Category: Melbourne Fringe Festival

The Improv Conspiracy – A Night in Chicago

By Elyce Phillips 

I’ve been a fan of The Improv Conspiracy for a while now. Their weekly shows over at the Dan O’Connell in Carlton are one of the highlights of the comedy off-season. And so, I headed over to the Croft Institute expecting a top-notch night of improv and I was not let down.

For this year’s Fringe, the group is trying out a new improv format – the Armando (named after improv legend Armando Diaz). Developed in Chicago, the format is perhaps best known for being used by the likes of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey at Assscat.

The evening begins with a storyteller responding to a personal question asked by a member of the audience. From there, the group takes the story apart and plays with the elements, creating scenes until the storyteller steps in with a new tale.

On the evening I attended, Creative Director Adam Kangas was the storyteller, letting loose with some brutally honest stories after being asked “When did you lose your virginity?” Over the course of the night, we heard some great stories about his time at nerd college and his family.

It’s wonderful watching the improvisers at work, playing with some of the tiniest aspects of a story and pulling them out into something altogether absurd. A passing comment of Kangas’ about his siblings being not so ‘genetically gifted’ became a rousing round of Genetic Lotto. A story about his stepdad building cabinets for a strip club led to some rather uncomfortable times for a couple of strippers. A simple list of his siblings’ names led to Luke Ryan organizing an almighty family reunion, involving Kangas’ lesser-known relatives Spaceman and War Machine Kangas.

If you’ve been to some improv in Melbourne before, there might be a few familiar faces – the likes of Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd and Charlie Sturgeon also perform at HOO-HAA! and Theatresports and just about every other improv night in town, so you’re in experienced hands. The crew work together intuitively and are consistently funny.

There is a new storyteller each night, so there’s no telling what will happen from one show to the next. But with such a strong group of performers, you’re not going to be disappointed.

The Improv Conspiracy – A Night in Chicago is on at the Croft Institute until October 5.

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/the-improv-conspiracy/

3 Little Gigs

By Colin Flaherty

What is becoming a fixture of Imperial Comedy programs, 3 Little Gigs showcases the talents of up and coming performers in the safety of a group show. The Melbourne Fringe line up comprises of Arielle Conversi, Cameron Tyeson and Rose Callaghan.

Hailing from the States, Arielle hit the stage with boisterous enthusiasm. When she launched into material about the differences between her birthplace and Australia, a feeling of dread swept over me as this kind of gear is generally hack material by someone just off the plane. This lifted a little as it did actually fit with the way the show was advertised (worldwide comedy from Florida, Tasmania and Port Melbourne!) and she had a few unique observations that were amusing. The remainder of her set comprised of funny stories of working at a strip club where the humour came from her workmates lack of intellect and class. It was quite an enjoyable set.

Tasmanian born Cam was next and also opened with an outsiders view of Melbourne that was little generic but had a few interesting ideas amongst it. His set really hit its straps in the second half with a routine about his tips for dating success complete with hand drawn visual aids. Some of the cards were a little wordy and contained the exact text he was reciting to us but there were plenty of cute cartoons to entertain. His wordplay was sometimes a little forced but some nice surreal concepts kept us laughing.

Local girl Rose rounded out the night and had a strange, varied tone to her delivery. Beginning with embarassment when referring to an un-named feminine hygiene product, she later described various amusing sexual misadventures using plenty of detail and innuendo. She had a lot of interesting ideas beneath it all but often failed to capitalise on them, many of her jokes drifted off into the ether without pay-off. It was as if she was relying too much on the audience to connect the dots to understand the angle from which she was approaching a punchline rather than actually giving us one.

All three performers displayed confidence on stage to effectively sell their material but their inexperience tended to show through. When lines fell flat they highlighted them with some comments to their fellow performers which came dangerously close to blaming the audience for not laughing. It was nice to see their camaraderie and these interactions gave the show a fun, informal feel, but to some it may not be professional enough for a paying audience. The cold hard fact is: if a line fails repeatedly, it probably needs re-evaluation rather than stubbornly persisting with it.

Overall it was a fun show. They were all still rough around the edges and it’s worth keeping an eye open for their future endeavours. Those willing to take the risk on these relative unknowns will have a good time if they take their greenness into account.

3 Little Gigs is on at The Imperial Hotel until September 27

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/3-little-gigs/

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/