? Who would express bewilderment at catching two young ladies stealing his grumpy and not especially flattering show poster? And who, in an amusing vignette he offers us during the show, would break his hand punching a barbecue in a rage over a woman?

I was really looking forward to seeing Caddaye’s vinegary wit applied to the comedy world from the inside. It’s a clubby scene that audiences only occasionally glimpse (and are set to do so again this July with Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen’s new film Funny People), and it’s absolutely ripe for piss-taking.

But that isn’t really what he does in this show. Instead, he knits two ideas together: the idea that we’re all at a party, and a more wide-ranging examination of the ways in which Australian culture is built on failure. So we get awkward, 21st-birthday-style speeches and wincing attempts to drink as much of the cheap champagne as possible, plus material on Australian history, sport and pop culture.

It was always engaging but for me the funniest moments were the most acerbic, although the guy sitting next to me laughed himself stupid throughout the entire thing. I especially liked Caddaye’s outraged – and extremely wrongtown – deconstruction and extrapolation of TV ads. However, my enjoyment of the show was lessened by a silly and disruptive heckler who thought she was hilarious and, I’m suspecting, was trying to impress Caddaye.

The 10th Anniversary Of Failure only has two more shows to run – tonight and tomorrow – so get in and experience the sarcasm and cheap booze for yourself. Buy Nick a drink in the bar afterwards, and steal his poster.