Review: A Rare Sight

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
A Rare Sight
Maeve Higgins and Nick Coyle
9 April 2010
The Black Box

I got and totally enjoyed A Rare Sight, but my fondness for quirky character-based comedy is no secret, so I can see why this show is polarising opinions.

Forget that the show has changed since the program blurb was written and that some reviewers have shown off their bagging skills; if (like me) you love shows like Donna and Damo, Monster of The Deep 3D, Kunst Rock and Dos or Duo, you may adore A Rare Sight.

Maeve Higgins and Nick Coyle are a twin brother and sister team (even more disfunctional than Die Rotten Punkte playing next door to them) who want to offer "an alternative to all the humour that is going around" and share their tips about how to live your best life and love your best love. They don't have any solid experience in love or life, but they have done some research by watching telly and have a whiteboard and some useless coms headphones to help.

Their lessons in the universal problems of finding a spouse, getting a job and finding out if an alien is in your spouse are gorgeously and absurdly funny and their performances are so endearing that it's easy to forgive what isn't working. Nevertheless, for all it's goodness and funniness, A Rare Sight hasn't found its rhythm and is missing its mark because it isn't sure where the goal post is and hasn't decided what it wants the audience to feel for these wonderfully original characters.

There are hints about these lost souls' past, but I wanted to know how they got to this point. The back story of them doing ads as kids is currently serving as a joke or two, rather than helping us understand how these odd siblings came to be giving bad lectures.  There's so much gorgeous material to be discovered (yes, I mean written) and shared that will help the audience to love and care about them and want to buy them drinks after the show.

As it's a theatre show, using more of that stuff that theatre does so well will help to bring it to life. It's still  relying too much on the written words and the performances. Both of which are vital, but a design that helps us understand where we are, more odd props and the outside eye and extra creativity of a director that will help take it to where it deserves to be.

I so hope that this isn't the end of A Rare Sight. It's just not cooked yet, but the ingredients are some of best around, so they shouldn't go to waste.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Kunst Rock

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Kunst Rock: Die Roten Punkte
Full Tilt and Button Eye Productions
8 April 2010
Fairfax Studio, the Arts Centre

It was almost too perfect to see Die Roten Punkte's  Kunst Rock on the same day that Malcolm McLaren left us to manage a great gig in the sky and have a quiet shandy with Sid and Nancy.

It's been said that punk is attitude, not art, but don't say that to McLaren fans and certainly not to fans of the greatest post-punk punk rock group from Berlin, M-Elbourne: Die Roten Punkte, who are back in "the artiest city in the world" with their new kunsty album and show.

One always asks why when brothers and sisters form a band, but Astrid and Otto Rot are no Karen and Richard. Their relationship is as co-dependant and dubious as a young Donnie and Marie, but their TV series song would be "I'm a little bit vegan, I'm a little bit drunken slut" and they sell albums to more than pre-teen girls (yes, I watched the D&M show) and post-senile nannas. And a lot of questions get answered about the Rot siblings upbringing in their 13-minute mini-rock opera.  If we could have live flames in the theatre, we would have been waving our cigarette lighters.

Like Hedwig and Spinal Tap, the creators behind the characters are invisible, as this rock prince and princess are too real to ever be doubted. They re-invent rock cliches so they almost feel new and play a night of parody so perfect that it's nearly impossible to not buy a banana house or a t-shirt in the foyer and slip your underwear to whichever member of the duo you fancy.

With their new ninja roadie and the most-awesome-ever inflatable,  Die Roten Punkte have moved from intimate venues to the artiness of the Arts Centre (thank you Full Tilt) and if they keep on like this, we may soon be resenting them for playing a sports arena.

Kunst Rock is for anyone with a punk soul or a hidden collection of Donnie and Marie albums... and Malcolm would have loved them.


This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Reviewing The Age

The only thing performers hate more than Public Liability Insurance is reviews. But they love that insurance when a claim is made and...

According to Facebook, one popular performer around town (whom I have showered with praise and begged to do better) isn't keen on The Age reviews this festival and neither is this blogger who has decided to review the reviews.

So anyone up for reviewing the review of the reviews?  You have to file it before 9am (sleep is irrelevant), you only have 150 words and have to follow The Age style guide.

Guest Review: I Coulda Been A Sailor

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
I Coulda Been a Sailor
Nelly Thomas
1 April 2010
Melbourne Town Hall

Guest Reviewer John Richards (from Boxcutters and The Outland Institute)

If things had been slightly different, Nelly Thomas could have been a sailor. Or a manager of a fast-food chicken franchise. Or a BMX champion... Like all of us, Thomas has had many roles in life, with many roads and options that she did and didn’t take. I Coulda Been A Sailor is essentially an onstage biography that will connect with anyone who ever wondered where they were going in life.

