Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2015 – Page 5

3 States of Comedy

By Hannah Frazer

The fight between Melbourne and Sydney for best Aussie city is definitely one for the ages. But Geoff Setty, Gabe Hogan and Evan Hocking have amped things up a notch, by fighting for the Title of Best State. Who will take out the honour? And who will admit defeat?

Splitting the show into 3 stand up sets, each comedian getting a chance to show case their goods. Starting the night off was Hogan representing NSW. A cheeky and immediately likeable dog groomer by day, joke teller by night, she hit the night off running with some great one liners and personal anecdotes. While some of her jokes may fall short of a laugh, they are well constructed. With nerves showing a little, she still had a great handle over the audience.

Setty playing for his home state of WA takes you in to slightly darker territory with his material, shooting out some great ones liners, one after another, he is daring and bold with his material. He has a great commanding and confident presence. You feel like even though a few of his jokes slightly miss the mark with some of the audience, this is someone defiantly on the up and up.

Finally Hocking bringing it home for Victoria. Self-deprecating and relatable. Hocking tells stories of his childhood and relationships with his family in a well-constructed and well-rounded set. Hocking’s friendly and down to earth persona making him a hit with the audience. The laughs come from deep in the belly with this guy.

Although these 3 aren’t big names in the game just yet, they are what will get you excited about the future of Aussie comedy. By the end you don’t really mind who takes out the title. Spending the evening with these kind and funny humans, let’s be honest, everyone goes home a winner.

3 States of Comedy is on at the Downstairs Lounge of the Grand Mecure Hotel until April 19

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/3-states-of-comedy

Chimp Cop

By Elyce Phillips

When a business mogul goes missing and a man shows up dead, Detectives Chimp Cop and Tijuana Goldberg are on the case. Adam Knox, Ben Vernel, Timothy Clark and Rosie Vernel ham it up as a cast of good cops, bad cops, rogues and dames. It’s everything you love about a good detective drama, done on about 1/100th of the budget.

Chimp Cop is a loving parody of detective noir. It feels heavily influenced by Naked Gun, with a dose of Raymond Chandler in there for good measure. There are a lot of cheesy puns, plenty of stupid sight gags, and enough accents to cover every single cop show stereotype. The Chimp Cop team throw themselves into their performance wholeheartedly – to the point that there were probably a few prop-based injuries on stage. There aren’t a whole heap of bells and whistles in this show, but they work well with what they’ve got. A video screen is used to good effect to set the tone at the start. The character transitions could be clunky in the small space, but a few ad-libbed lines smooth things over.

Chimp Cop is a little rough around the edges, but there is some absolute gold in this hour of sketch. A graphic visual stand-in for a sex scene was…memorable, and an extended video montage about friendship was hands-down the funniest thing I’ve seen at the Festival so far. It sent me into one of those slightly terrifying hysterical laughs where you momentarily fear that you may never stop laughing. It’s the kind of unhinged madness that you want in late-night comedy.

Chimp Cop is incredibly silly and a whole lot of fun. If you’re a fan of cop dramas, there’s plenty of laughs to be had, and if you’re not, you’ll probably still get a chuckle out of the nonsense of it all.

Chimp Cop is on at the Imperial Hotel until April 18
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/chimp-cop

Kate Dehnert – Pony Yell

By Elyce Phillips

Kate and Pony work at the mail centre. They are terrible at their job. Kate is opposed to doing work with every fibre of her being, and poor Pony has a bad back. But through their apathy and misfortune, they find a whole heap of adventure. Pony Yell is a surreal step into the world of Kate Dehnert. The whole thing feels like a cross between a fairy tale gone wrong and an intense fever dream, and I loved every second of it.

Pony Yell is wonderfully silly. Dehnert has created a beautifully absurd magical universe. With the help of some hilarious pre-recorded voice acting from Dehnert and others, Pony Yell has a full cast of mythical and not-so-mythical characters. There’s a simple-minded rock monster, a passive-aggressive snake co-worker, and an unfortunate child named Giblets. It may be a one-woman show, but Dehnert presents a fully-realised world that’s a lot fun to spend time in.

The weirder Pony Yell gets, the funnier it is. Bizarre segments, such as the DJ practicing shout outs in the park, had me in pain. A rambling song about holidays was another highlight, even though it was a little difficult to make out all the lyrics. The hour is infused with a forcefully cheerful energy that is absolutely infectious. The jokes can be baffling, but they will have you grinning like a fool. The dilemmas Kate and Pony face are ridiculous, but you are rooting for them to the very end.

Pony Yell is an ambitious and confident show from an up-and-coming performer. Dehnert’s comedy is refreshingly different and an absolute joy to watch. Who knew sorting the mail could be so much fun?

