MICF: Joel Creasy

The Hurricane
Joel Creasey
5 April 2015
ACMI
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Joel Creseay

Each year I try and see one of the big-venue, they're-on-the-telly shows. I liked Joel Creasey on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here (go ahead, judge me – I loved it) and was curious to see how he’d turn his burst of popular fame and the fiction of reality television into a festival show.

Hurricane is just a name to justify the festival-standard snore about having to name his show before he wrote it. And the room laughed at the joke and at the snarky twink character telling it.

Telly fame lets you play to 300-seat rooms when you're 24; rooms filled with people who wet themselves at the mention of Mad Maureen McCormick. Yes, he talks about being in the jungle and I don’t think there was anyone there who hadn’t seen I’m a Celebrity.

And they went nuts for the a bit about middle-aged ugly male comedians who perform in suburban pubs and make non-PC jokes. Jokes about gay sex (you can get poo on your dick), about gay clubs (Poof Doof, what a funny name) and fatties (no one likes ugly people), with bonus casual misogyny of lesbian jokes (they build the podium the gay boys dance on).

But these are Joel’s jokes.

Sure, comedy is subjective, but – laugh or not – it comes down to "who are we laughing at?" and "what's the common or shared expereince". This audience were laughing at the performer, they weren't laughing with him. The laughs may sound the same, but when you’re sitting among them, they feel horrible and nothing like the supportive of tribal recognition. And the shared experience between him and his audience? Laughing at gays, lesbians, nutters and fatties.

This was also discussed on AussieTheatre.com.

MICF: Justin Hamilton 2015

Snacks
Justin Hamilton
1 April 2015
Melbourne Town Hall, Lunch Room
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au/

Justin Hamilton

I try to never miss Justin Hamilton. Mixing stand-up with scripted storytelling, he’s written and performed some of the most memorable and publish-them-because-they-are-so-well-written Comedy Festival shows I’ve seen.

He’s been performing comedy since the 1990s and, according to justinhamilton.com.au, did 188 gigs last year and, on 9 April, was up to 90 this year. 90! There had only been 99 days of this year on 9 April. He'd have done more if he wasn't dealing with a festival flu that makes me want to make him a mug of Sleepy Time tea with raw honey and share the pile of cold and flu tablets I'm scoffing to make it to the end of the festival. And I take nights off!

On his days off, he records the very popular podcast Can you take this photo please?

If you want to learn about writing comedy, listen to this. As Dan Savage is to sex, Justin Hamilton is to comedy.

After last year’s extraordinary Johnny Loves Mary Forever 1994 (you can listen to three versions of it – with discussion – on the podcast) about going to Afghanistan to entertain the Australian troops, this year’s Snacks is less harrowing and more comforting.

It’s more traditional stand-up as he meets his audience at the door, talks to them from the small stage – in a makeshift room that’s nearer the executive car park than the spectacular Town Hall – and happily goes off on tangents, which still come back to theme and to snacks and chocolate.

Being part of the Snacks audience is like being with a room of friends as the common experiences about over thinking, being happy about growing older, being excited about being nerd, and never saying no to snacks ripple through the room.

This was also discussed on AussieTheatre.com.

MICF: Innes Lloyd

Men of Your Dreams
Innes Lloyd
5 April 2015
The Grand Mecure Hotel, Downstairs Lounge
to 5 April
comedyfestival.com.au

David Innes & Rob Lloyd

Innes Lloyd was the third producer of the Doctor Who in the 1960s. Google told me that as I was looking for the comedy festival page for this these two. No wonder David Innes and Rob Lloyd had to start working together.

But this show isn't about Doctor Who.

Men of Your Dreams is about dreams.

Those dreams we can't control.

These brothers have different sleep problems, which may be connected to when they lost their other brother when he was a young. They discuss sleep theory, list common dreams (I often get the dead people ones – and dead pets), and look at sleep in films like The Matrix and Nightmare on Elm Street, but the highlight is their re-enactment of audience member's night mares. And with subconsciouses giving us dinosaurs, a murdering father and exploding cars, it's cheaper than therapy and lots more fun.

