Tag: Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Alexis Dubus – Cars & Girls

By Lisa Clark

The Comedy Festival brings all sorts of ways to make us laugh and this is a new one. Comedy shows that tell a story about travel and love are not new, but one performed completely in rhyming poetry is new to me. This is an interesting departure for Alexis Dubus from his famous alter-ego Marcel Lucont, though Marcel’s ability to play intelligently with language has always been evident. Cars & Girls won the Spirit of the Fringe Award at the Edinburgh Fringe last year and by the end that is no surprise at all.

This is a bold brave performance that began as an experiment on the Free Fringe that has obviously paid off. It’s a very polished performance with a big prop for a set, a large passport as a backdrop that he gradually attaches photos to and brilliant touches of sound and lighting to add to the mood. The sound and lighting are used sparingly and so lightly that they are barely noticeable. They add to the mood of the piece without taking the attention away from the riveting adventure.

The bulk of Alexis’s show is stories about his reminiscences of hitching through Europe and might give the tale the more appropriate title of Girls and Trucks. There are a lot of trucks and truckies, and girls. There are many characters that he brings to life with his amazing talent for accents and character acting. The action takes Dubus off the beaten path from France to Tangier and the Americas. The memory that lingers longest from these travelling experiences is his panorama of the Burning Man Festival experience and a sweet ending as surprising for us as it was to him.

It’s an exhausting bravura performance by Alexis. The delicate audiovisual touches and Dubus’s expressive voice keep the dense language from becoming overwhelming. There are laughs peppered throughout and some great punchlines but it is mostly romantic and joyous. The magic of Dubus’ performance was on the faces of the grinning audience members at the end, clapping like they didn’t want to stop.

Alexis Dubus – Cars & Girls is on at the Tuxedo Cat


http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/cars-girls-alexis-dubus

5 Good Reasons to see Wrongtown Wednesdays

1- Wrongtown is the place to be if you enjoy armpits in your face especially on the tram

2- Wrongtown is the show for you if you enjoy Gluten free options…or GFO’s

3- Wrongtown is the place to be if you enjoy ladies in lingerie playing football…

4- If you love gourmet meals join Jamie and Nigella for their 3 min and 30 second cook off!

5- If you like your comedy with song, dance and sass!

Wrongtown Wednesdays is on every Wednesday of the Festival at The Butterfly Club

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/wrongtown-wednesdays-with-wrongtown

Jordana Borensztajn – Like Me, Love Me, Retweet Me

By Lisa Clark

The main impression from this show about social media is that the audience is at a work seminar in a tiny cramped bright room up many flights of stairs in a ‘clean comedy’ venue (so don’t swear too much coming up all those bloody stairs). Luckily it’s a very good seminar by a talented, engaging performer, Jordana Borensztajn, who, yes, does professional seminars about social media.

The premise of Like Me, Love Me, Retweet Me was that Jordana is a bit obsessed with creating a better self-image of herself online, but there was no deep emotional story here, that idea seemed (ironically) pasted over the top of what was more of an excuse to poke fun at how the internet has changed our lives and the crazy pitfalls of social media. Right down to just showing us some time wasting silly cat videos for fun. Well it couldn’t really be a show about the internet without cat videos could it?

All of Jordana’s audio-visual work is top notch from the stunning introductory video to the pictures supporting her act throughout and her vox pop interviews with people about social media on the street where someone rather shockingly, so casually talks about presenting themselves as a brand online. It all goes seamlessly and is also mostly supportive of rather than instead of the comedy. Except maybe her ‘Funny things I found on line’ bit, which fell a bit flat, possibly because we’ve all found much funnier things online than the ones she presents.

Jordana cleverly treats the audience like her online contacts, constantly craving approval, asking for likes, photos and the inevitable selfies. Taking Shakespeare’s idea that All the World’s a Stage and showing how the internet is one big stage upon which we all perform our parts is even more true for a born performer like Jordana. She is bright, perky and passionate about her pursuits.  There is a bit of harmless audience participation that as usual is a bit more fun for the participants and their friends than the rest of us. She also gets the audience to help her out in the fabulous finale which is a brilliant idea as she acknowledges that singing is not her strong suit.

As a bit of a nerd who evolved with computers by hanging out with serious geeks who could build computers from scratch and created IT departments at major universities when there were none, I found it all a bit mainstream and not terribly illuminating. A lot of her observations and ideas are not very new, especially in on-line world. This was not written for computer geeks. This is for groups of friends and family members who find the online world fun but perplexing and want to have a relaxing laugh about how ridiculous it has all become and Jordana has written just the show.