Kate Dehnert – Pony Yell is on at the Imperial Hotel until April 19

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/pony-yell-kate-dehnert

Graham Clone : Virtually Live

By Colin Flaherty

Graham Clone (Ross Daniels) and all girl back up band The Density (“Nebulous Rust” on virtual keyboard and “Airlock Ice Planet” on various children’s toys) are back to take us to the futuristic world of the Nineteen Eighties with their brand of electronic new wave pop. If you’ve never heard of Graham and/or missed his previous show The Future is Incorrect, fear not; he describes his back story as an artist who had his four weeks of fame before disappearing into obscurity.

The songs themselves are a mixed bag in terms of their humorous content. Some have wonderfully strange lyrics using plenty of wacky science fiction imagery. One highlight puts to rest the plagiarism charges levelled at Clone by a certain English performer. Others have minimalist lyrics and rely entirely on the band’s performance for all the laughs.

This show relies heavily on nostalgia of the Eighties for the majority of the humour so some of it may be a little lost on those who didn’t experience it the first time. The mere mention of popular eighties artists is often enough to get a laugh of recognition. They poke gentle fun at the absurdities of the genre including the fashion, the seriousness of the performers and their musical abilities. In the role of Graham’s backing band, the girls did their fair share of po-faced, ridiculously literal hand actions to the lyrics.

Between the songs things aren’t played too straight and the banter is on the light side, ensuring that the show doesn’t become too accurate to be funny. Graham regularly broke the fourth wall by regularly commenting on the audience response to his jokes and explicitly stating that he was trying to make Airlock corpse. The stifled smiles and laughs by the entire “band” clearly demonstrated that they were having as much fun as the audience.

The show features a couple of guest performers who contribute with a cover version of an Eighties classic. On this particular night we witnessed The Scourge of Russia (Damian Callinan) dance up a storm and Teenie Turner (Bev Killick) singing “Nutbush City Limits”. Just like most of the other songs, the humour comes from the guest’s wacky hijinks rather than from the song itself.

This is a fun hour of Eighties nostalgia performed by a true fan of the music. Children of the era will lap it up and are sure to have a brilliant time.

Graham Clone : Virtually Live is on at The Butterfly Club until April 19

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/graham-clone-virtually-live-ross-daniels

5 Good Reasons to see A Bit of an Overshare by Claire Healy

1. I do a sing in it. You can also do a sing in it. We shall share the doing of the singing. We like sharing. There is lots of that.

2. The show includes a bottle of gin and a piano. The good thing about writing your own show is that you can put all of your favourite things in it. (Previous shows have included copious amounts of chocolate digestives and a Galaxy bar hidden in my cleavage.) This show also includes a princess dress and a matching ladies rape alarm which was a present from the London Police. Such nice chaps…

3. There is lots of silly. And bribery. Sometimes these happen simultaneously.

4. There are serious educational elements, such as ‘how you are failing at life according to facebook’ and ‘how to truly woo the ladies.’ The latter section includes detailed information on scarves and dinosaurs. Sexy. You know it.

5. The show ends in a mass game of Never Have I Ever, where we learn weird things about each other. Past shows have included ‘Never Have I Ever drawn lipstick on a man during a tantric session’ and ‘Never Have I Ever accidentally drunk a tropical fish in a glass of milk.’ I’m looking forward to finding out what you cheeky Melbournites have been up to…

A Bit of an Overshare by Claire Healy is on at The Butterfly Club til April 12

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/a-bit-of-an-overshare-claire-healy

Xavier Michelides – Bad Accents and Inconsistent Mimes

By Elyce Phillips

The audience almost had to make a difficult decision at Xavier Michelides’ Bad Accents and Inconsistent Mimes last night. You see, there were only nine of us, and according to Michelides 10 is the magic number you need to ensure you don’t feel horribly self-aware as you laugh. So if we didn’t make it to 10, we could choose to go our separate ways. But as we faced this dilemma, a handful more joined our ranks and we averted disaster. It was lucky for us, as Bad Accents and Inconsistent Mimes is a thoroughly hilarious hour of stand-up.

Michelides’ show delivers what it promises, but aside from the shonky accents and dodgy mimes there is a whole lot of quick wit and well-crafted jokes. His recent stints working on cruise ships provide some great material, as well as an excuse for some terrible puns. Michelides has also been hitting up the one-year-old birthday party circuit. His opinions on babies are harsh, but fair. There’s no overriding theme to the show. It’s just a bunch of really great jokes told by a hard-working comedian at the top of his game.

Michelides is likeable and interacts well with the audience. Given we were a smaller group, the show got a little loose at some points where he tested out some alternate punchlines to see which we preferred. It was an interesting little insight into Michelides’ process.

Michelides is performing some truly excellent stand-up right now and frankly it’s mind-boggling that he’s not playing to packed houses every night. Bad Accent and Inconsistent Mimes had the audience laughing the whole way through. It’s straight-up hits, no misses. The show finishes up this week, so hurry along before you miss it.

Xavier Michelides – Bad Accents and Inconsistent Mimes is on at the Imperial Hotel until April 12

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2015/season/shows/bad-accents-and-inconsistent-mimes-xavier-michelides