While they were trying to squeeze too much into an hour, I really hope Men of Your Dreams comes back because there are endless dreams that need interpreting and endless people who want to know more about the bliss and horror of sleep.

I saw this on it's last night, but you can still see Rob Lloyd Vs The Monsters.

MICF: The 3 Mikados

The 3 Mikados
11 April 2015
The Famous Spiegletent at Arts Centre Melbourne
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Colin Lane & David Collins, The 3 Mikados

Gilbert and Sullivan: words that evoke love, fear or a confusing mix of both. Late nineteenth century operetta may be fun to perform (I went with two friends who were also in our school production in the 80s – with shameful slanty-eye makeup), but it can be taken far too seriously. But then, how many other late nineteenth century writing teams are still popular today?

The 3 Mikados knows why G&S are still loved and popular. Great parody can only be made if you love and understand your target, and director Russell Fletcher (Spontaneous Broadway and lots more) knows The Mikado inside out.

Colin Lane (Lano and Woodley, Ready Steady Cook), David Collins (The Umbilical Brothers) and Ester Hannaford (King Kong, Hairspray, Four Larks) are the only performers and promise that they can play all the parts. They do.

From improvised banter about how atrocious their performances are to other-genre versions of songs to slipping into performances that re-define how good G&S can be (go for Hannaford singing Katisha's solo), it takes a stale form and makes it fresh, surprising and hilarious.

You'll get more jokes if you know the work (if you love, or ever loved, G&S, missing it isn't an option) but there's enough to make it stand alone – and you will want to see a full production once you've had a taste.

A little list of stars.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

MICF: Beau Heartbreaker

Beau Heartbreaker
Selina Jenkins
10 April 2015
Melbourne Town Hall, Backstage Room
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Selina Jenkins as Beau Heartbreaker

Lots of new crushes this festival and guitar-playing, yarn-spinning Beau Heartbreaker is the newest.

I'd never say that a country farmer boy is my type, but Beau is just so gosh darn lovely that it's impossible not to adore him.

Under the impressive beard (he's confused that he can now walk down Brunswick Street and not feel out of place with his beard and a flannie shirt) is Selina Jenkins. Whereby drag can be used to humiliate the opposite sex, she uses the gender inversion with absolute love and lets Beau tell a greater truth that relates to everyone. And it lets him add an impressive and unexpected soprano to his songs.

Beau tells us about life on a dairy farm and his trip riding horses through Mongolia. It's on this trip that he realises that he has to tell his parents, who love him dearly, something so important, and unchangeable, about himself that he's scared that they might not love him any more.

Beau Heartbreaker's humour is gentle and subtle with a twist that grabs your heart as much as it makes you snort with laughter.

As many stars as seen from the middle of his dairy farm on a clear night.

MICF: The Narelles

The Narelles
Token Events, Triple R
3 April 2015
Trades Hall, New Ballroom
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Alan Brough & Casey Benetto

Alan Brough wasn't living in Australia in 1988, but he still formed a Melbourne garage band with Casey Benetto. The Narelles celebrate their 27th fictional year at Trades Hall in The Narelles.

If you went to any gig in the late 80s and the 90s, then the reunion gigs from the early 2000s, you've been to a Narelles gig.

Both on lead vocals, bass and guitar (with a stage shy drummer), they reminisce about the gigs, the albums and the times that their audience remember vividly, even if we weren't there.

It opens with a bass riff that made me think I was 17 (make that 18) at the Tivoli in Adelaide (where the carpet was always sticky and the glasses of moselle always over full) to a Nick Cave tribute song that was more paranoid than being at the Big Day Out with too many cookies (where Nick sang "The Weeping Song" and Iggy Pop got his cock out), The Narelles capture the tone and heart of live indie/alternative/not-shit-pop music between 1987 and now.

And they do it far better than any JJJ Top 100 count down.

All the stars in their eyes that never faded.

