Joshua Ladgrove – Baba

By Jess Welch

If you thought you had a tough lockdown, try being the sole caretaker of your 97 year old Ukrainian grandmother, the titular Baba. You might not think a comedy show about caring for, and subsequently losing, a grandmother during the pandemic could possibly be funny. It doesn’t exactly seem like prime comedy material. But Joshua Ladgrove is no ordinary comedian.

Ladgrove weaves the story of not just caring for his grandmother while dealing with a global pandemic, but the wider stories around them. From his Baba’s upbringing in Ukraine, he details her life of ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. He recounts his own upbringing, surrounded by family. It is a story of love and loss and hope and despair. It touches on so many heavy topics that to list them all would put anyone off buying a ticket. But that wouldn’t be doing it justice. It’s something that will stay with you, long after you leave. It’s one of those shows that’s more than comedy, yet still has more than enough light-hearted and hilarious moments to keep from dragging you too deep into the darker side. It’s comedy plus tragedy.

Ladgrove has been a familiar face at MICF for many years, though perhaps not always a familiar name. As a character performer, he won acclaim and more than a few awards. Now, in a completely startling departure from the world of character comedy, he takes to the stage as himself. It’s raw, powerful, hilarious and heartbreaking. Above all, it’s truthful – something most comedy can’t boast. It has moments of shock and discomfort. But all of that is soothed by equal moments of peace, calm and, most importantly, love. Ultimately, it is a tribute to the matriarch of his family and it is an incredibly beautiful one.

JOSHUA LADGROVE – BABA is on at the MELBOURNE TOWN HALL BACKSTAGE ROOM.
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/baba

Stephen Hall – Letters From My Heroes

By Peter Newling

Stephen Hall is one of the unsung heroes of Australian Comedy. While many will be familiar with his amazing on-camera character work for Shaun Micallef’s Mad As Hell (think Darius Horsham, Donald McEngadine et al), his work as a contributary writer on some of Australia’s best comedies is perhaps lesser known. He worked on such classics as The Hollowmen, BackBerner, Full Frontal, Spicks & Specs, Newstopia and Adam Hills Tonight – to name but a few. From this it’s easy to see that he keeps very good company, and is much in demand in the worlds of political satire, impersonation and topical comedy.

His 2023 MICF offering allows him to show off all of these remarkable skills.

Letters From My Heroes is not your usual festival stand-up show. It’s a series of quite excellent impersonations, loosely held together with some (sometimes quite tenuous) links. The central device sees Hall try and imagine what various celebrities might write back to him in response to requests for advice. This gives him a chance to pay homage to an impressive array of celebrities, including past and present Aussie comics, Hollywood stars, historical figures and even the occasional cartoon character. The diverse themes are drawn together at the end in a most unexpected and delightful way.

Moments of the show are surprisingly personal, with Hall sharing insights into how his background has influenced his work, and his own choice of hero. The show also offers an opportunity to reflect on how culture and taste determine who should and shouldn’t be impersonated.

In an interview last year, Hall spoke of his approach to impersonation, and making sure he’s got the inflections, rhythms and body movements of his impersonatee just right. He said: “I’m quite forensic about it, as I tend to be with most impressions. There’s a lot of analysis and study behind the scenes before the performance that the audience doesn’t see”.

That forensic analysis and quest for precision is the hallmark of his work. Most importantly, he shows great respect for those who he impersonates.

The early start time makes Letters From My Heroes an ideal way to kick off a night at the festival. It’s not side-splitting stuff, but it’s a great opportunity to watch one of Australia’s comedy legends at work.

Stephen Hall – Letters From My heroes is playing March 30 to April 23 at the ACMI Swinburn Studio at 6:00pm (Tues to Sat) and 5:00pm (Sundays).  https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/letters-from-my-heroes

Ari Eldjárn – Return of the Icelandic

By Bren Carruthers

In most eyes, Ari Eldjárn is the Icelandic comedian – no other act has had greater success between here and the North Sea. Surely then, it should come as no surprise that his primary source of mirth and mockery is his homeland, the quaintness and oftentimes ridiculousness of Icelandic life.

It’s a deep well of content, and as he caricatures his fellow countrymen, as well as Danes, Swedes and Germans, it’s surprising to find how well-received it is by an Australian audience that – one would have to assume – have no more than a passing familiarity with the region. It may well be that Eldjárn’s relatively innocuous skewering is a close match for the classic Australian pursuit of egalitarian pisstaking.

While effective, the choice in material does render Eldjárn pretty one-dimensionally. In fact, he is well into the second half of Return of the Icelandic before he begins to offer us any insight into himself as a person: his family, his home life, his one-time DJing career. It makes for an odd, even slightly unnerving shift, as though a few pages of content from elsewhere have been stapled to the back of the runsheet to fill time, or as though Eldjárn’s identity itself has been ruthlessly relegated to a fifteen minute afterthought.

