Inside the Egg – Sam Allen

By Elyce Phillips 

If you were around in the ‘90s, you’ll be familiar with the work of Anne Geddes. Her sickly sweet snaps of bubs dressed as buds were inescapable. But whatever became of those adorable little sprouts? ‘Inside the Egg’ tells the stories some of these now-grown-up baby models, as they try and process their horrific experiences in Ms Geddes’ studio. What unfolds is a bizarre tale that’s part legal drama, part therapy session and all hilarious.

The mood is set as soon as you take your seat at The Wild Pony at the Tuxedo Cat. On a screen, a slideshow of Anne Geddes photographs plays with a soundtrack that is best described as ‘menacing Deep Forest.’ A giant prop egg sits on the stage, waiting. It all works to create a mildly unhinged atmosphere – which is perfect for the cavalcade of the maladjusted that Sam Allen brings to life.

Allen’s performance is truly memorable. He displays incredible versatility in the characters he portrays, leaping from a smarmy lawyer to a grandfather with a gambling problem to a man-child Shakespearian actor with ease. Although we only spend a short amount of time with many of the characters, they feel well-rounded. Allen’s performances are over-the-top and absurd, yet entirely believable – it’s a beautiful thing.

The main story thread is supported by installments of a mocked-up episode of ‘Four Corners’ about the parents of one of the Geddes babies, following their journey as they try to cash in. The show’s co-creator, Chris Harrigan, features in these pieces, playing a wonderfully dreary dad.

‘Inside the Egg’ is inventive and superbly performed. This show is one to see for those who like their comedy absurd and their pop-culture references ‘90s.

Inside the Egg is on at The Wild Pony at the Tuxedo Cat until September 24.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/inside-the-egg/

The Happiest Bowerbird and other Stories – Jonathan Schuster

Lisa Clark

Jonathan Schuster’s show at Melbourne Fringe has a beautiful poster, an intriguing name and his show opened with some amusingly edited house music that got the laughs going and set up expectations for something different and interesting that he’d put a lot of work into. Then came Jonathan’s rambling intro which was a bit hard to follow but was basically an apology that his original idea for the show – as described in the poster – hadn’t panned out, because he hadn’t gotten around to writing his Bowerbird story, so had decided instead to structure the show around (ie wedge his material into) ‘Five Reasons Why I am Like a Bowerbird’ instead. This made my heart sink a little.

In the end, the show did deliver a lot more than his lack of confidence would suggest. The structure around Jonathan’s  stories works well, though after the Third Reason he seems to lose heart with the concept and doesn’t really point out four and five, though they are there if you pay attention.  The stories themselves are mostly engrossing with various levels of humourousness. He even told, much to our astonishment (considering his intro), a cute bowerbird story at the end, where for a moment Jonathan himself became the bowerbird, but I’m not sure if he noticed. It made me wonder, is the slacker persona and opening explanation a rouse to lower our expectations and surprise us
? Nah, the overall impression of the show unfortunately did not support this theory.

Jonathan’s strongest stories centre around penfriends (gosh, does this still happen in this day and age of Web 2.0?), his scurrilous letter to Slater and Gordon and his encounters with women. The high point was actually his response to a late coming audience member, who turned out to be a huge fan who delighted  him with a call back to Schuster’s gig material. It showed Jonathan to be a dab hand at audience interaction. One or two of the stories failed to elicit more than smiles and sort of petered out lamely. This material in particular needs some sharpening and more humour.

There were many points in the show where Jonathan said something like ‘if you want to know about that letter I wrote see my facebook’ or ‘if you want to know what a bowerbird looks like check out my poster’. Does he expect us to all turn on our phones and start googling during the performance? Do some homework afterwards? I wanted to point out ‘Hey see that big projection screen up on the wall behind you? You can use that to project things on. It would add some pizzaz to your show.’