MICF: Jonestown

Guinea Pigs
Jonestown
1 April 2015
Portland Hotel
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Jonestown: Sarah Jones & Nicholas J Johnson

Sarah Jones and Nicholas J Johnson are Jonestown (it's funny every time). In Guinea Pigs, they are trapped in a lo-tech, hi-laugh sci-fi experiment that tests their friendship and takes the double act not quite to the final frontier but surely where no one has been before.

Their debut show, Pajama Party, was nominated for the 2014 Golden Gibbo (best MICF indie production) and they were helped with a Moosehead Award (a grant for "mental and overly ambitious" comedy) to make this show.

Captured by a mystery nutter/genius, Sarah and Nick have known each since from high school and, with the help of the audience, re-visit their school and university days to figure out how they found themselves in an unescapable box in an unescapable box of a theatre in the Portland Hotel.

The straight–stooge (Nick–Sarah) double act is comedy where every laugh relies on the other person to make it work. Adding story, mystery and shadow puppetry (yes!) to sketch and stand-up, the chemistry between these two is as cool as a bicarb and vinegar volcano, and as illogically exciting as opening a bottle of fizz that might have been rolling around the floor of a car.

Because I said it on Twitter, so it must be true: A heap of stars.

MICF: Trygve Wakenshaw

Nautilus
Trygve Wakenshaw
29 March 2015
The Tuxedo Cat
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Trygve Wakenshaw

Trygve Wakenshaw is another performer whom I've heard nothing but great about, and I wasn't going to miss him this year.

He's from New Zealand and now lives in London. He was nominated for a Barry and a Golden Gibbo Award at last year's Comedy Festival and has brought us a new show called Nautilus.

It's still a work in progress (maybe), so changes to suit each audience. When I went, it was a bit too long and needed a tighten, but this didn't make it any less impossible to stop watching. It made me really want to see his other shows and anything else he does.

Wakenshaw's a physical comedian. Ok, he's a mime. And if the M word leaves you with show-trauma memories that you don't want to re-live, he'll banish them and leave you wanting an I HEART MIME sticker.

Dressed in pink, ribbed, high-waist leggings and a green jumper with added white tassells, he opens the show sinking into a black plastic bin; the line between genius and WTAF is slim.

There isn't a narrative, but there are stories about fish and sea critters, one about the massive logic gap in Rapunzel, and some that leave the audiences looking away from the grossness that isn't there. And it's all tied together with a character who becomes more intriguingly irresistible with each voiceless moment.

A long row of star fish: the nice ones, not the ones eating the Great Barrier Reef.

PS:  Trig-vee (thank you his website)

There's a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: Dr Professor Neal Portenza

Catchy Show Title
Dr. Professor Neal Portenza
3 April 2015
Melbourne Town Hall, Backstage Room
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Dr Professor Neal Portenza

I love Dr Professor Neal Portenza.

Not in a stalky way or anything like that.

But then who can resist a man whose badly-applied blush is the same 1950s-lipstick-red as his beret?

And I love Maria and Vanessa – and even Stavros.

Joshua Ladgrove does character comedy. He does a way-cool Jesus, but it's Dr Professor Neal Portenza who deserves his own chocolate festival.

It's hard to describe a Dr Professor Neal show, and description could scare people away.

It is likely you will be scared in a Dr Professor Neal show, or at least feel a bit nervy – so get a free hug at the beginning. But remember how brilliant it feels when you've confronted your fears, like your fears about performers leaving the stage. And ask the FOH staff for your fashion bracelet because, even though it's beautiful, you will want it to throw it away at some stage.

While the old school stand-ups are dribbling out the same jokes we've heard for ever, Dr Professor Neal and co are part of a generation of performers who are embracing everything about clowning and turning it into something that's contemporary and exciting and completely their own.

One star: one fucking exploding supernova star.

There's a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: WOMANz

WOMANz

Tessa Waters

28 March 2015

Melbourne Town Hall, Lunch Room

to 19 April

comedyfestival.com.au

WOMANz

The MICF bar was high and tingly when WOMANz grabbed my tits and gave me a snog. That's one way to get a good review, but being amazingly awesome helps as well.