Thomas has a warm, engaging delivery that feels like chatting with a friend. Her life story becomes fascinating through her skill in connecting to the audience and her deft turn of phrase. I Coulda Been A Sailor also incorporates an effective theatrical device in the re-enactment of certain moments with award-winning performer Kate McLennan (Debutante Diaries, Beaconsfield: The Musical, Dogstar). Incidentally, McLennan is already on stage when the audience enters and I’m sure I’m not the only one who assumed I was in the wrong room.

It’s been great to see so many comedians really working on their shows this year, rather than the “good enough” approach of previous years (the attitude that says “I’ve got a title and 15 minutes of on-subject material, the rest I’ll fill with recent stand-up and Lara Bingle jokes”. Sadly, we do still see a fair bit of this, which is both lazy and contemptuous of the audience).  Thomas has obviously spent a lot of time honing this show – there are no dead patches or extraneous material and the show is fluid and tightly paced.

Comedy is often about recognition, so I should point out that my childhood was alarmingly similar to Thomas – we both grew up in small country towns in WA, and Thomas’s observation that in 17 years she never once saw anyone go in or out of the local library rang true to me. And for the more Mediawatch-minded I should also disclose that Nelly Thomas and I are both alternate hosts of the Boxcutters podcast, although this was only the second time we’d ever been in the same room.

Nelly Thomas is rehearsed, confident, and extremely funny. I Coulda Been A Sailor will make you consider all the choices you’ve made in your own life and hopefully – like Thomas – you’ll come out happy with where you are.

 Nelly Thomas coulda been a sailor. Luckily for us she became a comedian. See this show.




This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Alzheimer's The Musical: A Night to Remember

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Alzheimer's The Musical: A Night to Remember
Prospect Productions
1 April 2010
Chapel Off Chapel

Had enough of a Comedy Fest full of gen Ys whinging about everything or gen Xs telling you that we are right, have always been right and will always be right? Then it's off to Rod Quantock and Denise Scott for you and don't miss Alzheimer's The Musical.

"To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable."    Oscar Wilde

I'm with Oscar, and I think I'm in line behind Maureen Sherlock, Lyn Shakepeare and Carole Yelland. This terrific trio aren't ready for the nursing home yet, but they are of "an age" where g-strings are no longer an underwear option and 40-somethings give up seats for them on the tram (the gen Ys sure as hell don't), so it's time to start exploring how fun life can be when knee highs are easier than pantyhose and slippers can be worn in public. 

From the opening number, "I'm Living in my Seventies" (even better for those alive in the 70s), to the obligatory matching shoes and colostomy bag joke, there are plenty of gags about bowls and bowels, but it's the jokes about pelvic floor muscles, the granny sex chat and the best-ever balloon models about reproductive organs that have all ages squirming with laughter. 

The story is minimal (and not at all about Alzheimer's), but there is room for some poignant moments that remind us that losing your loved ones, friends and health isn't necessarily a barrel of monkeys. 

If you remember buying cookies at David Jones, had a Mickey Mouse watch or have trouble remembering the minuet  (I can barely remember the men I fucked ... boom boom), forgo the young ones ranting in the city, grab all your boomer relatives and friends and get on the tram to Chapel off Chapel for mutton dressed as mutton and a hip replacement hop that'll make you glad that we can age disgracefully. 

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Monster of the Deep 3D

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Monster of the Deep 3D
Claudia O'Doherty
3 April 2010
Melbourne Town Hall

From it's pre-show distraction card to the most awesome of all awesome virtual technologies, Monster of the Deep 3D spits on any whizzbang IMAX film.

Claudia O'Doherty is the only surviving inhabitant of Aquaplex, a top-secret,underwater complex built from a mix of 70s paranoia and international cooperation. A child of a brainiac and a hunk, she was born in this pressurised world and didn't see land until an unfortunate explosion.

Like any isolated cultish civilisation, Aquaplex developed it's own social customs that have left Claudia slightly unable to adjust to the strangeness of sharing a land word with billions, but she's determined to share her world with the curious folk who come to her presentation.

Her low-tech presentation is as cute as a kitten, as bitter-sweet as a dark chocolate rabbit and as fun as playing with a kitten after eating all of your Easter chocolate in one sitting and washing it down with a litre of red cordial. It's also one of the most original character-pieces I've seen this festival.

