Category: Comedy

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Tanyalee Davis in ACTUAL SIZE

Frankly fun and funny

By Margaret Wieringa

The stereo is pumping Justin Timberlake, and Tanyalee Davis is already on the stage as the audience wander in to the Upstairs Lounge at Little Sista in Little Collins St. She sits, bopping away to the tunes and greeting people as they come in, encouraging people to sit right down the front – something many comedy audiences avoid like the plague. Instead, Davis quickly engages the audience, and from the moment we arrive, we feel welcome.

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Davis is an observational comedienne, and hence much of her show is about her everyday life, but she comes to it from a different perspective. See, Tanyalee Davis is a short-statured woman, so as the punning title of her show Actual Size suggests, much of her material deals with life as a little person (the politically correct term in America, we informed, while Britain uses person of restricted growth – though I also prefer Australia’s person of small stature).

So in her job as a performer Davis has had the opportunity to travel the world, and tells of adventures like swimming with manatees and dolphins  – and how hilarious situations ensue from doing so with her stature (ever wondered if large bottoms cause people to sink or float? Davis will give you the hysterical story to prove the theory!)

Unfortunately, I don’t think 6:30 is the best slot for her, only because she likes to work a little blue, and I think that there were members in the audience who either didn’t get her winks and nudges, or possibly just didn’t like them. I would have loved to see her play a later spot and really let herself go. 

Actual Size is on for the next week, playing through to the end of the Comedy Festival. Grab a beer at the bar downstairs and then head up for a real fun show.

Where:  The Upstairs Lounge @ Little Sista, 240 Little Collins St

When: Tues – Sun 6:30 March 24 – April 17

Tickets: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/actual-size-tanyalee-davis

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Charlie Pickering’s HOW TO TAME A WILD SQUIRREL

Clever and charismatic fun

By Jessica Cornish

Charlie Pickering’s How To Tame A Wild Squirrel is showing for just one more Thursday evening at the Comedy Theatre as part of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

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In his first stand-up show for several years, Charlie easily and amusingly interacted with his audience, and did especially well dealing with the influx of latecomers. He cleverly weaved their stories into one another, managing to keep his audience entertained rather than annoyed at the general lack of punctuality.

Admittedly, his show wasn’t exactly what I expected, knowing him principally as I do for his television work. I wasn’t quite prepared for the moderate use of expletives that would just appear in and out of dialogue, for example. I know comedians generally love to throw in an f-bomb, but in my mind, news reporter Charlie Pickering would be a bit different!

The show included an appealing  mixture of personal narratives and broader observations, specifically around the themes of racism and the fickle beast that is the internet. He comically explored how it has changed all our lives drastically- sometimes for the better and at times for the worse. He also threw in some vivid and impressive voice impersonations, switching effortlessly through a myriad of news character personas which were thoroughly enjoyed by the crowd. Whilst there was a loose theme running through the show, he would sometimes lose focus and saddle up onto another topic before the other had been resolved, which felt occasionally disconcerting.

Under his sway, the theatre had a warm intimate feel to it and Charlie seemed very comfortable in the performance space, moving extensively across the stage. He definitely would have benefited from using a hands-free mic however, as a couple of times he came close to stumbling on the long cord wrapped around his foot, and turning his sharp witty comedy into slapstick!

His show wrap-up was a highlight, with hilarious stories bordering on the absurd. In fact the whole row in which I was sitting broke out in uproarious laughter, and it seemed a shame to be so suddenly ending as the hour came by. How To Tame A Wild Squirrel is well worth a peek at Pickering in person, to get a different perspective of the well-known TV entertainer back to his roots as a stand-up solo comic.

DATE: Thursday 14 April
VENUE: The Comedy Theatre
ADDRESS: 240 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
TIME: 7PM

TICKETS: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/how-to-tame-a-wild-squirrel-charlie-pickering

 

Cabaret, Comedy, Festivals

MICF 2016: Reuben Kaye in PLUGGED

Brilliantly lavish and chaotic cabaret comedy

By Bradley Storer

From the moment he raced into the showroom of The Butterfly Club, Reuben Kaye – Australian-born international cabaret star – was ablaze with demonic energy, clothed in a dazzling sequin dinner jacket and working the crowd from the get-go. After drawing the crowd in with several self-deprecating jabs, Kaye invited us to become ‘plugged’, as per the title of the show, into his world view – and what a wonderful (madcap) world it is.