Tessa Waters is WOMANz. After wow-ing the Edinburgh Fringe, she won Most Outstanding Comedy at the 2014 Melbourne Fringe and has been exciting people at festivals all over the country in 2015.

In a bedazzzled body suit and black tights that understand that big hair means having big hair everywhere (she talks about it; many of us bonded), she's part Oestrogen Goddess but more a woman who knows herself and knows that her self was meant to dance.

She dances when she feels happy, confused, sexy or just over it. If you want to understand what "dance like no one is watching" really means, see WOMANz. And if you're not crumping by the end, it's because you cracked a rib laughing.

Waters's combination of character, clown and physical theatre says more about gender and self-acceptance than the feminist section in Readings. Blending madcap with sophistication, it's comedy that makes feeling positive about yourself the only way to feel.

As many stars as sequins on her ART pants.

There's a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: Fake It 'Til You Make It

Fake it 'Til You Make It
Bryony Kimmings and Tim Grayburn & Theatre Works
19 March 2015
Theatre Works
5 April
theatreworks.org.au

Tim Grayburn & Bryony Kimmings

While, I'm writing about Hannah Gadsby's mis-diagnosis of depression, it's impossible not to talk about Tim Grayburn's diagnosis of clinical depression and the astonishing Fake It 'Til You Make It that finishes at Theatre Works on Sunday.

It's been difficult to get a seat for this one because the consistent raves about its Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth seasons have been consistent raves.

So I'm not writing a review of the production. Please read all the others, starting with Jane Howard's in The Guardian.

Melbourne's indie arts scene fell in love with Kimmings last year when she brought us Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model (my favourite show of 2014) and Sex Idiot (my favourite audience participation of any show).

In her performance art, she shares her life and experiences to make connections with people who have had similar experiences. You don't see one of her shows and leave thinking about Bryony, you leave thinking about yourself. This is what makes her work so powerful.

She made Fake It 'Til You Make It with her partner Tim Grayburn. He's wasn't a performance artist or any type of performer but quit his job in marketing to make this show with Bryony, which premiered at the Perth Fringe earlier this year.

It's about their falling in soppy get-a-room love, her finding out about his illness, what they did next, and how they continue to deal with being in love and everything that goes with it.

I didn't write about the show because I didn't know where to start. I knew/know too many people with diagnosed and undiagnosed depression who suicided or have thought of suiciding.

I also know people who found the help they needed and have helped others.

I've also seen a lot of work about depression. Why this one should be compulsory is because it makes the connection between this illness – this common and treatable illness – and how it makes the person think about death.

Like a symptom of the common cold is a cough, a symptom of clinical depression is thoughts of death. It's what this illness does to brains and, like a cough, it can be treated.

I have a friend who when he was really sick, made sure that his partner had the keys to the box where his medication was locked away. This person loved their life and knew that their illness made them think about death. He found a way to create time when those thoughts came; time that made acting on those thoughts very difficult and enough time to deal with the symptoms.

If Fake It 'Til You Make It can make even one person make the connection between depression and thoughts of death, between illness and symptom, maybe they will also get the time they need.

It finishes on Sunday and there are still tickets available, especially for Saturday.

MICF: Avenue Q

Avenue Q

Trifle Theatre Company

28 March 2015

Chapel off Chapel

to 11 April

comedyfestival.com.au

Trifle Theatre Company

Avenue Q is Trifle Theatre Company's first show. It's already sold out, so it sucks to be you if you didn't book a ticket.

There's not much left to say when there are no seats left, except to hold on tight to your tickets, know that you made the right choice and be excited for independent music theatre in Melbourne.

Avenue Q won the Tony for Best Musical in 2004. By Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty, it's set on a Sesame Street–like street in New York, but the muppet-like rod and hand puppets have their performers visible, and songs like "The Internet is for Porn", "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "I'm not Wearing Underwear Today" ensure that it's not for pre-schoolers.

A lot of the jokes are caught back in the early noughties when the internet at home was new and Gary Coleman (What-you-talking-about-Willis?) was still alive (he's a character in the show) but missing the odd reference doesn't make it any less wonderfully funny or delightfully filthy.

