Taco
Comedy Dynamics · 2022 · 48 min
An Australian comic tracks down his biological father without the melodrama.
Released , on Comedy Dynamics.
Aidan Jones accepted the nickname Taco as a teenager because he was on the verge of his first kiss and decided an inaccurate slur was preferable to remaining a virgin. He was half-Colombian, raised in Adelaide after his mother took a backpacking trip through South America at twenty-two and returned home pregnant. Decades later, a social media post about traveling to Austria to meet his biological father pulled enough attention that he turned the trip into an hour of material.
The long-delayed reunion offers little melodrama, which turns out to be the point: the real father figure was Derek, the stepfather who raised him from toddlerhood.
Evan Munro-Smith filmed the performance at Stupid Old Studios in Melbourne before Comedy Dynamics released it in 2022. It followed award-winning festival runs at Perth Fringe World and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, catching Jones as he moved away from earlier conceptual gimmicks to lean entirely on autobiography.
Notable bits & set list
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The origin of the nickname 'Taco'
At 15, the first girl he kissed thought he looked Mexican and nicknamed him Taco; he embraced it for a decade as an easy way to avoid invasive questions about never having met his father.
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Tracking down his biological father Fernando
Expecting a dramatic, months-long quest, his mother found Fernando on Facebook within two days and nonchalantly sent Jones his band's track 'Duerme Negrito' with zero initial context.
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Messaging his Colombian cousin in Spanish
Attempting to wish his newly discovered cousin Tatiana a happy year, he omits the tilde on the letter 'n' due to an English keyboard, inadvertently wishing that her anus is full of happiness.
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Stepdad Derek's sex talk
His tough-love Australian welder stepfather Derek drinks a West End Draught while giving him a lecture on safe sex, sharing condoms, and not making the same mistake his mother did.
How it plays
- Tone
- Warm, open, hilarious, vulnerable, and poignant.
- On stage
- Laidback, cheeky, and self-deprecating with a distinctive laugh; presents as a prototypical blokey Aussie stand-up whose demeanor belies vulnerable, articulate, and mindful storytelling.
- Pace
- Smooth, relaxed, conversational, and calm without bells and whistles, letting narrative momentum drive the set.
- About
- mixed-race identity and cultural assumptions, meeting his biological Colombian father, relationship with his Australian stepfather, origin and defensive use of his nickname Taco
What the critics said
Praised by critics as a warm, expertly crafted, and masterfully told hour combining sharp punchlines, self-awareness, and unforced cultural and personal insights.
In the room: Intimate, warm, and highly responsive to Jones' conversational engagement and open self-disclosure.
Backstory
Born to an Australian mother who became pregnant while backpacking South America in the late 1980s, Jones was raised in Adelaide by his mother and stepfather Derek. In 2019 at age 28, he travelled to Austria to meet his biological Colombian father, Fernando, for the first time.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- 2021, Stupid Old Studios, Melbourne
- Runtime
- 48 min
- Where
- Comedy Dynamics
- Director
- Evan Munro-Smith
- Honors
- Mervyn Stutter's Pick Of The Fringe
- Topics
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