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Kaye is a whirlwind of magnetic charisma, unsubtle self-loathing and show-biz pizzazz with a devilish undertone, all bundled together with a gigantic stage presence and an equally gargantuan voice. Guiding us through an abbreviated version of his origins with songs ranging from Kate Bush and Celine Dion to Charles Aznavour, his stories of a German ballerina mother and her frank advice growing up drew boisterous laughter. His tale of burgeoning sexual awakening at a Balwyn high school is so beautifully written and masterfully delivered that the audience was completely spell bound.

This is cabaret in what is arguably its purest form – controlled anarchy. Kaye expertly handles the crowd and everything that happens within the performance space so well, folding audience members’ dropped drinks and ringing phones into gut-splittingly funny running jokes, that it almost threatens to derail the main thrust of the show. In all honesty though, it is rare and quite electrifying to watch such a professional command a crowd so thoroughly!

My only criticism would be that the focus on the moment-to-moment interaction and play with the audience sometimes is detrimental to the structure of the show, with links between sections becoming blurred and a finale that arrives surprisingly abruptly after what feels like only a short time, but Kaye’s charisma seems more than adequate recompense for these small complaints.

This is an evening of cabaret at its most elemental and anarchic, commanded by a star blazing so bright you will kick and scream for more! Utterly unforgettable and not to be missed!

Venue: The Butterfly Club, 1 Carson Place, Melbourne.

Time: 10pm

Dates: 5th – 17th April

Price: Full $38 Concession $34 Members $31 Group 6+ $30 Tightarse Tuesday $28

Bookings: www.thebutterflyclub.com, (03) 9663 8107, at the door.

Comedy, Festivals, Review

MICF 2016: Martin Dunlop in MURDER, HE SPOKE

This one-man murder mystery pleased its fans

By Margaret Wieringa

Welcome to the estate of Howling Grange, where there has been a murder – Lady Hamblin has met an untimely death, and some non-policeman investigator has decided to get to the bottom of it.

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Martin Dunlop wrote and performed this exhaustive forty-five minute one-man show and he is certainly a man of the pen. His dialogue is often clever and witty, but unfortunately some of his lines were lost in the performance space. This is my first time in the Pleasance House, a beautiful building, and this indeed is a beautiful room with gorgeous floorboards – that unfortunately makes for terrible acoustics.

Murder mystery as a show concept is professedly not original, and Martin plays on this with a script heavily referencing pop-culture detectives from his despised Sherlock Holmes to the relatively obscure Pie in the Sky. However those tales of mystery generally made sense, whereas I confess I became totally lost in this one.

Somehow, if this is possible, I fear the script seemed to be both underwritten and overwritten. In paying homage to this iconic genre, there needed to be a clearer direction through the performance so that – even keeping the absurd nature of the piece – there is some plot satisfaction for the audience. But I also felt the dialogue needed to be trimmed right back – there was a lot of repetition that could have been worked around to have things revealed more cleverly. Unfortunately the transitions between characters and the transitions between scenes also felt really clunky and took away from the flow of the performance. Perhaps having a professional director step in during the process to help draw the performance pieces together, or even working with a second performer would have allowed the cleverness and potential of the script to really shine.

Having said all of that, the night I attended the room was full and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the performance, laughing long and loud. So even if Murder, He Spoke didn’t quite work for me, this show might prove to delight the armchair detective in you this 2016 Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Where: Pleasance House, Level 4, 178 Collin St

When: 5-17 April, 9:15. No shows Monday nights

Tickets: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/murder-he-spoke-martin-dunlop

Comedy, Festivals, Review

MICF 2016: Dan Pavatich in #1NINJA

Self-help guru for would-be warriors

By Margaret Wieringa

#1 Ninja is a motivational seminar to help you “unleash the Ninja within”  – well, if that doesn’t suggest that you’re going to see a show that probably contains a fair whack of absurdity, I don’t know what will! Dan Pavatich, along with Ivy Latimer and Andy Balloch, take the audience through a variety of sketches joined by the running theme of this seminar.

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The concept was quirky and original, but unfortunately the show seemed quite underwritten. I’m a great fan of repeating gags in shows as a kind of call-back, or to make a different point, however in this show there didn’t seem to be any real point to them.  It was a bit of fun certainly, but took away the opportunity to develop the material. However, I have to say I also had a problem with the material. I do not think there was any intent behind it, but there were parts of this show that I found bordering on offensive. The material wasn’t strong enough to actually be offensive, but in 2016, I don’t think you can parody women and ‘gays’. Not unless you are actually making some clever points.

The performers onstage were all quite talented, although all three seemed to have trouble staying focused. Being at a venue called Improv Conspiracy, I wondered if maybe the show was improvised in places, but if it was going to be, maybe let the audience know so they can appreciate it?