O'Doherty plays Claudia's innocence so well that it's almost too easy to forget that she's a character and it doesn't take long to start loving her flip charts and home made models. Many an audience member commented on the effort it took to make her props, but this would pale compared to the time it took to craft the script. Claudia may be naive, but O'Doherty has crafted a script full of surprises, ironies and unforgettable stories that gently reveal their complexities and leave you wanting more.

I think this show is gorgeous, but not all reviewers have agreed and I can see why some don't like it. It's a gentle character piece that forces your brain to join in the fun and fill in some of the blank spaces. If you know this isn't your kind of show, see something that is - or maybe take a risk and give it a go anyway.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: Circus Trick Tease

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL
Circus Trick Tease
31 March 2010
Trades Hall

With a mixture of slap stick, innuendo and some of the best duo and trio acrobalance around, Circus Trick Tease continue to show that fabulous circus is much more then spectacular handstands and leopard print unitards.

Welcome to the vivacious Miss Tinkle's circus. She can do the spits and has a sexual appetite worthy of the greatest lover, but her fellow performers aren't always in her obsessive control. Her sensitive new age strong man keeps picking up hussies in the audience and has cast his eye to their new strong and silent clown.

Shannon Mc Gurgan, Malia Walsh and Farhad Ahadi's Circus Trick Tease appeared at the 2008 Melbourne Fringe and this upstaging, jealous and swinging trio have been welcomed and loved at many festivals since.

With characters that could carry the show without their jaw-dropping tricks, it's a bit naughty but never offends and leaves its audience with ridiculous smiles from start to finish.

If you've seen them before, you'll love it again and everyone else get in now before they head overseas.

2008 Melbourne Fringe review.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane
27 March 2010
Victoria Hotel

Even though Damo really proposed to Donna this week, Sammy J and Randy in Ricketts Lane affirms that Sammy J and Randy are still my favourite Comedy Festival couple.

Sammy J and Randy (puppeteer wonder Heath McIvor) are always terrific in their solo shows but like sparklie foil and chocolate eggs (not Nestle because of that baby thing in Africa – thanks for reminding us Sammy J) they belong together.

In Ricketts Lane, they are best friends and housemates . Sammy is a lowly underpaid shit-kicking lawyer-cum-pole dancer and Randy is divorced and in need of some quick money. When Sammy finally has a career-making tax fraud case...you know the rest.

But you will be always be surprised. J and McIvor are the most original duo on our comedy stage, who deserve every whoop and squeal that comes from their ever-growing young and gorgeous audience (and the rest of us who won’t miss anything they do).

I’d rave more, but John Richards was also throwing his underwear at the stage and had this to say about the boys:

Sammy J is amazing. Randy is amazing. Heath McIvor is amazing. The songs? Amazing. And the comedy! Amazing. In a word – amazing.

If you liked Sammy J In The Forest Of Dreams you must see this. If you like puppets you must see this. If you like songs about sleep, jokes about scrabble or Barack Obama audio cookery books, you must see this.

Honestly, JUST GO.

Ditto.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review: God is Bullshit: That's the Good News

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
God is Bullshit: That's the Good News
Catherine Deveny
31 March 2010
Trades Hall

It's unlikely you'll be sitting next to a Christian at Catherine Deveny's God is Bullshit, but you will find those who watched Dawkins V Fielding on Q&A and still have their jaws on the ground.

Deveny was brought up so Catholic that even their windscreen wipers didn't have rubbers and she happily ticked Catholic on her census forms, until reverting to atheism at 38. She didn't have a crisis of faith or remembered being fingered by a priest; she started telling her children about their family's faith and saw glaring consistency issues and a morality that went against too much of what she believed.

Her born again atheism comes with the passion of someone struck on the head by the bloody obvious, who is happy to scream to the world that she was wrong. Like ex-smokers, there is none as willing to talk about their reversion as one who used to believe. (As an ex-animal-eater, I know that desire to preach.) Given the age, intelligence and education of her audience, Dev is preaching to the choir, but who doesn't like hearing their beliefs affirmed?

I haven't read the Christian Bible properly, but I do read Deveny's columns religiously. (Don't tell her that I meet with friends on Sundays and we read her book and sing.) Her columns are one of the few reasons left to read The Age and her writing, attitude and ability to insult knobheads continue to inspire me. And,  just like her, I don't believe everything she writes either.

It's odd how people believe that written in print stuff must be true. Just between us, writers sometimes bend the truth to tell a better story or make a point ... and ... some even make stuff up! Gospel truth really means that you can write anything and someone will believe you. Religious writings really have a lot to answer for.

