Squirrel Comedy – Page 138 – We're Nuts About Australian Comedy

Interview with Lauren Hayward and Francis Hadid otherwise known as Hayward and Hadid

By Phillip Lescaut

First off, tell me a little about your show for this year, This Is An Excuse.

This is our first comedy festival, and we wanted to find our voice. We wanted to make a show that spoke to women, which was equal parts silly and smart. We’ve put on stage the things we always talk about with our friends but have never seen in a comedy show.

What’s your earliest experience of making people laugh or entertaining? Was it at school, putting on shows for family, etc.?
Hadid: I would say definitely at home. Everyone in my family is funny and with a dark sense of humour. They’re a tough crowd, my grandmother especially; she’s a tough bitch so making her laugh has been reassuring.

Hayward: I always hoped I was funny (I still do). I was a gangly oversized only child with Hollywood dreams and a penchant for Jim Carrey and Ben Stiller movies, but I wasn’t funny yet. Through serendipity and osmosis (and good training) I think I’ve become funnier in my 20’s –away from my parents’ disapproving eye.

Was comedy always the dream? If not, how did you find your way to comedy?

Hadid: Writing has been the dream and Comedy is where I often find myself.

Hayward: Comedy was always the dream, comedy and an unlikely friendship with Tina Fey.

Who or what inspires you in comedy? Do you have a preferred type of comedy you like to watch (eg. standup, sitcoms, movies, etc.)?

We love satirical comedy, with a dark twist, but can’t deny our love for a dick joke. We’ve loved watching The Characters (Netflix), Broad City, and Bob’s Burgers.

Tell me a bit about your creative process. Do you write a lot? Do you do it alone? Do you only write when you’re inspired or do you have a disciplined schedule like a Jerry Seinfeld?

For us the creative equation is COMEDY = FOOD + LAPTOPS. All we do is eat, gossip and write. We’re our funniest with a full mouth.

Do you prefer to be immaculately rehearsed or are you very loose and ad-lib-by on stage?

Hadid: on the loose side.

Hayward: immaculately rehearsed.

Hayward and Hadid: happy together

If it’s not too painful to think about, what’s the most awkward experience you’ve had on stage? What did you learn from it, and how do you get past a weak night?
We took our show to Adelaide to workshop it in front of a crowd, and boy did we learn some lessons. On our opening night we had four (uninvited, anonymous) reviewers in the audience, and both of our computers crashed 5 minutes before show time. We pushed on (read: flailed) with no tech, had a front row walk out and were heckled by Siri chiming in from an audience member’s phone.

We were crying between changes backstage because it was such a disaster. To make things worse, we had a review in The Advertiser the next day: “In comedy, timing is everything, and the sometimes lengthy pregnant pauses between “costume changes” meant any momentum quickly evaporated”. No shit dickhead, “costume changes” took too long because we were sobbing silently backstage! We learnt to always triple-check our backups, and that nothing can stop us.

What are you proudest of in your career so far?

We’re proudest of our show right now. Since Adel-geddon, we rewrote, refined and reworked the show and we are super proud (and we couldn’t have done it if we hadn’t learned the hard lessons). Our audiences have loved it, and we’ve had so much fun putting it on every night. Not a single tear shed back stage.

Is there anyone at MICF this year that you really want to check out?

Well we’re right at the end of the festival, but we’ve seen so many awesome shows. Of course, everything at our venue, The Improv Conspiracy; it was a treat to see some hilarious and deliciously weird comedy at Feeble Minds (Zanzoop/Sam Campbell) and we were absolutely blown away by Butt Kapinski (Deanna Fleysher) – completely different to us, but totally inspiring.

What’s been the biggest surprise of your career so far?

Selling out half of our run at our first MICF show has been surprising and pretty special.

One piece of advice you’d give to someone starting out?

Be nice: everyone is trying their hardest and probably not getting paid.

Be brave: the hardest nights show you what you’re made of, and will definitely pay off.

Be rebellious: not everything has to follow the rule of threes

Hayward and Hadid’s debut show This Is An Excuse is on at The Improv Conspiracy

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/this-is-an-excuse-hayward-and-hadid

Hayward and Hadid – This Is An Excuse

By Phil Lescaut

Hayward and Hadid’s debut show This Is An Excuse made me think about a lot of things, but perhaps most of all it made me appreciate the beauty of Melbourne’s Comedy Festival. Here is a form of democracy worthy of close study by our politicians, a place where you can see the bona fide A-listers of comedy, as well as its weirdest emerging voices. If it’s the indie, beautiful-work-in-progress side of MICF that you appreciate most, look no further than Lauren Hayward and Francis Hadid. They’re a couple of platonic lovebirds who met through improv and have created their first scripted show. There’s glimmers of Saturday Night Live in This Is An Excuse, with an hour-long sketch format held together by a central story of Cupid Francis versus Psyche Lauren in a battle for a young couple’s future. Cupid and Psyche’s real-life counterparts even open the show in true SNL style, with a wise-cracking monologue that immediately introduces the audience to the endearing chemistry that shines throughout the hour.

