5 Good Reasons to See Murder Village : An Improvised Whodunnit

1. Do you like or love Agatha Christie, Johnathan Creek, Inspector Morse, Midsomer Murders, or any whodunnit that depicts horrible, gruesome murders with the general tone and whimsy of an episode The Great British Bake Off? If so, we’ve got the horrible, gruesome murder Melbourne Comedy Festival show for you.

2. This is the only chance you’re likely to get in your life to step inside a 1950s Agatha Christie mystery – and bonus points are deserved, we think, for ensuring it is never the audience members that get murdered.
3. We’re making up an entire, overly-complicated Agatha Christie plot up on the spot. The cast is made up of many of Melbourne’s – nay, the country’s – best improvisers, including international impro champs Lliam Amor and Jason Geary.

4. You’ll be catching a show that sold out its run at last year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. Money talks, we’re told. While there, Murder Village scooped up a heap of great reviews, included some that described it as, “The perfect recipe for murder” (Weekend Notes), “A genius hybrid between a murder mystery and a professional long form improvised format” (The Plus Ones), and “An evening where revelling in death and murder is turned into wholesome fun” (Stage Whispers).

5. You decide who lives and who dies! Your secret ballot at the top of the show will determine the killer and the victim, while still preserving the mystery so that you can have all the fun of working out whodunnit. Hint: it was (or was not) the butler.

Murder Village: An Improvised Whodunnit  is on at The Butterfly Club from Apr 12 – 21

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/murder-village

 

5 Good Reasons to See David Massingham’s Little Sketch Book of Horrors

1. It’s filled with spooky horror sketches that aren’t that interested in scaring you. For his second solo show, David’s channelling a little Vincent Price spooky storytelling and as such you can expect references to Dracula, Saw and Scooby-Doo. Also, for reasons that go unexplained, he’s gonna namedrop of West Side Story, Jurassic Park and 99 Luftballoons.

2. Squirrel Comedy said that David’s first show, Sketch Me Like One of Your French Girls, “Has the power to have you regularly falling about with laughter.”

3. Speaking of reviews, Sketch Me… played at 2018’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival to very pleasant notices, with Milk Bar Magazine saying it, “Combines absurdly amusing and faultless characters, playful props and good-humoured audience interaction until the whole room feels like one big love-in,” while Weekend Notes called it, ”A must-see show if you’re thinking about going to the comedy festival.”

4. One sketch spends far too much time – or not enough time, depending on your perspective – digging into collective nouns and the people who get to decide which collective nouns stick and which ones die at the hands/talons of a murder of crows.

5. I’m thinking of putting Monster Mash on the preshow music list, so that’s a fun time.

David Massingham’s Little Sketch Book of Horrors is on at Tasma Terrace from Mar 28 til Apr 7

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/little-sketch-book-of-horrors

5 Good Reasons to see Alex Ward No Flirting

1. You’ll see someone not currently living in the 90s say ‘Deal with it’ (warning: you may not deal)

2. You get to see a screen capture of my phone. What was my battery life on October 30th? You’ll have to come to find out! You won’t believe the answer!

3. I have a joke about annoying small talk. Bring that friend who always makes boring weather chat, when I do the joke, point them out and I’ll look them dead in the eyes and not speak for one whole minute.

4. You’ll get out of the house which is always nice and a good motivator to shower too! (please sit at the back if you don’t shower)

5. You’ll fall in love…probably…maybe…just come to the show!

Alex Ward performs No Flirting at Trades Hall (Not Wednesdays!)

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/no-flirting

5 Good Reasons to See The Aspie Hour with Ryan Smedley & Sophie Smyth

Reason #1: The Aspie Hour may be the very first cabaret ever written about Aspergers and musicals. In the world. We think that’s pretty cool that we did it first. Maybe we’ll start a trend.

Reason #2: The Aspie Hour has been nominated for not one, but TWO Green Room Awards. One for Best Ensemble Performance, and another for Best Writing. In other words, of all the cabarets performed last year in Victoria, the peer-assessed Green Room Award Committee thought our little show was one of the best-written and one of the best-performed. Neat!

Reason #3: You’ll have the opportunity to shout out a year from the audience, and Ryan Smedley will tell you what won the Tony Award for Best Musical in that year. Cool trick hey? He’ll also tell you some funny and remarkable stories from his solo trip to New York City, with original songs, wit, and strawberry-lime Rekorderlig to boot.

Reason #4: You can view Sophie Smyth’s incredibly detailed (and might we add, expensive) custom-made replica Dorothy costume from The Wizard of Oz, complete with ruby slippers. She will tell the story of her life as a mini-musical, using the tropes and conventions found in music theatre, to show how it is the perfect medium to escape from a strange world of misread social cues.

Reason #5: The Aspie Hour appeals to audiences on and beyond the spectrum. It’s relatable, it’s original, it’s poignant, and it’ll have you laughing your socks off (not literally of course). After sold out shows across Victoria, we’re proud to bring The Aspie Hour back to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival to share our crazy experiences again to brand new audiences. Come along to Trades Hall between March 28th and April 7th and learn that while we may be different to you neuro-typicals, you’ll be amazed at how much we’re really the same.

Ryan Smedley & Sophie Smyth perform The Aspie Hour at Trades Hall 
Mar 28 – Apr 7 (Not Wednesdays)

https://comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/the-aspie-hour

5 Reasons to see PAQUITO by Charisa Bossinakis

1. I promise to only use the word ‘woke’ once

2. You get to hear about the time I fled from an abductor in Cuba

3. My material is relatable (refer to number 2)

4. Every time you buy a ticket to my show, somewhere a fuckboi is destroyed

5. Does anyone know how to get red wine out of a white top? I know it’s unrelated, but I just thought I would reach a few more people posting on here rather posting on Reddit. I mean I did post on Reddit already, but only 1 person got back to me and said you can get it out with salt?? however, I tried and that didn’t really work. I don’t know if you can comment under this thing, but if so, please let me know. Also, the show is good fun!!

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/paquito

 5 good reasons to see JESSTATION

1. Jess is pioneering the new genre of “Mum jokes”, which are like Dad jokes, but funny.

2. JESSTATION is a show about parenting. If you’re a parent, the show will make you feel good about parent stuff. If you aren’t a parent, there is still a lot to love: wrong comedy, cute comedy, dirty comedy, pun comedy, political comedy, prop comedy.

3. There is only a little bit of prop comedy.

4. The show is at the East Melbourne Library, so this is your chance to laugh loudly in a library without getting in trouble. (And the Tippler and Co is around the corner, so you won’t have to sneak in your snacks and drinks).

5. Jess’s friends are all coming and they are really nice and you might get to sit next to one of them.

Jess Moir performs  JESSTATION for 6 nights at East Melbourne Library

For more Info & tickets :

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/jesstation