Squirrel Comedy – Page 139 – We're Nuts About Australian Comedy

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

Tom Walker – Beep Boop

By Colin Flaherty

Beep Boop is a wonderful show of modern clowning. Tom Walker treats us to hilarious scenes of silly mime, inspired impressions and lots of audience participation. If the dreaded P Word has sent you running and screaming from the room, fear not; this is the least intrusive, never aggressive and most enjoyable participation a show could ever have. Beginning as a timid Andy Kaufman-esque creature Tom soon blossoms into a hilarious attention seeking show-off that we can’t help be enthralled by.

Tom builds a fascinating on-stage world; the rules of this place are drip fed to us. What is expected of us increases rapidly as the show progresses but the learning curve is gentle. He pushes our tolerances with his party pieces, taunts us during his charmingly inept magic tricks and boldly challenges us to games. The odds are clearly stacked in his favour and he tries our patience most of the time which is oddly fascinating rather than annoying. Even when the repetition of an action threatens to become tiresome we are all dying to find out where it is leading to and the pay off is regularly impressive. When he leaves a small gap in the rules for us to exploit we see this character for what he truly is; a spoilt brat who always gets his way, portrayed with comically overplayed seething rage.

Tom plays the audience like meat puppets but in such a delightful way that it is impossible not to bend to his will. His coercing of the audience is brilliant using gestures that are clear enough for us to decipher what is required of us but vague enough that we feel a sense of accomplishment in working out this secret language. A reward system of either the delivery of a punchline on a certain trigger or his visible delight in our success makes you wonder whether he has previously had a career in dog training.

In amongst all this crowd manipulation is some downright amazing stagecraft that keeps the audience in hysterics. He manages to make the most mundane concepts into hilarious works of art and expertly plays the fool for our entertainment. Tom has been to Gaulier and from this performance you can tell that he has learnt some impressive tricks.

With a Best Newcomer nomination he is guaranteed to be playing to packed rooms so rush to see this awesome show before it’s too late.

Tom Walker’s Beep Boop is on at The Tuxedo Cat

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/beep-boop-tom-walker

Trillcumber – Paradise

By Elyce Phillips

Trillcumber (Mario Hannah, Hayley Tantau, Simon McCulloch and Ryan Zorzut) return for their second MICF with Paradise – a narrative sketch show that is cleverly conceived and skilfully performed.

At the centre of Paradise is Harrison Gregory (played by Zorzut), a crackpot Elon Musk type who has built a rocket that will take passengers to Mars. This trip to Mars works as a framework through which we are introduced to a whole cast of characters in a series of interconnecting sketches, each with their own reasons to give up their lives on Earth and flee to the red planet. Every member of Trillcumber is given a chance to shine. Hannah’s incredibly boring man Bobby is a delight, and you truly feel for him by the end of the show. Tantau hilariously displays her musical chops as a convicted felon, and is an absolute highlight as a ghost-obsessed girlfriend. McCulloch is fantastically absurd and a little bittersweet as the narrator of the piece. Zorzut makes for a wonderful new addition to the Trillcumber team. His portrayal of Harrison Gregory is pitch-perfect, but it was his ridiculous appearance as a ghost that really got me laughing. It’s a well-rounded cast.

Though the overarching concept of jetting off to Mars is a distant fantasy, there is a deeper, more relatable theme of running away from your problems that is thoughtfully played with. Every character has a history to deal with and a lesson to learn. The narrative structure is interesting and shows some growth from Trillcumber as writers. It’s silly sketch that also manages to tug at your heartstrings.

Paradise is a terrific follow-up on last year’s debut from Trillcumber. If you’re after well-written sketch comedy from some accomplished young performers, it’s definitely a show worth checking out.

Trillcumber – Paradise is on at the Improv Conspiracy until April 17

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/paradise-trillcumber

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Award Nominees

On Monday morning at the Spiegeltent the Nominees for the 2016 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Awards were Announced with the aid of Guest Barry Humphries. You may have heard of him, The Barry Award is named after him.

Congratulations to all the phenomenal Nominees!

The Golden Gibbo

Asher Treleaven & Gypsy Wood – Peter & Bambi Heaven – The Magic Inside

Luis Brown – Lessons With Luis

Tommy Dassallo – Little Golden Dassallo

Zoe Coombs Marr – Dave Trigger Warning

Best Newcomer

Demi Lardner – Life Mechanic

Guy Montgomery (NZ) – Guy Montcomedy

Tom Walker – Beep Boop

Rose Matafeo (NZ) – Finally Dead

The Barry Award

Zoe Coombs Marr – Dave Trigger Warning

Damien Power – Sell Mum into Slavery

Luisa Omielan (UK) – Am I Right Ladies?!

Tom Ballard – The World Keeps Happening

Anne Edmonds That’s Eddotainment

David O’Doherty (IRE) – We Are All In The Gutter, But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O’Doherty

Rhys Nicholson – Bone Fide

There are more Awards that will be announced next weekend.

Also RAW Comedy Award for 2016 was won by Danielle Walker from Victoria

Rhys Nicholson – Bona Fide

By Elyce Phillips

Rhys Nicholson, aka Mama Showbiz, is back in Melbourne with a new hour of stand-up in Bona Fide. It’s faced-paced comedy that barely gives you time to catch your breath between the punchlines, from an extremely talented comedian.

At 26, Nicholson’s noticing that his friends are starting to settle down, getting married and buying property. In the meantime, he and his boyfriend of six years are travelling for work and holidaying in France. They’d maybe like to get married at some point but, unfortunately, marriage equality still has a ways to go in this country. Bona Fide strings together a bunch of stories about growing up – from Nicholson’s teen years where he was figuring out who he was, to learning how to behave at weddings. Though the specifics of Nicholson’s material are not something many of us have experience with – most in the audience aren’t internationally touring comedians – Nicholson’s humour is very relatable. A section on his dealings with anxiety seemed to particularly strike a chord, getting big laughs from the room.

Nicholson’s delivery is perfect – sharp, witty and acidic. There’s not a slow moment in Bona Fide. Every single story, every little aside is perfectly placed. Nicholson struck up a good rapport with the audience, easily winning over those who had not seen him perform before. He’s a natural on the stage and consistently hilarious.

Nicholson’s stand-up is just moving from strength to strength and Bona Fide is his best show yet. And if you bring along some cash, you can snap up a snazzy brooch after the show as a memento of the fun times.

Rhys Nicholson – Bona Fide is on at Roxanne and Melbourne Town Hall until April 17
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2016/season/shows/bona-fide-rhys-nicholson