MICF: Eric, Sammy J & Randy, and Ben

MICF
the last days

Eric
Vicious Fish & La Mama
comedyfestival.com.au

Difficult First Album Tour
Sammy J and Randy
Laughing Stock
comedyfestival.com.au

Ben McKenzie is Uncool 
Shaloin Punk
comedyfestival.com.au

Was it only 26 days?

Eric's back!

Last seen in 2009, Eric's a one-person sketch show. He's not a character but a blank page everyman – a white, 40-something, straight, suit-wearing, aging-well everyguy – who performs 27 sketches about such men.

Eric is Scott Gooding who's directed by Scott Brennan, and The Return of Eric is written by Emilie Collyer, Dave Hoskin, Karin Muiznieks, Morgan Rose, Neil Triffet and Nic Vellissaris.

From stopping a PM from jumping to adopting a manchild to heading down the Nepean* to escape hipstergeddon, Gooding changes character on a pin head and gives every Eric the chance to show their heart or fall on their arse. And with so many sketches in less than an hour, Brennan doesn't allow for a second of wasted time and ensures that there are moments to reflect before landing the next joke and meeting a new Eric.

As a form, Eric stands alone. Without the personal reflection of stand up or the safe distance of detailed character, The Return of Eric is able to bite all the hands that feed and to snap at the many worlds where middle aged guys think they are in control.

* As someone who had to head down the Nepean (to escape dick landlords rather than the hipsters), I think Brighton is still doing a good job of stopping the approach to Zone 2.

Sammy J and Randy are launching their Difficult First Album album. You can buy it at their show, Difficult First Album Tour.

With favourite songs and moments from past shows, it's a night for fans to celebrate everything we love about the housemates from Ricketts Lane. If you, somehow, have yet to fall in love with the genius of the bald purple fuzzy guy and his tall skinny friend, this is a chance to catch up on their story but a best of show is never as wonderful as a complete story.

Ben McKenzie is Uncool is about passion, never being afraid to love what you love, and the difference between a nerd and a hipster.

It also has one more night in Brunswick Street's Provincial Hotel. The nerds will tell you to bring your friends and will soon be wearing "I'm as uncool as Ben McKenzie" t-shirts; the hipsters will tell you that the show was only really good back in week 2.

Uncool is Ben sharing his stories about being a nerd. He's so nerdy that there's a card game to choose which stories he tells. With unfinished degrees, <joke> HTML </joke> and a love of Stegosauruses, the Harry Potter books and Doctor Who, I glowed with the warmth of knowing I'm uncool, but Ben proves that I don't deserve to call myself a nerd.

Ben's knowledge and obsessive fandom puts me to shame. He makes me want to read more and stop playing Candy Crush, because it really is a crap game that requires no skill.

Without a hint of cynicism, Uncool is about redefining our definitions of cool and about loving what we love with the kind of passion that would make Fonzie want to be a nerd.

This was on aussietheatre.com.au

FRINGE: Stranger

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2013

Stranger

21 September 2013

Fringe Hub, The Rehearsal Room

to 27 September

melbournefringe.com.au

Geraldine Quinn's Stranger is a solo musical that has as much guts, joy, poignancy and talent as a stage full of Tony winners. 

With inspiration from David Bowie, 70s rock musicals, glam rock and those rock anthems that no one writes anymore (where is the 'Bohemium Rhapsody' of the 2000s?), The Stranger is about an alien creature who comes to earth and discovers what it's like to be human. 

The lycra-clad, super-glam silvery stranger says that she is smarter, sexier and better looking than us humans. She is totally correct. And she can sing. Bloody hell, can she sing!

All written by Geraldine, it's a story that runs the gauntlet of unexpected emotion – I knew I'd laugh, but didn't expect to want to cry – and has its audience engrossed. 

Last chance to see it is TONIGHT.

MELBOURNE FRINGE HINTS 6: Musicals

Spring Awakening
MUST, MSA & MAPA

Spring Awakening won a pile of Tony Awards in 2007 and the original cast recording has earned a regular place on my car CD player.

Using a once-banned German play from 1892 and juxtaposing a rock soundtrack from the angry and hurt hearts of its teenage characters, this show made stars of its cast (some of whom are now in Glee) and   is pushing Grease off its perch as favourite musical about teenagers.

This production is director Yvonne Virsik's first musical. Yvonne's direction brings out the subtext and emotional core of writing and she guides inexperienced performers to remarkable performances. As the story of Spring Awakening is in the book and the emotion is in the music, I think she'll bring something unexpected and new to musical direction.

You have to leave the Fringe zone and go to Monash Uni at Clayton to see this, but there's heaps of easy parking and a bus to the door.