Like Ms D, I went to a religious school, but we were Anglicans – who are kind of like Catholics, but without the guilt and the virgin fetish, and we were allowed to be alter chicks (I was), use condoms (I do) and lithurgical dance was optional (I didn't).  I also won a series of Religious Education prizes. It wasn't because I wanted Jesus to make me a sunbeam; it was because I'd win a book voucher if I drew good pictures of camels, needles and burning bushes. The book vouchers were for the university bookshop, so I was able to use my faux-faith bounty to further my mind.

Even with its abundance of contradictions, Christianity doesn't offend me. Some of my best friends ... Really. Faith gives many people comfort and hope and perhaps a belief in miracles is better than a belief in alcohol or Tony Abbott. (According to the gospel according to Facebook, one of my friends believes in TA. Never say terrific people, can't have odd beliefs.)

Avoiding the obvious arguments of sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and war mongering, think of all the fabulous stories that would never have been without religious guilt, faith or characters. Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett might have had to write a book about earthworms.

And Christianity lets me be god-damned lazy when it comes to language. Jesus may have been a top bloke, but he's useful with an explanation mark. Without the phrase "Oh my fucking god", I would have had to yell "Oh dear, this gets the adrenalin flowing" when I had the bejesus scared out of me on the bungy ride at Moomba. Without our Judeo-Christian morality, perhaps fuck wouldn't be a swear word and no one would blink at cunt, gay and anal because we'd live in a society where sex and sexuality were accepted.

Which leaves the most convincing pro-Christian argument. I let Saint Catherine stamp "God is Bullshit" on my wrist so that I could touch her robes and because she was giving us an Easter egg with our stamp. Chocolate shaped like an egg and wrapped in shiny foil is brilliant. And without egg-shaped chocolate, we may not have the more-wonderful rabbit/bilby-shaped chocolate. I know Easter was a pagen spring festival long before the Christians hijacked it - but dammit, the Christians made it popular thus ensuring that choccy goodness fills our supermarket shelves from the day after Christmas. I can live without religion, but if it meant no more Haighs chocolate bilbies or Lindt rabbits, well I just don't want to think about it.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Guest Reviewer: Shut Up and Sing

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Shut Up and Sing
Geraldine Quinn
28April 2010
Trades Hall

Guest Reviewer John Richards (from Boxcutters and The Outland Institute)

Why isn’t Geraldine Quinn a superstar? It’s a question she asks in her new show, but it’s one I sometimes ponder too. With her sensational voice, hilarious songs and smouldering sexuality she should be a household name, or at the very least as famous as Tim Minchin (and if you haven’t seen Minchin and Quinn performing Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ then get yourself to a YouTube now).

With Shut Up And Sing, Quinn returns with another set of sensational comedy songs, but this time she’s also added costume changes and a unifying theme. Shut Up and Sing sees Quinn trying to isolate the elements needed to have pop hit, looking at everything from lyrics to dance moves. It’s a loose concept that works extremely well and gives the show a nice sense of propulsion. There’s also some fantastic costumes, and it’s a much more physical show than in Quinn’s past (which is a polite way of saying there’s a lot of very alarming dancing).

The night we went she was battling a cold and audience numbers were – shall we say – “cosy”. Yet she managed to present a powerhouse show that makes you realise how spoiled we are in Melbourne to have such easy access to such amazing talent.

If you enjoy musical comedy, you will love Geraldine Quinn.

And finally I must note that the final number in Shut Up And Sing sets a new benchmark as possibly the most scandalous thing I have ever seen at the Comedy Festival. It contains no swearing, no racism, no misogyny and yet it’s conceptually shocking, a bravura idea excellently executed – I won’t give the joke away here, but if I tell you it’s an antipodean take on the Eurovision winning song of 1974 you might be able to work it out.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com

Guest Reviewer: The Cliff Young Shuffle

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
The Cliff Young Shuffle
Hannah Gadsby
28 April 2010
Melbourne Town Hall

Guest Reviewer John Richards (from Boxcutters and The Outland Institute)

Hannah Gadsby is an excellent performer. She’s funny, she’s warm and she generates an easy rapport with her audience. It’s only been a few short years since she won the Raw Comedy final and yet she has a presence and certainty on stage that makes her seem like a seasoned veteran. There’s no doubt she’s a real talent.

So I’m almost embarrassed to say I just couldn’t get into her new show, The Cliff Young Shuffle. While her delivery was impeccable and I laughed at many of the well crafted jokes, I just couldn’t find interest in the subject matter.

