Venezuela-born comedian Ivan Aristeguieta is certainly the best comedian around after his show Fourth Floor simultaneously draws parallels between his younger and current self, while also comparing third and first-world country lifestyles. 

Ivan Aristeguieta is entering the ‘fourth floor’ of his life, as the Venezuelans say. As the soon-to-be 40-year-old ‘Xennial’ (those who do not identify as Gen X or Gen Y) speaks in retrospect of his life, his timing is outstanding—especially considering English is his second language. 

Aristeguieta deliberately jumbles up his prepositions ‘of’, ‘at’ and ‘on’ to make a mockery of the complexities of English language. 

Do you sleep on the bed or in the bed? If you are sleeping on the couch with the covers on you…are you not in the couch too? Or in the floor?”

He makes the same mistake with the concept of threesomes; claiming he always wanted to be ‘on’ a threesome. This misuse of prepositions seems scripted on a simple level, but its intricacies are quite clever. 

Aristeguieta performs a sublime piece of black comedy during his comparison of first-world and third-world living. He gently attacks first-world countries for deliberately starving themselves or adopting fad lifestyle choices, when third-world countries do this purely to survive. The skit is witty and dark, yet the message at its crux is thought-provoking. 

Aristeguieta emphasises that there is no toilet paper in public restrooms of a third-world country. He delivers simple jokes to receive belly laughs for the fact he has had to use one-too-many socks to clean his ‘down under’ in a third-world public restroom, compared to Australia where he can literally see his tax money being flushed down the loo. 

Throughout the show’s entirety, Aristeguieta refers to his icon, Mr Miyagi from The Karate Kid. Torn between living the dream as a comedian and having a secure life, Aristeguieta draws connections to Karate Kid quotes for life guidance. As Mr Miyagi says:

Either you karate do ‘yes’ or karate do ‘no.’ You karate do ‘guess so,’ (get squished) just like grape.”

Aristeguieta squishes all expectations to deliver an innovative mix of Spanish and Aussie lingo to create an authentic spice of comedy. 

Fourth Floor tickets are available throughout the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 27 March – 21 April 2019