Review: IKEA Wars

**Picture**: IKEA Wars (*image credit: Creative Futures Photography*)

A little like Ikea furniture, IKEA Wars does exactly what it says on the can (or, rather, flatpack and promotional information): comics, competition, and furniture assembly.

The best improv comedy places talented performers in a setting that allows them to demonstrate their quick wit and creativity. Melbourne-based Kieran Bullock has hit a stream of comedy gold with IKEA Wars. The format is simple: challenge two local comedians to a ‘gameshow’ competition, where each must assemble an item of Ikea furniture while responding to the various wildcards played by their opponent.

Bullock has brought the show to the 2024 Anywhere Festival, taking over part of The Paint Factory warehouse space and collaborating with three different comedy duos from Brisbane’s Big Fork Theatre Company. On the opening night, a packed audience had the opportunity to cheer on two of the Big Fork co-founders and directors, Rosa Sottile and Taylor Edwards. As we were soon to discover, Edwards and Sottile are not only talented comics…they are also more than ready for an Ikea challenge, and very strategic when it comes to playing their comedy wildcards.

As promised, IKEA Wars is a wacky and funny show. The wildcards were well-chosen and cleverly deployed. My favourite Sottile moments had to be seeing quite how determined a comic competitor can be, the dashing out of the room to hide Edwards’ soon-to-be kitchen trolley, and the guest hosting 5-minute penalty. Edwards had two of the most challenging wildcards to respond to. I have never seen anyone trying to work on assembling Ikea furniture when wearing socks on their hands, and Edwards’ work with ‘T-Rex hands’ was funny to watch.

Ikea Wars is a development of Bullock’s one man show, which also centred on building Ikea furniture while talking to Australian audiences. I can see why the IKEA Wars format is so popular. Bullock’s compering of the show ensures some great moments of audience interaction—starting with some funny references to set-up, warm-up and tech support. And including local comedy improv experts makes for a fun one-hour set. On the Friday night, I would have liked the set-up of the show to take a little less time—perhaps having breaks in the competition to introduce wildcard choices rather than trying to do a full run through of all of the options before they started. But I guess that each show will be slightly different, depending on the work of the comic competitors and the responses of the audience on each evening.

Be reassured that no Ikea furniture was harmed in the making of the show, and each of the performers survived the challenge of wielding the screwdrivers. But there are still two 2024 Anywhere Festival shows ahead, so why not see the two remaining shows (on Saturday Jennifer B Ashley and Elodie Boal compete for gold, and on Sunday cheer on Mark Grimes vs. Chris Martin). Anything can happen!

Catherine Lawrence

Audience information: The 2024 Anywhere Festival Brisbane program included only three performances of Ikea Wars (2-4 August 2024) at the Top Room Space (HUB), The Paint Factory, 115 Hyde Road, Yeronga. Mature audiences (suggest 14+). Parking onsite and in adjacent streets. Tickets: $22, plus $3 booking fee. 55 minutes.

The reviewer attended the 2 August 2024 6pm show.

Geoff Lawrence