Jonathan Schuster won RAW comedy in 2007, as he mentions cheekily throughout  the show and you can see why.  As his comedy festival show Dad! (And the Other Men My Mother has Been With)  showed, he is a talented comedian with a lot of potential. The evidence is here too, there are the bones of a fine little show, but at the moment it is a bit ramshackle and needs some work. Of course ramshackle can be funny, if pitched right, if you make that your thing, but after his rambling apologist opening, this simply came across as lazy. And lazy is something that Bowerbirds are definitely not. Bowerbirds are all about putting on the best show they possibly can.

Jonathan is performing The Happiest Bowerbird and other Stories at the Imperial until Sept 27th

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/the-happiest-bowerbird-and-other-stories/

Tony Martin – The Yeti

By Lisa Clark 

It’s a simple concept, a comedic author performs a chapter of his first autobiographical book on stage in a small room. Except this is Comedy legend Tony Martin of The Late Show and Get This. Shows worshiped by their cult fans who still maintain tribute websites such as ChampagneComedy.com, a Get This Tumbr and Capril. He’s also the author of some beautifully written, evocative and laugh out loud funny books of autobiographical stories. Tony doesn’t perform often and when he does his fans, including many in the comedy industry, flock because they know he’s going to serve up a diligently crafted, solid show chockers full of laughs, and he did.

The last time Tony Martin performed in Melbourne was only a month ago at the pop-up boutique of comedy nights in Melbourne called The Shelf. He treated us to a hilarious slide night, making funny commentary about photos he took while following Ross Noble around the UK filming his new, upcoming TV show Freewheeling. Tony worked as a writer for the show and it’s a testament to his talent that Ross flew him over. The Yeti was quite a different performance. While his night at The Shelf was fairly relaxed and slightly improvised, allowing for silly comments by The Shelf team, who were also on stage, this was very formal with no banter, no explanation and no introduction.

The cold opening is very dramatic and works beautifully for this monologue, which not unlike Tony himself is trim, sleek and well groomed. It forces the audience to focus from the start and the laughs are quick and constant. He has memorised the entire chapter word for word and gives us the text from the book and nothing more. Apart from something special at the end, the big bonus for a live audience is Tony bringing all the characters to life on stage and of course his rendition of the ridiculous silly voice of his eccentric Swiss/German/New Zealand landlord Gunter. A character that made the chapter so memorable in Lollyscramble because you have to read large chunks of it out loud to work out what the hell he is saying. He’s written Gunter’s speech out phonetically on the page and this show is worth coming to just to hear Tony doing Gunter’s mindboggling thick accented outbursts.

It is the 50th anniversary of Dr Who in 2013 and this would have to be one of the subtlest tributes. The title of Tony’s show is referring to a very obscure Dr. Who monster from the black & white Patrick Troughton era in the 1960s where most episodes have been destroyed. I’ve only recently seen a friend’s recorded copy of ‘Web of Fear’ with Yeti’s for the first time and they are big, lumbering fluffy and cute looking robots, but I’m sure terrifying to a young child. Tony reveals their significance during his show which is actually made up of an accumulation of smaller tales about a shared house he lived in, in Auckland and the fascinating people who lived there.

It’s a joy to watch a performer who has complete confidence in his meticulously constructed prose. He’s also an excellent comedic character actor with years of experience in sketch comedy on TV and on radio. I was in tears of laughter throughout the show and could not recommend it more highly. This is one of those ‘Not to be Missed’ comedy events in Melbourne. Shows have sold fast and extra performances have been added. See it if you can.

Tony Martin is performing at The Butterfly Club. The season is sold out but extra performances have been added.
BUTTERFLY CLUB (TUESDAY 24 SEPT) AND FRINGE HUB – MAIN THEATRE, LITHUANIAN CLUB (THURSDAY 26 + SUNDAY 29 SEPTEMBER)

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/tony-martin-the-yeti/

5 Good Reasons to see 10:45pm World Record Show.

THE 5 STUPIDEST WORLD RECORDS WE’LL ATTEMPT:

1. DARING STUNTS:
Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall and Pat Burtscher will compete to see who can snorkel in a fish tank the longest, whilst completing puzzle challenges.