This Is An Excuse is even more reminiscent of Inside Amy Schumer, as it has a similar unabashed fascination with modern-day coupling, the differences in men and women’s approaches to romance, and white people doing annoying things. Many moments had the audience in stitches. Others didn’t but were obviously fashioned as thought-provoking interludes. Like Schumer, the sketches that made bolder comments on our culture had bigger pay-offs than some of the more shallow ones. While it’s pretty wonderfully written and has benefited from some post-test audience fat-trimming, this is still a debut show, so there are moments of nervousness and sketches with thin premises. But it’s this rawness, manifest in the limited props and homemade zines, that render This Is An Excuse even more intimate and exciting, and their intelligent observations all the more affecting. Because they also deal with topics like feminism, race and “crazy girls”, Hayward and Hadid frolic through the pop cultural landscape of 2016 amongst pithy Jezebel articles and Lena Dunham essays, but they’re not camouflaged amongst it. They deliver a unique enough comedic manifesto to make you believe that theirs will be careers worth watching.

During the show, Cupid Francis and Psyche Lauren get equal opportunity to make their cases, and it’s this balance of the sarcastic and the romantic that perfectly captures the spirit of This Is An Excuse. There are plenty of acerbic observations made about fuck-boys and white assholes, but, like the cosy pyjama party feel of the room when you walk in it, This Is An Excuse is a warm-hearted reflection on love’s infinite possibility, even if it no longer manifests itself exclusively in one guy and one little lady going to the chapel. To those too wrought by misplaced nostalgia for that ‘simpler’ time, Hayward and Hadid make a convincing case that love’s evolution is a good thing. Maybe the love story of your modern life is with your best friend, or your dry cleaner’s aunt (how should I know?), or maybe, like Lauren and Francis, your comedy partner.

Hayward and Hadid’s debut show This Is An Excuse is on at The Improv Conspiracy

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/this-is-an-excuse-hayward-and-hadid

James Acaster – Reset

By Elyce Phillips

With a string of award nominations to his name, James Acaster has spent the last few years building himself up as one of the young greats of the UK stand-up scene. He returns to MICF with Reset, a solidly funny new hour of absurdity, meandering reflection and self-loathing.

In Reset, Acaster explores the idea of having your time over again. Unless you’re utterly insufferable, chances are you have a fair few things you’d like to do differently, and Acaster too has his share of regrets. It’s a topic where a lesser talent could be become bogged down in negativity, however, the material is handled deftly.

Acaster is a master of deadpan silliness, delivering bizarre stories with a facade of complete honesty that almost has you believing his flights of fancy. A lengthy piece about his work at a dodgy honey company was particularly wonderful. The tall tales bring a fresh edge to Acaster’s stand-up – the delivery is familiar but the content is not.

Unfortunately on the night I attended, the show got derailed by heckling. Acaster dealt with the offending parties admirably – in fact he perhaps got some of the biggest laughs of the night by putting the interrupters in their place – but the timing of it upset the flow of the final moments of the show. A story that was building up to a grand finale fizzled somewhat, disrupted at multiple points. Acaster was visibly annoyed, and fair enough. It put a dampener on the show, however, this is one to chalk up to a Tightarse Tuesday crowd and drunkenness, and is no reflection on Acaster’s material.

Acaster further establishes himself as a powerhouse of stand-up with Reset. It’s a strong, well-structured show that deserves a good audience.

James Acaster – Reset is on at Melbourne Town Hall until April 17

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/reset-james-acaster

Simon Munnery’s Fylm School

By Elyce Phillips

Armed with a projector, several cameras, a mirror and a big screen, Simon Munnery creates avant-garde cinema on the fly in Simon Munnery’s Fylm School. It was a one-night-only special event, with a dream team of a guest cast keeping the eager crowd laughing.

Simon Munnery’s Fylm School is an absurdist delight. While Mick Moriarty provided improvised musical accompaniment on guitar, Munnery amused and befuddled the audience in equal measure with his musings on Melbourne’s architecture, Venn diagrams and racism. The projector set-up was used to great effect, particularly with a series of brilliantly lo-fi animations created from paper and various moving pieces. Munnery plays with language and makes it feel effortless. Each little comedic snippet has a musical quality to it, beyond the backing track. Munnery’s words ebb and flow, kick and dart, then smack you across the face with something hilarious. He truly is a unique presence on the comedy scene.

Performing alongside Munnery and Moriarty were a selection of comedy festival guests. Adam Hess flipped through a book of assorted stick-figure drawings on the projector screen, firing off witty one-liners that had the audience in stitches. Alex Edelman told the story of the year his Orthodox Jewish family did Christmas – a tale that was both painfully funny and awfully endearing – using a selection of props and iPhone photos to illustrate the narrative. David O’Doherty rounded out the evening with some business pitches, throwing out some bizarre rapid-fire app ideas accompanied with illustrations.