The secret to Avenue Q is tone. It has to be as intimate, innocent and loving as Sesame Street and as filthy as the porn that Trekkie Monster loves so much. Director Stephen Wheat and the cast nail it.

The closeness of being in the small Chapel off Chapel theatre leaves little to the imagination, so puppets and performers (including Jordan Pollard, Zuleika Khan, Leah Lim, Michael Lindner, Kathleen Amarant, Brett Fisher, Imogen Moore and Jeff van de Zandt) can add the subtle or obvious that makes the sexy more sexy and the slutty more wonderful – as they let us know that there is no where else they would rather be than on that stage and ensure that it's impossible not to fall in love with everyone: furry, fluffy or smooth.

Produced by Sarah Golding (who also plays Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut) and Andy McDougall (who made the brilliant puppets and plays Nicky and Trekkie Monster), this new company, while running as a co-op, are hoping to develop an indie theatre that can pay equity wages. With such a successful first production, they may well be a company that sticks around and shows some of the commercial shows what great music theatre should be.

Let's hope for a return season because they deserve it and everyone who missed out deserves to see it.

This was on AussieTheatre.com.

MICF: Hannah Gadsby, Donkey

Donkey
Hannah Gadsby
a Token Event
29 March 2015
Melbourne Town Hall, Supper Room
to 19 April
comedyfestival.com.au

Hannah Gadsby

A few days after seeing Hannah Gadsby's Donkey, I'm still thinking about it. The dishes that I didn't do before going out to see her are still there, and I'm still in awe of how she finds the spot where wanting to cry becomes needing to laugh so deeply that it makes you feels better about something you hate about yourself.

When I first saw Hannah, she was doing palindrome jokes about her brother Kayak and showing us where she lived on her map of Tasmania – I loved her. Over time, her work has become more personal and she's told stories that have reached the hearts of everyone who sees her.

She says at the beginning of Donkey that's she's always amazed to see a room full of people wanting to see her. People want to see her because she lets us share her experiences and discover that no matter how different we are, that we have far more in common then we ever thought.

For me, it was the dishes. Today, I'm writing rather than doing them. I WILL do them at the end of this review. I have a plan. I have done them in the last 19 days (Hannah's record) but I know I've gone longer. And it was the last-minute panic-cum-do-something-fundamentally-useless-and-time-consuming before catching a plane. Hannah once decided to pair her socks up rather than pack. I recently spent a couple hours trying to fix my printer when I didn't need to print anything because all the details were on my phone. The printer's still not fixed and I paid for extra baggage rather than pack properly.

The donkey in her show is Hannah. It starts when she hates the barista at her nearest coffee shop. She keeps going because it's the nearest. He's the type of person who, she knows, thinks he's better than she is. He's a dressage horse, she's a donkey. It's about feeling so out-of-step with the rest of the world that it's easier to stay inside with mounting dishes. And it's about her finding out that her diagnosis of depression was wrong.

So was mine. The symptoms of depression are broad but specific. If you have the broad symptoms, please have a professional check the specific.

It's also a show about winning and getting things right and knowing that of course a unicorn will love a donkey, because donkies are gorgeous and loving and so much more fun than a smarmy horse.

All of this is rolled up into a tightly written, beautifully structured piece that lets stage Hannah bring enough of real Hannah with her and leave them both safe and loved.

Hannah Gadsby is simply one of the best stand-up comedians around.

Now I'm going to go and do some dishes.

There's also a version of this on aussietheatre.com.au.

MICF: Bucket's List THIS HAPPENED

Bucket's List
to 5 April
comedyfestival.com.au

In 2010 Justin Kennedy and Sarah Collins got engaged on stage during run of their MICF show Donna and Damo.

They went on to make Bucket's List that premiered at the last year's Melbourne Fringe.

I loved it and saw it twice.

It's since been to New Zealand and is enjoying a return season at the Northcote Town Hall for MICF until Sunday.

But there's someone who hasn't seen it.