The Cliff Young Shuffle is about Gadsby’s attempt to walk across England (not the widest bit, she admits, but not the narrowest bit either. It’s presumably the walk from St Bees to Robin’s Hood Bay although the show is rather light on specifics). It’s the story of how someone with no interest in exercise (“I like sitting”) coped with this sudden exertion, and her decision to go off anti-depressants at the same time.

I love “quest” stories, but generally I tend to favour the huge and inherently meaningless (Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure, Tony Hawks’ Round Ireland With A Fridge) or the small and very personal (Lawrence Leung trying to find his first crush in The Marvellous Misadventures of Puzzle Boy, or Danny Wallace getting the old gang back together in Friends Like These). Gadsby’s story seemed too mundane for the former and not meaningful enough for the latter, and I found myself hoping we would both soon finish this journey. The fact that Gadsby herself kept repeating how pointless the trip was – and the lack of any dramatic impact in its conclusion – probably didn’t help.

I stress, however, that I was well in the minority. The capacity audience– as well as the friends I was with – all greatly enjoyed it, and many of them connected to specific moments in the show. Those with any experience of hiking or depression will get something out of this, even if it’s only the recognition factor. Otherwise, make sure you see Gadsby at a comedy night soon.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Review:Prophecy of the Quantum Child

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Prophecy of the Quantum Child
Vigilantelope
28 March 2010
Trades Hall

This review might be perfect food for Vigilantelope’s Doesn’t Matter Hole: an evil ... umm ... hole that feeds on banality and leaves anyone near it too apathetic to move.
 
I kept missing Vigilantelope’s sold out and raved about first show and really wish that I hadn’t. Not only because I like seeing shows called brilliant but because I’d know if Prophecy of the Quantum Child is suffering from second album syndrome or if I just don’t get this guys.

Vigilantelope are like an awesome box of Christmas crackers, filled with never-want-to-take-off funny hats and a collection of above average jokes that cause genuine guffaws. All terrific stuff, but I’m far more interested in the hearty feast that follows the cracker pulling.

The Vigilantelopes are bloody funny, originally odd and have a following of dedicated fans, but I just didn’t get it.

There were many jokes and some knee-slapping spastic dancing, but it was supported by content either so old that the younger members of the audience missed it (has anyone under 30 read The Da Vinci Code?) or so obvious that the laughs came from familiarity. Yes all accountants are boring farts, corporate giants are evil and Brittany Spears may not be a truly talented artist.

I wanted to care about the Quantum Child’s final choice and cheer when the cyborg became human. Instead, I giggled a bit and forget most of the show before I’d walked out the door. It’s the comedy with heart and guts that we remember.

If you like your Comedy Festival with a pizza, a few beers and some harmless giggles, Prophecy of the Quantum Child may be just what you’re after. I just didn’t get it.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Comedy Fest cynicism be gone

A week into the comedy festival and we start trying to offend our most sacred beliefs and saying cunt far too often. I heard my first Hey Dad joke late on Saturday night and knew that there was no more fluffy bunny cuteness to be found this festival. Then this appeared on Facebook:

Justin just proposed to me on stage using the Donna and Damo overhead projector to ask "will you marry me?!" I said YESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

The Justins Hamilton and Heazelwood may be wondering why they are getting congratulated tomorrow (apart from having their own terrific shows), but it's Justin Kennedy who hijacked his own show's technology to propose to the wonderful Sarah Collins.

This is how good life can be when you create a brilliant show about asexuals.

Can anyone be more gorgeous?*

Here's The Age story.

*apart from a certain new baby who appeared just before the festival began

Review: Idiot Man Child

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Idiot Man Child: Justin Hamiton
Token
27 March 2010
The Victoria Hotel

Last year Justin Hamilton enthralled with his beautiful theatre/stand up show Goodbye Ruby Tuesday. There’s talk that folk think he’s an idiot for going ‘backwards’ and bringing us a stand up show this year. Hammo agrees (to a degree) as Idiot Man Child testifies.

Hammo is one of the ‘oldies’ on the comedy circuit. Yes, we all grow up, but that does that mean we have to grow up?

Keeping a new years resolution to stop hating people, Hammo faced a year of finally being a grown up. A year of letting fuckwits be fucked without reacting with the pure joy of hating them... Luckily, he didn’t count passive aggressive behaviour as reacting,

This isn’t his Peter Pan story. Hammo has no problem with seeing 40 looming, but he doesn’t understand how his once drug-fucked mates partnered up, procreated, joyfully went into life-long debt and became as exciting as bathroom tiles – and they find bathroom tiles exciting.

