While Joe White and Joe Black perform to an intimate audience at The Basement at The Stables Bar, it’s easy to see from the get-go that they could easily have huge audiences eating out of their palms.

The childhood friends go back-to-back in a comedic double for this year’s FRINGE WORLD Festival in a show that delivers a solid 45 minutes of laughter.

Joe White kicks off White Vs Black with confidence – chatting to the audience with ease, building rapport and getting instant laughs out of everyone. 

Within a minute or two of gracing the stage, he has a family admitting which one of them walks around the house naked while the others aren’t home – one of several surprise revelations from the audience during the evening.

White tells tales of growing up as an Ethiopian immigrant in Perth in a family of six children being raised by a single mum, shotgun weddings, the perks of Centrelink and why he wanted his hotel quarantine extended beyond the mandated 14 days.

What makes White’s act so slick is his ability to think on his feet and weave the morsels of information the audience shares with him into his jokes without missing a beat.

Although the show is called White Vs Black, there is no rivalry between the comedians.

Black’s set complements what White has already delivered and he continues the audience interactions with relative ease. 

Although he does get a little racier and more politically incorrect. 

His jokes take a look at cultural differences between Australians and Africans, including what not to do with Vegemite, his luck – or lack thereof – with women, car trouble in Mirrabooka, and, of course, COVID-19.