Perfect com fest fun

By Narelle Wood

For 10pm on a Thursday night the downstairs theatre of The Butterfly Club was fairly busy having gathered to see The Big Hoo-Haa’s Melbourne Comedy Festival show Cliffhanger. I quickly discovered that I was a Big Hoo-Haa novice amongst a sea of regular attendees. The audience was super-enthusiastic and so were the selection of the night’s players.

The premise for the 60-minute show is 5 improvised stories, each stopped at a cliffhanger moment. Each round a story is eliminated until there is only one story left and the audience are treated to the story’s finale. There is one problem though: there are 6 players on stage, so the elimination begins with a rap battle between the two teams, Hearts and Bones, to see which team will begin with the improvisation advantage.

Silliness and laughter prevail as we were treated to stories of murder with The Tuna Fish Killer, the epic battle between cat and helicopter, a romance found and lost on a scooter, a famous five quest to find a sock and a high-seas adventure with scurvy. While each of the stories was highly entertaining, it was the tale of cat versus helicopter that took out the prize of ultimate cliffhanger. And there was a moral to the story too; cats were never supposed to be friends with anything that flies.

With different stories every performance and the possibility of a number of comedic combinations from the Big Hoo-Haa cast the only guarantee is that the show will be funny. The wit and timing of cast members such as Mark Gambino, Candice D’Arcy, Sarah Reuben and Sophie Kneebone were perfectly complimented by the remarkable musical skill of JJ on the keyboard.

The 60 minutes flew by with clever harmless comedy resulting in lots of guffaws and chuckles of delight. But be warned, exposure to this sort of humour may cause repeat attendance.

Venue: The Butterfly Club, Carson Place, Melbourne

Season: 10pm Tues, Thurs, Sat until April 16th

Tickets: Full $29

Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com