Hey growing up is brilliant. You finally understand that you knew fuck all when you were young, learn that some beer does taste like piss and can go into JB and buy all four seasons of Battlestar Gallactica without asking for an advance on your pocket money.

Except you can’t go into JB as a grown up because you need that money to find a tile to match the missing one from your bathroom. Between you and me Justin: I’m stealing a tile from the next person who wants me to look at their renovations.

And that’s just the stories about his friends. Hamilton also faced a year working in commercial radio and had to work to get taken off air.

Idiot Man Child is uber-smart stand up for grown ups who also wish they could kick fuckwits in the dick, instead of wasting their satirical wit on them. Hamilton has grown up on the stand up stage and is still there because he’s one of the best. To anyone who doesn’t think so, I’ll make a pun out of your name, use some big words and think about kneeing you where it hurts.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Justin's blog is also brilliant .

Review: PhatCave

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
unofficial...
Phat Cave
7 March 2010
Tuxedo Cat

If you think the Festival Club has become too mainstream or you can't cope with those punters who come in from the burbs to see those guys who are so funny on the footy show, you need Phat Camp at the Phat Cave.

Host Mickey D is taking underground comedy back where it belongs: deep under the city. Entering the Tuxedo Cat (355 Flinders Lane) is reminisecent of being trapped in a WW2 French Resistence bunker, but there is beer instead of Nazis at the end of the tunnel.

Phat Cave is a rare opportunity to see comedy festival folk trying out new shit (be prepared for deaths) or doing the material they know they can't do in a public show. If you're easily offended...go along anyway and see just how horrified you can be.

I'd like to talk about the horrors and comedic atrocities that I saw early this morning, but there is only one Phat Cave rule: What happens at Phat Cave, stays in the Phat Cave.

Like the Flight Club reference, it's a bit blokey, so chick comics, please demand to appear in the Cave or say yes please when Mickey D asks you to check out his Phat.

Phat Cave was late night standing room only at the Adelaide Fringe, so get in early before the word gets out and the Phat Cave becomes an over-crowded  fire risk.

Phat Cave is Saturday and Sunday nights during the Comedy Fest from 11.00 until they finish.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com.

Guest Reviewer: Andrew McClelland's ... Roman Empire

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Accurate History of the Fall of the Roman Empire
27 April 2010
Melbourne Town Hall Lunch Room

Guest Reviewer John Richards (from Boxcutters and The Outland Institute)

Just like clothing and venereal diseases, comedy is also affected by fashion. Something that seems new and exciting this year may well be ubiquitous the next, but even the overlying tone can be noticeably changable. Some years it’s blokes doing bloke humour (even the sheilas), other years are edgy and political, and the popularity of surrealism comes and goes on a regular cycle.

Last year comedy impresario Janet McLeod appeared on The Outland Institute radio show to discuss a trend she called “The New Niceness”. People were getting tired of shocking/offensive/gratuitous humour and were looking for something gentler. This year, for example, sees Sammy J, Tim Key and Josie Long all doing well, and Spicks & Specks continues to be a powerhouse for the ABC, driven by The Axis Of Adorable: Alan Brough, Myf Warhurst and Adam Hills.

This isn’t to say these comedians are lightweight, or sanitised in any way (Tim Key has a superb joke in his show featuring the “c” word, for example, but even that is more a play on the language of manners). It’s just that not every comedian now feels the need to treat the stage like it’s sodden with beer and they’re warming up before the Angels tribute band come on.

Which brings us to Andrew McClelland.

Andrew McClelland is nice. Brilliantly nice. Charmingly, engagingly nice and very funny to boot. His shows (whether by himself or with occasional co-conspirator Lawrence Leung) tend to take a theme and then explore it thoroughly, whether that be pirates, secret societies, or how to make the perfect mix tape. His newest show, Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Accurate History of the Fall of the Roman Empire is – unsurprisingly – about the Roman Empire. But it’s really about the Roman Empire. You will be amused, you will be entertained, but you’ll also be educated. McClelland knows his stuff, even asking the audience at one point to shout out names of Roman Emperors so he can share trivia about them, possibly the least hardcore thing you will see on a stage all year.

It’s a fast paced show, McClelland’s enthusiasm is always infectious, and this year he’s even brought some effects pedals with him. A historical theme plays to McClelland’s strengths as there’s always been something intriguingly out-of-time about him – he’s like an Edwardian gent who constructed a time-travel cabinet and is so excited to be visiting this land of the future. With his love of knowledge, wide-eyed eagerness and slightly camp persona he’s reminiscent of old-school Doctor Who (before it became all about kissing and EastEnders references).