Simon Munnery’s Fylm School is outside-the-box comedy that plays at the height of the audience’s intelligence. If you’re after a sophisticated dose of silly, hurry to book in should it ever return to Melbourne.

Simon Munnery’s Fylm School was a one-night-only event. Munnery’s other show, And Nothing But, is on at Melbourne Town Hall until April 17.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/and-nothing-but-simon-munnery

The Million Dollar Fish

By Colin Flaherty

The Million Dollar Fish is a sketch show featuring three energetic performers with lots of colour and movement. They sell every line to the back wall, bound around the stage like kids on cordial and mug aggressively to the crowd. It’s a shame that the material underneath it all is devoid of enough actual jokes; you can only get a finite number of laughs by merely pulling silly faces and shouting.

A number of sketches are paced rather slowly and many outstay their welcome. They may be going for the “repeat the absurdity to the point of boredom and eventually it will be funny again” angle but the weak initial premise of the scene ensures that this never happens. Most of the sketches are structured as follows:

– Guy #1 is on stage either alone or with Guy #2
– Guy #3 enters and interacts inanely
– Guy #3 says or does something to offend Guy #1
– Guy #1 shouts at Guy #3
– Either Guy #3 leaves or they all dance about
– FIN

There are a few interesting ideas scattered through the hour such as the brilliant chutzpah and inept acting in the “One Liners” segment and “Jim’s Doors” infomercial. Even with these strong premises they forget that brevity is key, thus causing the sketches to fizzle out rather than land a strong punchline. Other scenes have a whiff of an intriguing idea, such as the “that’s my job” guy, but they fail to do anything constructive or amusing with it.

The wraparound story of the fish, the fisherman and a certain fishing celebrity starts off slow, becomes interesting as it veers into strange territories but falls flat at the conclusion. The youngsters in the crowd may not have got the reference while those old enough to identify the celebrity telegraphed the reveal early on, lessening its power.

The soundscape is superb and is suitably bombastic while the lighting works its magic to create atmosphere in lieu of detailed sets and props. There is an interesting pre-recorded joke about their sound designer quitting mid project but it isn’t pushed to its logical conclusion. The actors don’t even to react to the announcement so it is merely a blip on the landscape and isn’t referred to again.

Some groupies of the trio were cackling at every facial expression, movement and line uttered but others were less enthralled by this group. If you’re in the mood for three attractive boys in matching tracksuits bouncing off the walls and revving up the crowd for no particular reason, you will enjoy yourself. Others will need more substance to get their fill of laughs.

The Million Dollar Fish is on at The Owl and PussyCat until April 16

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/the-million-dollar-fish

Butt Kapinski

By Lisa Clark

Sitting in the round, spread out in the dark, the audience waits for the appearance of Private Detective Butt Kapinski. The only light source is Butt’s personal lamp that travels with him around the room as he tries to solve some serious crimes. If you are a fan of old Hollywood and have always wanted to be in a sexy Film Noir, this is your chance.

Butt Kapinski is one of those full on immersive festival shows where the entire audience is cajoled into becoming a large part of the show, taking on characters, the scenery and even the jazzy musical score. Butt Kapinski is a delightful dippy character to spend an hour with and has a great set up for the show involving the seamy underbelly of a city and a bit of gender swapping which creates an exciting expectant atmosphere and our audience is bang on for joining in on the fun.

It’s just as well that the very talented American Deanna Fleysher is doing this now after so many Gaulier trained clowns have performed in Melbourne before her, so that Festival goers have become used to this sort of thing and are willing to go with it, because it would not be much of a show if the audience refused to play. I also wonder how she copes on a quiet night of four patrons. They would be pretty exhausted by the end. I’ve said before that I get annoyed when performers cross the line in audience participation and this happens tonight when Butt pashes a member of the audience, but although I felt uncomfortable watching, it didn’t feel as if he was too bullied into it as is often the case.

It is actually a lot of (mostly harmless) fun taking part in Butt Kapinski’s story, but stories have endings and Butt expects a bit too much from the audience to create a great finale for her. Tonight it doesn’t completely come off. When the audience did make up bits of plot throughout the show, it was up to Kapinski to improvise and weave them into something interesting, but that didn’t seem to happen a great deal and there were few exciting and clever call-backs to earlier characters or situations. It could just be an off night, or Butt’s excuse of being overwhelmed by the full on kiss, but my expectations from seeing other top improvised comedy shows were not fully met here.

A show for drama students or frustrated performers who want to get into the spotlight and for those who want to experience an interesting and entertaining interpretation of the current Gaulier inspired craze of getting the audience to make your show for you.

Butt Kapinski is on at The Tuxedo Cat

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/butt-kapinski