Laughapoolooza

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2008

Laughapoolooza

Umbrella Revolution, Federation Square 

22 March 2008

Laughapoolooza is a showcase of musical comedians (or comical musicians) appearing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In its fourth year, the likes of the wonderful Tim Minchin, Tripod and Sista She have appeared. This year’s “best of” aren’t quite of that standard, but still worthy of a chuckle or two.

These “best of” gigs can be quite difficult for audience and performers. With very limited stage time, it’s vital to have sharp and strong material that is going to grab your audience immediately (and try to convince them to come to your show). The whole night hangs off the likeability and skill of the host. This person warms the audience up and gets them ready to love everyone on that stage. The Bedroom Philosopher got the gig this week.

I last saw the Philosopher in 2006 and was looking forward to seeing how his act had matured and changed. It hasn’t. The character continues to be unclear, inconsistent and confusing. There seems to be continual conflict between the character and the performer. The result is frustrating and at times boring. What is even more frustrating is that there is some terrific, funny, witty, original writing in the Philosopher’s material, but the good stuff is lost in the character confusion. There is also the issue of blaming the audience if they don’t laugh. These people have paid to see you – they want to cack themselves laughing. They don’t have to patronise you with polite fake laughs if they’re not amused. I felt that there was little preparation done for this particular gig. When you have admitted that the material in one song was so old that it failed, it might be a lesson in abandoning the stale and creating something new. There are too many great comedians (and hosts) in town right now to accept someone who hasn’t prepared. I began to wonder if he enjoys being on the stage? Because it came across like he was doing the show just so he could go out drinking afterwards.  

Sammy J works with a keyboard and has a juice box prop (juice boxes are always funny). Sammy is appealing and with some more experience and a tightening up of his work, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of him. In his song, Britney Spears turns up at his door in answer to the letter he sent her in 1999 as a horny 16 year old.  Great concept, super start – then along came Germaine Greer. The Germaine material was based on a limited and, frankly, ridiculous stereotype of an angry feminist. We have begun to accept the concept that men and women are equal, so if you’re going to do angry feminist material, you really, really, really have to understand what you are talking about. The line between satire and offence (or ignorance) is slim. (Check out the incredible Daniel Kitson to see this line balanced brilliantly.) Sammy’s joke would have worked if it ended when Germaine grabbed his dick. Leaving a conclusion up to the audience's imaginations can make it much funnier.

Smart Casual are a duo from NSW. I’d really like to see their show after their short set. They understood character, were well rehearsed, worked with the audience and know the genres they are satirising. Their ditty about not leaving your kids with Britney Spears was very cute and the Eric Clapton verse may be my favourite joke of the festival (even if big chunks of the audience didn’t get it). Perhaps a couple of chords from the very famous song would jog memories.

The Axis of Awesome are a trio of rock geeks on the road to somewhere good. Birdplane may not be the greatest comedy rock anthem ever, but it wasn’t half-bad. Their medley of every great pop song that only uses four chords was wonderful and any Ah Ha reference is worth some brownie points.

Pappy’s Fun Club are a foursome from the UK. These likeable lads clearly had a lot of fun on the stage. There was obvious intelligence behind their jokes, but they need to work on getting in late and leaving early. Don’t turn good jokes into extended sketches.

Geraldine Quinn is consistently damn fine and proves how experience does improve performances. She only did one song though – which affirmed her message, “the world’s fucked, they’re all cunts and no one cares.”

Tom Basden recently won Best Newcomer Award Winner at Edinburgh Fringe. The short sketch version didn’t show us why and I suspect his full show is much better. With rhymes like Budda is gooda than you, there’s surely some fine material to discover.

The next Laughapoolooza is on Friday April 4. It’s a different line up. If you fancy a late night musical laugh-a-thon, it could be a great choice.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Living On The Edge...Of My Bed

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2006
Living On The Edge...Of My Bed
The Bedroom Philosopher
Vanilla Productions
3 October 2006
Festival Hub, Lithuanian Club

I don’t know if Living On The Edge...Of My Bed is fumbling improvisation or the base of what could be an ingenious character. Either way, the show didn’t hit its stride the night I saw it.

Justin Heazlewood is The Bedroom Philosopher, but is The Bedroom Philosopher Justin Heazlewood? There was a lot of authentic and original material, but also a lot of confusion between the character and the performer. Neither were consistently on the stage. The Philosopher seemed to sing the songs and Justin appeared in between. I wanted to like either of them, but the appearance of one, made you frustrated by the other.

The Bedroom Philosopher has an active following through his radio and short appearances. He performs some terrific songs. The ones about buying mmmmdoms at the chemist, being over girls and his nan loving Radiohead are very funny and perfect devices for showing the Philosopher and his journey. The physical humour also supports the character (the harmonica gags are very special). Then there is the bizarre and surreal Swan song – all three versions. Bizarre is funny, but it doesn’t add to our understanding of the character. Bizarre needs context to really work.

I’ve said a lot recently about shows that reach a general audience by aiming at a specific audience. I have no idea who The Bedroom Philosopher is talking to. Characters work best when the audience understand them, like them and are taken on a journey with them. We love the fumbly nervous characters because we empathise with their weaknesses, but the empathy only comes though an understanding of who they are.

There are some great moments in Living On The Edge...Of My Bed, but they are just static moments that don’t come together as a full-length show. Letting the Philosopher (rather than Justin) control the show may lead to the cohesion and empathy that are missing.

My next show on this evening was Stephen K Amos – he played a character and then appeared as himself. Each knew exactly who they were when they were on stage. Stand up comedy can and should be this good. He had me at hello and I laughed non-stop with about 400 other people for over an hour. If you love and respect your audience, you can take the piss out of them and they come with you every step of the way.

 
This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.