There’s a lot of potential here – good performers, unusual concept, some absolutely gold comic lines – I felt it just needed a strong director to come in, pull it all together, ditch the ‘dodgy’ stuff, and give the whole thing a tighten-up.

Also, a hint for attending shows at The Improv Conspiracy – there are no Comedy Festival banners or anything else telling you where to go. Look for a door at the bottom of the Loop Project Space building. There was a doorman, but no indication it had anything to do with comedy. Melbourne Comedy Festival – more info in the program would be helpful. Venue folks – perhaps make a sign or something!

 Where: The Improv Conspiracy Office Space, Level 1, 19 Meyers Place, Melbourne

When: Thursday – Saturday, 8pm, Sunday 7pm March 24 – April17

Tickets: improvconspiracy.com $20/$16

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Daisy Berry in AM I MENTAL?

Engaging and impressive debut

By Christine Young

Daisy Berry would be a great name for a free-spirited hippie. The actual Daisy Berry is anything but. She’s a feisty, cheeky, f-bombing 20-something with a warped sense of humour who offers up her life and issues for scrutiny. But is she mental? That’s the fifteen or twenty dollar question and the audience is invited to decide. So channel your inner Simon Cowell and be as judgy as you like because Daisy probably won’t care anyway.

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Am I Mental? is Daisy’s first solo show, and if she had any opening-night jitters, they weren’t visible. From the get-go, she casually chats to the audience like an old pro(fessional) in a way that makes you feel like you’ve known her for ages.

This reviewer has seen many emerging comedians in small venues, some now famous, who don’t ‘work the room’ and miss an opportunity to really connect with an audience.
Daisy takes us on a tour of her short (in years and height) life where she displays a gift for storytelling and a sardonic wit. There were plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for most of the audience but not for this reviewer. Don’t get me wrong. Daisy is very engaging and I held onto her every word and smiled many times. However, I feel the material needs some development in terms of the punchlines offering an element of surprise. She did this particularly well though when revealing the nature of her mother’s ‘addiction’.

Moreover, some of the more personal tales need to be teased out a bit more so the audience sees beyond Daisy’s tough exterior and gains a sense of her vulnerability. I’m not suggesting she spills her guts until she cries and gently rocks in the corner. However, tragedy and comedy can make great bedfellows and reflecting on personal tragedies can be both poignant and funny. Both Judith Lucy and Denise Scott (who obviously have truckloads of years on Daisy!) do this very well. Daisy has the potential to become just as adept as her comic foremothers. Catch her while she’s cheap and cheerful!

Where: Highlander Bar, 11a Highlander Lane, Melbourne

When: Tues-Sat 8/:30pm

Tickets: $15-20  www.comedyfestival.com.au or Ticketmaster 1300 660 013

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Rose Callaghan’s ROSE BEFORE HOES

Immensely likable and definitely laughable comedy

By Caitlin McGrane

After sell-out shows at the Perth Fringe Festival, Rose Callaghan brings her frenetically energetic show Rose Before Hoes to her home city of Melbourne. Previously called Attention Deficit… Ooh a Pony!, the show is about Callaghan being diagnosed with ADHD last year, and her dating experiences as a single women in her 30s.

Rose Before Hoes

Callaghan is wonderfully likeable and her visible nervousness only made her more so. I found the show refreshingly discursive, which was aided by the impossibly small venue meaning Callaghan could authentically react and interact with the audience. A couple of lines landed poorly and Callaghan skilfully admitted they were ‘bad jokes’ and moved on. I just really hope Callaghan’s mum and her friends come every night so other audiences get to see her interacting with them, because it was a true highlight.

The only moments when Callaghan looked uncomfortable or unsure were when she was talking about her ADHD diagnosis. As with Hannah Gadsby last year, it was fist-punching-the-air brilliant to hear a woman talking about disability and mental illness with a poignant sense of humour. However, Callaghan’s material didn’t seem to be as sharp as her dating material, of which I could have easily watched another hour. It seemed as though Callaghan was reluctant to rely too heavily on stereotypes and stock jokes about ADHD, which was certainly appreciated, but the jokes just weren’t as tight or witty as they could perhaps have been.

As a single young woman, I am no stranger to the horrors of online dating, so the second half of the show really resonated. Callaghan seemed more comfortable in this territory, and she really started to shine when she spoke about the wildly inappropriate yet also downright lazy efforts men go to to lure you into bed. Any woman who’s been on Tinder for more than ten minutes is liable to get whiplash from nodding her head so much.

Comedy is a real boys’ club, and seeing Callaghan on stage demonstrated that the tide is turning towards real, honest female comedy that isn’t either aiming to please everyone or willing to be silent about issues that really affect women, which can only be a good thing.