A warning, there is audience participation – this reviewer was dragged out of his seat and instructed to stab Caesar to death with a shoehorn – so perhaps sit further back if you want to avoid that.

If you like your comedy erudite and slightly cuddly, Andrew McClelland is the man for you.

This review appears on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Donna and Damo

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Donna and Damo
Full Tilt
25 March 2010
Blackbox, the Arts Centre

I adore Donna and Damo so much that it’s hard to write anything that doesn’t make me sound like a potential stalker.

Sarah Collins and Justin Kennedy’s utter gem first appeared at the 2009 Melbourne Fringe (I used words like irresistible and exquisite) and it didn’t take long for it to sell out (in the good way). The Arts Centre Full Tilt programmers knew that many more people deserve to see this adorable show, so put it in their Comedy Festival line up in the Black Box.

Neither Donna nor Damo quite fit into their world. Donna thinks she’s found happiness with Trevor, a film blogging critique who declares Zoolander his favourite film, rather than something really deep like The Butterfly Effect; Damo tries to fix people with no obligation spell checks and he isn’t looking for a girlfriend, boyfriend or icky lover to make his world right.

Their story is beautiful, but stories without heart are just words. Even the broadest comedy needs to grab our hearts and make us care. Donna and Damo is jaw-aching funny, but we’re never laughing at these misfit lovers. We see our own imperfections in them and long for them to find love and happiness, as much as we long for the same ourselves.

Director Jason Lehane ensures the balance of poignancy, comedy and gut-felt emotion, so that even the quirks of horrible boyfriend Trevor tweak enough self-recognition to make him as real as our best, or worst, friend.

The new season brings new characters and jokes and the bigger venue allows for a so-needed disco ball and for Damien Scott BPA’s live animation to almost steal the show. Scott’s work is the Avatar of live theatre (except there’s a story and characters who you believe and care about).

Knowing the story doesn’t harm a second viewing, and allows the chance to indulge in the Matt Dillon jokes, remember the grammar tips and covet the Johnny Depp blanky. (Also new is Justin appearing clad only in a red cowboy hat and very special blanket.)

Donna and Damo is the kind of theatre that I love and I dare any other Comedy Festival show to be this good.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

2009 review of  Donna and Damo.
 

  Damian Scott BPA

Guest Reviewer: Lorraine’s Hair and Face

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
Lorraine’s Hair and Face
26 April 2010
Imperial Hotel

by Special Guest Reviewer John Richards (from Boxcutters and The Outland Institute)

Business is slow at Lorraine’s salon but she’s certain things are about to change. She’s found some tins of International Roast by Merri Creek and with the help of her best friend Bev (and unpaid apprentice Jade) she’s going to turn things around. If only she could get the stamp of approval from Pam Panache…

As you may have guessed, this isn’t exactly The West Wing. Continuing Australia’s much-loved tradition of Suburban Gothic (which encompasses everything from Kath & Kim to the original Mrs Edna Everage), Lorraine’s Hair & Face presents a vista of synthetic fabrics, unflattering wigs and aspirational failure. This is a world where International Roast is the height of class, where people consider a pig shoot to be a romantic date and where you’re only ever a moments away from a double entendre (one of the characters is named Major Jizz, for example, and the Talking Poofy favourite “courtesy fingers” gets a guernsey here as well).

The cast are uniformly excellent. Andrea Powell presents Lorraine as a brittle but not entirely unlikable creation, and her Clara Bow lips are truly hypnotic; Scott Brennan manages the seemingly impossible task of playing two unconvincing women and two unconvincing men; and Geraldine Hickey is frighteningly real as the boganish Jade. Special praise must be given to Brennan’s turn as the Major, which sees him overplay every line in a way that makes even the most innocuous comment hilarious (he obviously learnt something from his recent stint on Neighbours).

There is perhaps too much reliance on the old “look-how-badly-we’re-doing-this” meta-humour, and the show certainly won’t give you any insight to the human condition, but it’s always a delight to see something in the comedy festival that strays from the traditional stand-up route. Lorraine’s Hair & Face not only has a narrative and characters (of a sort), but also a set, costumes and even an alarming stuffed cat. There’s even some extremely well-written songs which help stop the show from becoming too predictable (the cast do an excellent job of singing within character, although this occasionally makes the retiring Jade hard to hear).

It’s probably safe to say you’ll already know whether this show is for you – if you love good, uncomplicated comedy and appreciate the innate hilarity of wigs, Lorraine’s Hair & Face is the show for you. A perverted panto for the immature at heart, it’s well worth making an appointment.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.
 