Kiss of Death

Kiss of Death hasn't won anything yet, as this is its first run.

Inspired by screwball movies of the 1930s, it's described as a "new screwball rom-com cabaret musical about office romance at a financial services company obsessed by footy tipping".

With Spontaneous Broadway's John Thorn on the writing team, folk like Scott Brennan in the cast and Collette Mann doing the chorey, it's a good bet that it'll be worth getting to.

Fringe Hints 1: Brand New

Fringe Hints 2: Shows for Nerds

Fringe Hints 3: Families are the Best Material

Fringe Hints 4: But I'm Poor

Fringe Hints 5: Cartwheel to the Circus

Fringe Hints 7: Well Made Plays

Fringe Hints 8: Puppets and Letters

Fringe Hints 9: Music and Film

Fringe Hints 10: Church or Laundromat

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.

Lorraine’s Hair and Face

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2009
Lorraine’s Hair and Face
Bella Union
29 September 2009
Trades Hall, Old Council Chambers

How we love laughing at bogans, bad coifs and atrocious coffee, so what better place to set an Aussie musical than an outer-suburb hair salon? Being a bit ‘obsessed by hairs’ myself, I booked in for a cut-price special and cup of International Roast* at Lorraine’s Hair and Face.

Andrea Powell, Scott Brennan and Geraldine Hickey are co-owners and creators of Lorraine’s. Powell’s Lorraine runs the salon with an ironing tong fist and her long-time assistant Jade hasn’t been paid in years. When local beauty guru, Pam Panache, books in for a treatment, the tide seems to be turning and Lorraine may even outshine her rival, Joyce from Price Cuts.

From Major Jizz to a courtesy finger, the word play has the subtlety of a diamante g-string pulled over the fold of a bulging muffin top, but as Lorraine buys her biscuits at Aldi**, any class would just seem out of place.

Powell and Brennan are always funny, but Hickey stands back and steals the show. With immaculate timing and a deep understanding of joke, she makes the audience love her downtrodden Jade, so we’re with her on every laugh. We’re laughing at the other characters, who, as hilariously grotesque as they are, could be approached with a touch more love to create the recognition and empathy that leads to belly laughs.

Being preview night, there was room for a bit of tidying up at the salon, but the improvised interaction between the performers (rather than the characters) added to the fun. The songs are a hoot, but it’s not really a musical, as the singing could easily disappear without distracting from the story. However, I’d love to see the musical side of Lorraine’s develop and leave us singing our way out into Lygon Street, grateful that espresso and biscotti are within reach.

*I didn’t really drink any International Roast, or any instant ‘coffee’ for that matter.
** I don’t like food from Aldi either.

And here's what John Richards wrote about the next season.

More 2009 Fringe reviews.

This review originally appeared on AussieTheatre.com.

Eric

MELBOURNE FRINGE 2008

Eric

Vicious Fish Theatre

10 October 2008

Dancing Dog Cafe

Eric is one of those Fringe shows that was over before people began to hear about it.

With  content as diverse as reality TV pitches (Are you sexier than a fifth grader?), a speed dater who brings his own semen sample, and a Bond villain despairing that his minons dipped his echidnas in poison, Eric is sure to tickle most funny bones – while finding some unexpected new ticklish spots.

Eric is an experiment in form that started when Scott Gooding wanted to do a character comedy, but couldn’t come up with a solid idea for one character. Fortunately, he forged ahead by asking his favourite playwrights to contribute scenes, and the one person sketch show emerged.

Fortunately, he also called upon the directing talent of Scott Brennan. Best known for his work on television sketch shows, Brennan combines the tightness of TV sketch with the freedom, spontaneity and intimacy of theatre. With some clever structuring and measured pacing, he reins in Gooding’s excessive tendencies and knows when to let him loose.

Gooding’s comfortable physicality and genuine likability makes for a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and his performance demonstrates a mightily impressive comic range. All of his characters are unique, authentic and recognisable, and at times it was easy to forget that there was only one person performing. His uncanny channelling of a blow up doll is almost haunting and no one who sees Eric will ever be able to book a brothel appointment without picturing him in a blonde wig.

With ten different playwrights (including Adam J A Cass, Robert Reid and Ben McKenzie), the comedy includes physical, joke, character, commentary, word play and a sobering dash of absurdist black. The Scotts successfully maintain and balance the different voices, without ever letting the differing styles and forms distract from the overall experience.

The Dancing Dog Café in Footscray is a terrific space for a show, but it meant that Eric missed the spontaneous ticket purchases at the Fringe hub or a better known venue. Hopefully Eric will return, because he deserves to be widely seen and welcome some adoring minions of his own.

This review appeared on AussieTheatre.com