Rose Before Hoes is showing at 6pm at the Forum Theatre’s Carpet Room until 17 April 2016. Tickets here: http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/rose-before-hoes-rose-callaghan

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Zoe Coombs Marr in TRIGGER WARNING

Strangely appealing and spectacularly funny

By Margaret Wieringa

Meet Dave. Dave is a veteran comedian, blokey as can be, who is dealing with the fallout on social media from his first comedy festival show. The Feminazis and haters have torn him down, and so he has given up stand-up for the world of mime after some serious clown training at the highly respected French  clown school, Gaulier.

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From the moment Zoe Coombs Marr comes onstage as Dave, with his gross neckbeard and monobrow, she connects with the audience. And straight away, the audience is on board with the misogynist with a sensitive side. We want to hear more of his horrible jokes, we hope that he will figure out where he is taking his mime, and we quite like meeting his inner clown. Even if he thinks she is not at all funny.

The Comedy Festival runs over so many different spaces across Melbourne, some which are huge and spacious, but many are cosy (read cramped!) and oddly shaped. The Acacia Room is one of the odd ones  – long, with a relatively small stage at one end. It can be a bit tricky for the audience if you are seeing anything other than standard stand-up comedy, because if you are not in the first few rows, it’s hard to see what is happening. Zoe seemed very aware of this however, and made sure that visual gags were seen by all. Mind you, so much of the comedy came from her fabulous facial expressions – oh, that stare!

I feel like it’s going to be a long time before I recover from this show. I cannot remember a show that made me laugh so exhaustively. If you are after something absolutely hilarious that takes you on an extremely surreal journey and leaves you and everyone around you somewhat wasted, get to Victoria Hotel and check out Trigger Warning.

Where: Victoria Hotel, 215 Little Collins St Melbourne

When: Tues-Sat 9:45, Sun 8:45

Tickets: $18-25  www.comedyfestival.com.au or Ticketmaster 1300 660 013

(Suitable for audiences 18+)

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Dave Hughes is SWEET

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.

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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

Comedy, Festivals, Whats On

MICF 2016: Tom Ballard’s BOUNDLESS PLAINS TO SHARE

Brave, brutal and frankly brilliant comedy

By Bradley Storer

Using the contentious and polarizing issue of refugees and immigration as the subject of a comedy show is not immediately the most appealing idea. Luckily Tom Ballard, an award-winning and accomplished young comedian, has proven adept in previous shows at finding the intersections between the personal and the political, and the humour contained within. Here he uses his comedic skill to examine Australia’s approach to refugees, the oft-maligned ‘boat people’ who have informed political policy for decades.

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This ‘comedy-lecture’, as Ballard terms it, leans more towards comedy at the beginning, as Ballard eases his audience in with some self-deprecating jabs and some well-executed audience participation. The ‘lecture’ comes in a self-contained section where Ballard manages at hilariously break-neck (and minutely timed, courtesy of an audience member’s stopwatch app) speed to summarise Australia’s immigration policies throughout the entire 20th century with some brutally funny jabs at those in power during these eras.

The danger of a show such as this is the possibility of only preaching to the converted (since those attending a young gay comedian’s show are not necessarily likely to be politically conservatives) or indulging in self-righteous anger and finger-pointing that does little to engage the audience. While Ballard is clear and precise about where the origins of our deplorable policies towards refugees come from, he, under the direction of Scott Edgar, uses various devices and clever writing to draw the audience into an open discussion and to understand the people behind the de-humanizing names: ‘boat people’, ‘illegals’ and ‘cue-jumpers’.

The sentiment that comes across is not ‘we are terrible people’, but rather ‘we are good people, so how are we letting this happen?’ After keeping the audience laughing uproariously through the rest of the show, Ballard concludes with an incredibly emotional finale that emphasizes the common humanity shared by all of us that connects us regardless of race, religion or country of origin. There are no laughs, but this moment of seriousness feels rightly earned by Ballard, and if the tears and riotous applause following are anything to go by, the audience agrees. Arguably the best show Ballard has ever presented, and quite possibly one of the strongest shows for the entire festival.

Date: 26th March – 17th April, 11 shows

Venue: Mon – Melbourne Town Hall, Saturday and Sunday – Trades Hall

Times: Monday 8:15pm, Saturday 26th March/2nd April/ 16th April 5:15pm, Sat 9th April 5:45, Sun 4:15pm

Price: Full $27.50, Concession $22, Preview $22

Bookings: www.ticketmaster.com.au, at the door, 1300 660 013