2009 Fringe review of Lorraine's Hair and Face.

Guest Reviewer: The Slutcracker

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL 2010
The Slutcracker
Tim Key
26 April 2010
Melbourne Town Hall Cloak Room

Guest Reviewer John Richards (from Boxcutters and The Outland Institute)

There was a level of trepidation at seeing Tim Key, who is possibly the least-known international performer the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has seen for some years. I was familiar with him only through his 60 second appearances on Charlie Brooker’s television series Screenwipe and Newswipe (only viewable here on YouTube and other legally-questionable sources, but highly recommended) and was uncertain how he could stretch that to an hour.

For Tim Key is a poet. Or possibly, a man playing a poet character named Tim Key. The twist is that rather than performing bad poems in a confident manner (in the manner of, say, Brain Nankervis’ poet character Raymond J. Bartholomeuz), Key’s poems are often well-constructed and the comedy comes from his vague, self-deprecating delivery - he’s like Philip Larkin as played by Hugh Grant (if you can possibly imagine that as a good thing).

Key does like to reveal “twists” in his poetry, playing with the pomposity of the form, but sometimes they’re genuinely great pieces in themselves. Who could not love the following, presented here in its entirety – “Tania googled herself/Still nothing.” There’s a love of words in this show, and beautifully constructed jokes such as Shakespeare being described as “almost Dickensian” and Key describing one of his own pieces as “quite poetic”.

Adding texture to the show is a continuous underbed of music (mostly classical) and the occasional abstract short film. The short films are beautifully produced, skating along the same thin line between pastiche and parody as the rest of the show.

There’s something charmingly personal about the world of Tim Key. Not only is he not like anyone else in comedy, but his poems are dotted with given names – this is not a show where “a man walks into a bar”, but one in which “Pat blew a bubble/Then he climbed into it/And he floated out of the orphanage”.

All up this is an engaging show, although it does run into some problems - a section where Key tries to cross the stage without stepping on the floor is rendered pointless by the fact that 90% of the audience can’t actually see it, and the show could be shorter, although it’s possible that it just needs a stronger end. Sadly The Slutcracker doesn’t “end” so much as “deflate” (curiously, one of the short films earlier in the show is a beautiful visualisation of an earlier poem, and seems so obviously the finale that everything after it feels slightly redundant).

The Slutcracker is not a show that’ll leave you with aching sides, but it’s funny and clever and well worth a look.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com

Review: Memoirs of a Human Cannonball

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL
Memoirs of a Human Cannonball
Full Tilt
25 March 2010
Blackbox, the Arts Centre

In 2006, Matt Wilson nearly lost his penis (and his life) in a circus accident.
 
Memoirs of a Human Cannonball is an amazing story of horror and courage and the general incredibleness of Crash Matt Wilson, but its telling gets lost in the show.

With her blonde beehive and pink polka dot frock, Peekay (wonderful Shirley Billing) welcomes the audience with popcorn, something she once sold at circuses all over the world but an accident forced her to retire to the Coburg Caravan Park. Here she meets the Singing Stuntman, who also knows circus and has a story to tell.

Peekay knows the importance of telling your story “because it might make a good story” and that it’s as “simple” as saying your name and making a story. So please Peekay and Singing Stuntman, listen to your own words and tell this amazing story with the passion, conflict, fear and gob smacking courage that created it.

Memoirs of a Human Cannonball is Wilson’s story. With its mix of fact, fiction, circus history and fun, it is not clear that it is Wilson’s story or that the bloke on the stage isn’t a fictional character. It’s easy to see it in retrospect, but – like paying punters – I came to Memoirs of a Human Cannonball with no more than the guide description and I’m only understanding how awesome it is from googling news stories.

I’m tempted to see it again, now that I know what it’s about, because at the time I was enjoying the performances, but was a bit bored and didn’t start caring until too late in the show.

At first, I thought it was a children’s show, with its catchy songs and nutty Zacchini brothers, until the discussion about unimaginable pain and how much morphine was needed (and the picture). Not that this kind of detail should necessarily be kept from a children’s show, but the shock came from the change in tone, rather than from the story being told.

Memoirs of a Human Cannonball is going to be as amazing as its story. All the elements are there. The puppet theatre backdrop design is perfect, the songs are brilliant, the characters are adorable, the cabaret concept could be no better; but until the story becomes the focus of the night (please work with a writer), too many people are going to leave wondering what they just sat through or not see this story at all.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com.