Dixie's Tupperware Party
MICF
30 March 2012
The Famous Spiegeltent
to 22 April
Why did the walrus go to a Tupperware party?
He wanted to find a tight seal.
This is the only Tupperware joke I knew before a night with the outrageously wonderful Dixie Longate selling me plastic crap. I'm most proud of myself for getting out without buying anything because I love colourful, air-tight seals that keep the moths and or keep celery crunchy for weeks and Dixie's Tupperware Party is a Tupperware party.
Yes, one of those things where housewife-types make devilled eggs and fruit punch and hope that their friends will buy enough plastic crap so they can send their kids to camp and buy lots of shoes. Never been to one? Really? You must and Dixie's is a damn good one to start with.
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Hannah Gadsby Wants a Wife
30 March 2012
Victoria Hotel
to 22 April
How many woman are going to head to Hannah Gadsby Wants a Wife hoping that it's a reality show with a snogging contest for the potential brides? But, of course, that's just silly. A woman can't marry a woman in this country.
The internet doesn't need another rant about equality. There's no logic, decency, compassion or common sense in any argument against same-sex marriage. And, as Hannah says, if she could marry the chick she loves, it'd make it harder for her lover to leave.
No one seeing her show disagrees (and it'll be full every night of the festival), so perhaps we need a campaign to get the "moral majority" away from the suburbs and their huge-screen tvs and Herald Scum editorials and into some comedy shows.
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Turns Out I Do Like Sun Dried Tomatoes
Geraldine Hickey
29 March 2012
Portland Hotel
to 22 April
I saw Geraldine Hickey in a Fringe show in 2009 and I'm finally seeing her standup. Yay. Gorgeous, filthy and deliciously satisfying, Turns Out I Do Like Sun Dried Tomatoes celebrates the realisation that being yourself really beats trying to fit in.
Geraldine loves (really, really loves) crocodiles, thinks John Masden writes brilliant books and has short neatly trimmed finger nails. I have three pairs of Crocs (that I really love; yes, really), read Marsden's Tomorrow series in my late 30s and have long finger nails painted in glitter that chips off. One of us is celebrating coming out. (Clue: the fingernails.)
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The Goodbye Guy
Justin Hamilton
27 March 2012
The Toff
But the show's on at The Victoria Hotel
to 21 April
Thank gods that fraking Hammo is finally giving up standup.
Justin Hamilton has been doing shows for eighteen years and The Goodbye Guy is his farewell to the standup stage (for the immediate future anyway). I'm thrilled.
OK, so he's become one of the best around with a stage persona so affable that he can be filthy and he make observations so sharp that it's best to check for bleeding. He's one of the few men who can say cunt and make me want to hug him, he lets me feel cool for loving Dr Who, understands why I fancy David Bowie, and lets me feel OK about having not really grown up and about spending too much time in the TV section of Amazon.
But every time I see one of his shows show, I want him to get off the stage and start writing more. Yesterday I read his blog and said to the screen that I want him to write a book – and a TV series and more theatre shows like his wonderful Goodbye Ruby Tuesday. When he opens this Goodbye saying that he wanted to be an author since he was seven but became comedian ... well maybe my fantasy about Hamilton the writer isn't so selfish.
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In the meantime, you've been well and truly warned. This may be your last chance to see a Hammo stand up show. Don't risk waiting for a comeback. The Goodbye Guy is a perfect coda to his standup career and an introduction to his writing that's going to leave you wanting more.
PS: For a more smutty night and awesome special guests, Justin and Adam Richard host The Shelf on Monday nights at the Toff during the festival.
PPS: And here's his podcast
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MICF 2012
Tina C: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word
Malthouse, Christopher Green, Julia Holt, MICF
22 March 2012
Beckett Theatre
to 14 April
An Englishman dresses an American woman to present a lecture-cum-corroboree-cum-sing-a-long to white middle class theatre goers. She doesn't understand that we celebrate the battles we lost, but she knows that Mabo isn'a a dance and thinks it's time she explained Indigenous reconciliation to us. With so many levels of wrong, Tina C may well be the most right thing in town
Melbourne met Tina C in the Speigeltent in 2006 and welcomes her back with open everything. Tina C: Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word is created by the UK's Christopher Green (who we've also seen in Finucane and Smith's Salon De Dance), but I still have trouble accepting that Tina's not from North America's south.
Gal singer superstar (in her head) Tina loves the soft power of middle-of-the-road country pop, so naturally found an affinity with some of Australia's best country singers and musicians, like Jimmy Little and Bob Randell, and even with the rock of Yothu Yindi. Following Kate Bush's dance steps (remember The Dreaming album), she knows that pretty singers with awesome legs can change the world, and while Rolf Harris played with Kate, Tina is joined by musican James Henry (Deadly Award nominee) and her almost-twin singer Auriel Andrew (Deadly Lifetime Achievement Award winner and a 2011 OAM).
