Our favourite local comedy icon never fails to please

By Jessica Cornish

Southsider-dwelling St Kilda man Dave ‘Hughesy’ Hughes seems inescapable in Melbourne. Whether you’re flicking through drive-time radio, talent competitions or sport shows you can stumble across Hughesy’s particular brand of charm, and luckily for us he can also be found right now in the 2016 Melbourne International Comedy Festival with his latest show Sweet.

His highly enjoyable stand-up show presents friendly and witty verbal clippings from his life, from exploring the never-ending body shaming and comic critiquing from his young children, to his intimate and ever-evolving relationship with his beautiful wife of 14 years. He touches on failed Footy Show antics, reflects on his time as an Australia’s Got Talent host with a contestant who had ambitious dreams of feline fame (however the cat sadly had different life goals…), and tells a myriad of tales of  everyday encounters with local folk found meandering across the city.

Sweet is currently showing at the Athenaeum, that beautiful historic Melbournian theatre, although its foyer is not exactly made for the quick hustle and bustle of MICF. So if possible, make sure you collect your tickets earlier in the evening or print them out to avoid battling your way over to the box office. And always remember this is Melbourne, therefore footy traffic will always bring the city roads to a stand-still- so leave plenty of time to get into the city.

The Collins Street theatre was otherwise a perfect venue for Hughesy and his well-entertained audience: my only niggle was the lighting had been poorly focused and as he made his way across the stage back and forth his face would often fall into pockets of darkness and shadows.

As always, the irrepressible Hughesy is down-to-earth, immensely relatable and just really funny (and all without getting too un-PC or trying to be too ‘deep and meaningful’!) Sweet will be playing at the MICF Tues- Sat: 8:15pm, Sun7:15pm until April 17 at the Athenaeum Theatre. Book early to avoid disappointment: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/sweet-dave-hughes