Jordana Borensztajn – Like Me, Love Me, Retweet Me is on at Comedy on Collins which is the clean comedy venue, so no swearing or rude stuff.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/like-me-love-me-retweet-me-jordana-borensztajn

 

5 Good Reasons to see Kyle Kinane

5. I had a coupon for free pants. I’d attempted to redeem it several months ago. I think the pants are finally in the mail. This makes me rest easier. Now I can focus on the show, and not have to worry about the pants.

 

4. Technically I haven’t received the pants yet. I just got an email from a lady at the pants place saying they’ve been sent. I have a tracking number, but the package history goes blank after last Thursday. This concerns me.

 

3. I’m relying on a neighbor to collect my mail while I’m out of country. She seems nice but I haven’t really trusted her with anything of this magnitude. I don’t think she’d steal the pants. Not for herself, anyway. She has a petite frame and they’d never fit. But she could use them to lure male suitors of my size.

 

2. I wish I’d never answered this survey. I was doing fine until you made me think of the pants. The odd thing is, I HAVE pants. No shortage of trousers. But these pants, their evasiveness intrigues me.

 

1. I’m never getting this goddamn pants so you may as well just come to the show for chrissakes.

Kyle Kinane is on at The Victoria Hotel

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/kyle-kinane

Sara Pascoe vs The Truth

By Lisa Clark

 

Sara Pascoe is strange. It took a while for me to warm to her, especially after she opens with a convict joke but it’s a set up for later on when she admits ‘I like to say something at the beginning that means I have to win the audience back’. It worked and she proved to be an intelligent, fascinating and slightly unhinged performer who was fun to spend an hour with.

There are lots of weird aspects to Sara Pascoe vs The Truth, I always worry about comedians when they brag about drinking too much, she also goes through some irrational fears, and worrying paranoia. I enjoyed a rant against hairdressers that led to her having to cut her own hair and her horror gig story garnered a lot of sympathy from the audience.

The topics Sara covers are a bit all over the place but the audience can’t miss the major theme for this show. It’s written on the Tshirt Sara had especially printed and is wearing; “There are no facts, only interpretations.” – Friedrich Nietzsche. She repeats this throughout the show and it often makes a good punchline. There are actually a lot of surprisingly intellectual moments throughout the show. She also becomes gradually more political, but never hits you over the head with her ideas.

Sara Pascoe is clearly very experienced at stand up from the UK and keeps the audience laughing throughout. She is more of a joke teller than a story teller in that the stories feel like they are there for the jokes rather than because she wants to share a tale with us and there is no overarching tale as such. That’s not to say that there isn’t some form of structure, with her repeated quote reminding audiences to ask where the truth lay in her words.

It’s hard to know if the drunken, rude, paranoid side of Sara is a character she puts on for the audience or not. That’s a more acceptable type of comedian than a brilliant, erudite, feminist, philosopher, perhaps. Sara Pascoe vs The Truth is definitely a show I would recommend to audiences with open minds who enjoy something a bit skewed. Certainly one to take your friends to who like something smart and different.

 

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/vs-the-truth-sara-pascoe

5 Good reasons to see Bart Freebairn – Double Happiness

Reason 1 

Bart has unearthed serveral ancient secrets of time travel and clothing alteration. Seeing his show will give you hints as to what they are and were he has hidden them ( They are in a secret pocket of his fancy time travel pants!)

Reason 2

Barack Obama regularly listens to Bart and follows his advice. Now I know what you are thinking. Obama has made a mess Bart is no good at advice. Before you storm off consider that Bart’s advice has stopped heaps of wars and disasters and bad stuff all over the place from happening. He only weighs in on the serious business. Not that silly everyday stuff. COME TO HIS SHOW AND LISTEN TO HIS ADVICE! IT MIGHT SAVE YOUR LIFE AND THE WHOLE WORLD

Reason 3 

The show is called Double Happiness for a reason. It is a great feeling and you deserve to experience it.

Reason 4 

If would like to learn ways to enjoy icecream more. There are a handful of great tips and angles in which you can increase and lengthen your pleasure. That is what all those LAST LONGER billboards are about. Bart’s show and Icecream. What?! You thought it was about sex? You sick fuck.

Reason 5

Bart is a great comedian who will make you laugh for an hour.

Bart Freebairn – Double Happiness is on at the Imperial Hotel

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/double-happiness-bart-freebairn