Sarah Collins was inspired to write Bucket's List when she met this guy when she was the photographer at a wedding (Love Katie + Sarah). Although new to the work, he wasn't the usual 20ish wedding DJ and his day job was a bucket salesman. He said that being a DJ was his dream job and when his wife saw an add for wedding DJs on Seek, she said that he should apply. He did.

All Sarah had was this photo that she took at the wedding and she's been trying to find him.

This happened on Tuesday night.

(Sorry you have to click to Facebook, but Facebook isn't playing nice with embed code and Sarah's internet isn't letting it upload to YouTube and technology is failing us.)


PS: in the background is the other wonder that Sarah and Justin's made last year and she's clearly trying to steal the attention.

Ten tips to get a Comedy Festival review

Or, How to make an arts writer read your email and say "Yes!"

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival starts on 25 March.

For arts writers, this means that we get more emails and messages than usual. Some won’t be read.

This festival, there are 559 shows wanting reviews. That’s 558 shows that your approach has to be better than.

Most review publications use the official festival media request form because it’s easier than making individual requests. (It’s by no means easy for the festival publicists, whom you should always be lovely to because they are awesome and put up with arts writers when we're difficult, tired or ditzy.)

BUT that doesn’t mean that your email – whether you're using a professional publicist or doing your own publicity – won't get a result.

1. Make it personal

“Dear reviewer” or “Hey guys” says, “I have no idea who you are and don’t read anything you write”. If you don’t know the name of the person you’re contacting, are you sure you want them to come?

Sending cut-and-paste individual emails isn’t much better. I’ve received emails asking me to review for publications I don’t write for and ones where my name has changed during the email.

And if you don’t know the person you’re writing to, introduce yourself.

2. Know what you want

Do you want your email to result in an interview, a listing, a review, an opinion piece, a news story, a ticket giveaway, an audition notice …

Tell the writer what you want.
And don’t ask for something that they don't do.

I’ve had complaints that I wasn't at shows I was “invited” to. Sending a media release with no other information is NOT an invitation.

3. Write a good subject line

Don’t write a witty or an obscure subject line, write a good one. A good subject line makes it easy to know what you want (and easy to search for when we need to check something).

For example:

Invitation: Name of show
Review/interview/listing request: Name of show
Reminder: Name of show (I appreciate reminder emails.)
Follow up: Name of show
Images: Name of show (the next ten tips will be all about images)

Media release: Name of show? – see point 2

4. Put the information in the body of the email

A beautifully designed pdf is cool, but make sure that the vital info is also in the body of the email. Opening an attachment takes time, is annoying to do on a phone and is one more excuse to move onto the next message.

Plain text also makes it easier to cut and paste so that names are spelt right.

5. Check spelling and grammar

This festival, I want to read ONE – really, just one – email or media release that has been proofread.

Writers do judge you by your ability to use an apostrophe.

6. Do your research

Read the writer and the publication. What do they like seeing and writing about? Do they interview? Do they review? Who else do they write for?

And check if the writer had reviewed the show/artist before. I’ve had invitations to review shows I’ve already seen – and not liked. Google really is your best friend.

7. Who, what, when, where

If the name, time, date and place of the show aren’t on your message, media release, invitation, web page, flyer and everything else about your show, don’t be upset if people don’t turn up.

8. Find the magic time

There’s a time that’s not too early or too late to make contact. It differs for everyone. For me, it’s four to five weeks from opening. Too late and I'm booked up, too early and I'm not ready to commit.

Some writers, especially those with mainstream publications, need longer, but a last-minute request can work, especially during a festival.

The secret to finding the magic time: ask the writer.

9. Follow up

A follow-up email is a great idea.
A second follow-up can work.
A third is a waste of time.

10. Be nice

558 other festival shows want reviews. As do the all the other shows on during March and April. Arts writers love seeing your shows (it’s why we do this, after all) and try to see as many as possible.

But this means that not everything will get a review.

This can be a kindness, or it can be because their brains imploded, the extra day in the week doesn't exist (it takes time to write reviews), they're sick or there wasn’t room to publish.

Never assume the worst, don’t get shitty and be happy with a tweet. And remember that a lot of word-of-mouth really is word-of-mouth.