2. SEX APPEAL:
Greg Larsen will try and set the record for the ‘fastest time to get an erection and play Baker Street on saxophone.’

3. YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE HISTORY:
We’re going to break records with the audience:
– Most people eating a single Le Snak biscuit.
– Most people pretending to fate at once.
– Most people saying ‘Beat Cancer’ in Chinese (all real records).

4. TRUE LOVE:
We’re going to lock comedian and local lover Jonathan Schuster in a sound proof booth with a stranger for an hour and get to them to complete a series of scientific experiments to see if we can break the record for ‘Fastest time for Jonathan Schuster to fall in love.’

5. REAL RISKS:
Hosts Adam Knox and Dave Warneke will compete to break ‘The world’s most terrifying message left on their own mother’s voice mail…’

(We’re also going to try a bunch of real records including the LONGEST EVER VARIETY SHOW on Saturday October 5th from 10am at Tuxedo Cat).

The most chaotic and unpredictable comedy show of the Fringe is on at Tuxedo Cat on Friday and Saturday nights at 10:45pm from September 20 – October 5.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/10-45pm-world-record-show/

Twice Shy

By Colin Flaherty

An encore season of their Melbourne Comedy Festival show, Twice Shy sees Shannon Woodford and Joel Checkley portray two lonely souls, Rosemary and Jonathan, who are destined to be together.

This was an incredibly sweet show that proudly displayed its vintage and homemade aesthetics. From the filmed segments using Super 8, patchwork screens at the sides of the stage and the indie folk music by their friends Cavanagh and Argus, everything screamed whimsy. There’s the odd humorous reference specifically catering to the young inner city crowd (the natural target audience) but they also flip things around to have a gentle dig at the hipsters.

The main structure of the show saw the two main characters going about their day through alternating scenes until the pair eventually met. While there were some attempts so show Rosemary and Jonathan as downtrodden loners through various social interactions, they were predominantly used as a straight (wo)man to a menagerie of colourful and often grotesque types (played by the opposing actor with a minimum of props and costuming). This came dangerously close to being a mere show-reel to show off their character work but what a showcase of their talents it was! Woodford and Checkley both did a brilliant job in bringing these characters to life by putting on silly voices to portray both genders and added plenty of amusing physicality to the roles.

In addition to the action taking place on stage, this performance was a visual and auditory feast. A narrator pushed the plot along at a decent clip and provided most of the exposition. Wonderful video clips (starring a pair of brilliantly expressive children as the young Rosemary and Jonathan) silently told the back stories of our heroes with some visual jokes. We were even treated to a show-stopping musical number complete with daggy choreography.

The conclusion relied heavily on video to wrap things up. It added the odd joke to raise a chuckle but tended to go on a little long and was rather heavy on the schmaltz. A costume change in the final scene (quite notable as every other scene relied heavily on mime rather than costuming) denoted the passing of time and nothing else. The pair simply stands on stage together as we remark to ourselves “what an adorable couple!” The result was a show that doesn’t end on a huge laugh but leaves you with a smile on your face and a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Twice Shy is on at Loop until Oct 1
Visit the Fringe site for booking details.

5 Good Reasons to see Wizard Sandwiches – The Last Lunch

5 Good Reasons to see Wizard Sandwiches brand new show The Last Lunch

1) We’ll return all the conclusions we tore out of the books you love to read.

2) We’ll be revealing the secret ingredient (it’s eggplant) of our special Moroccan dip.

3) It’s on a tram line and starts at 10.30pm – plenty of time to do other uninteresting things before hand.

4) It is endorsed by the guy from Silver K Gallery:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=35u7qM4CVMs&feature

5) It’s a silly show with all new sketches and never before seen materiLOL

With their varying degrees of facial hair, these five diversely talented comedians are definitely the ones to watch.

Wizard Sandwiches  The Last Lunch is on at  Meeting Room, at the North Melbourne Town Hall from 20 – 27 September.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/wizard-sandwiches-the-last-lunch/