So, after begging everybody to “please Like me” in the television show of the same name, Josh Thomas has stepped back towards stand up in his own inimitable style. He’s affable and very likeable. He is an ‘oversharer’. He shares of himself. At times almost gauche in his immediate story dump. This time he has co-written with Lally Katz. Her stage plays a perfect fit in quirky and unfiltered narrative that is this Tidying Up Josh.

From the get go, Josh reveals this has all come about from his diagnosis for ADHD 9 years ago (and how dare so many jump on the bandwagon now) and more recently with Autism. Can he change who he really is, like a Madonna re brand or is this who he is? Now and forever ‘incurable’.

He had bought a “sous vide” and that’s very gay he adds, then from there he had to find somewhere to keep it.

LET’S TIDY UP springs from this search for more, as a desire for organisation morphs into a search for a life purpose. As a delightful framework under the title, Josh reveals a time he emptied all his drawers, all unravelling from the discovery of those extra buttons attached to store bought clothes. 

That said, so very much of his show is a touchstone for how we all might better understand those neurologically diverse around us. 

So, his share goes all across time and the globe (he is now living and working predominantly in LA these days). As we deep dive into his recollection of the untidy need to tidy up, we join Josh in a dinner party, gardening (he employs a gardener) and the gopher that killed the garden, and his social exchanges. With every retell we can also relate, see so much of what he so easily describes, and I promise the entire audience were in stitches at times.

There is still some hesitation, and he is a very authentic person behind the performer. In his autistic persona he can struggle to make eye contact. He has a deliberate exchange with someone in the front row that he acknowledges is part of an everyday challenge. He dances so deliberately yet it remains so unsophisticated and almost childlike we giggle with the pure joy he brings.

Gently within this over share is also a love story that truly might touch your heart. Well done Josh. You put us all at ease and as you take all the falls, we are very comfortable in your company. Thanks for the laughs.

A co-production by Sydney Opera House and Token Events, JOSH THOMAS : LET ‘S TIDY UP is playing the Playhouse at the Sydney Opera House until 18th February 2024.

https://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/comedy/lets-tidy

Review by Elizabeth Surbey