Does Eldjárn nail the laughs? Absolutely. But it’s hard not to think about how a better approach to constructing a show would take his craft to the next level – a level he is quite obviously capable of reaching.

Ari Eldjárn’s Return of the Icelandic is on in Melbourne Town Hall’s Powder Room until April 16.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/ari-eldjarn

Maisie Adam – Buzzed

By Lisa Clark

Well I just saw my favourite show at the Festival so far, Maisie Adams – Buzzed. It’s early days I know and a big call, but it’s such a joy to experience a new stand-up comedian with confidence and enthusiasm who can wiz me off into their world and hit me right in the solar plexis.

Her energy is way up as she bounds onto the stage, ready to give the audience her all. Maisie does no nonsense standup with stories from her life that she has turned into brilliant comedy for us. This was her Australian debut of a show she’s been performing since Edinburgh in August last year, so it’s finely tuned and bedded in. There is a sense that she really knows what she’s about and won’t let us down. I loved the moment she got her first big laugh across the whole room and she said, quietly, almost to herself, “We’re off”, and we were. She kept that laughter rolling and the audience in the palm of her hand.

At her show’s heart there are two main stories. She mines her recent engagement and wedding plans for comedy gold expanding on the ridiculousness of wedding traditions through the eyes of a modern woman. Timeless comedy material but made fresh by an intelligent comedian experiencing them for the first time. The second and deeper story was about her lifelong passion for playing and watching football (ie soccer), who would’ve thought I’d be this excited about a comedy festival show that devotes such a large clump to sports and that it would make me cry? Her finale lifted the roof off the room.

Woven around these big stories were smaller warm tales about her life and family, such as her relationships with her mum and beloved granny and of course there was the inevitable Covid gear.  But my goodness it was great gear and Maisie had the BEST impression of post-covid chit chat. So.  Are you curious about her hair then? She knows you are and this show will reveal that story too. Her comedy instincts are effortlessly awesome.  The hour zips by and it’s over too quickly. By the end of her Melbourne debut, I feel like I know Maisie and that she’s a new mate I look forward to seeing again.

You may have seen Maisie Adams brightening up many a British TV panel show, like 8 Out of 10 Cats do Countdown, The Last Leg or QI. She is becoming well known over there and she is disarmingly delighted and surprised to have sold out her whole show run (in an admittedly small room and short run) on the other side of the world.

They’ve had to put her in a bigger room for a bonus show on April 22. Get tickets while you can.

Maisie Adam’s Extra show of Buzzed is at 6pm in the Lower Town Hall on Sat April 22

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/maisie-adam#

Maisie is also appearing in a group show The Best of The Edinburgh Fest at The Capitol, Every night for the rest of the Festival.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/best-of-the-edinburgh-fest

Nicolette Minster’s Net Worth

By Lisa Clark

Most people have been curious enough to Google themselves at some point. You may find out something interesting, a giggle or a story to tell at parties. But when you are a creative person, in lock down with post partem depression, you may take things just a little too far, like Nicolette Minster did. And again, when you are a creative person, you may write a festival show about it.

Nicolette has a fairly interesting story to tell and begins by explaining that she was a child actor who worked with Meryl Streep. Frankly, I wanted to hear more about that, and how she ended up marrying another former child actor and then decided at some point to do standup. But that fascinating titbit was merely to lay the foundation of why she was intrigued to discover another person online who shares her name and seems to be more successful and interesting.

The main tale is about her obsession with wealthier Nicolette, who may or may not be a real person living in America and the lengths she will go to, to find out about her, which mostly involves a bit of poking about online until she crosses the line somewhat. Nicolette admits, with a grin, to enjoying having a secret little world to disappear into away from her mundane suburban life, that her husband doesn’t know about.

I enjoyed spending an hour with Nicolette, she is bright, cheerful and personable, but Net Worth feels a little more like a lecture with laughs, rather than standup comedy. We learn a bit about her IVF experiences, a tiny bit about maths and possibly a bit too much about prolapses, but Nicolette doesn’t go into depths about a person’s worth, or explore the humour in the appropriateness of thinking of people in terms of monetary worth etc.

Nicolette is certainly an engaging story teller and these would be great stories after a few wines at a dinner party but she doesn’t exact any belly laughs from me. I did laugh sporadically and there were quite a few women in their 30s and 40s having a great time giggling loudly throughout this show.  There is a show for everyone at MICF and if you are a Gen Y, middle class, suburban straight woman looking for something cheeky and non confrontational at the Festival, grab your friends and head on over.

Nicolette Minster’s Net Worth is on at the Town Hall Portico Room.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/nicolette-minsters-net-worth

Laura Davis – Well Don’t Just Stand There Dancing

By Bren Carruthers

We’ve all been thrown about during this pandemic era, and perhaps few more than Laura Davis. The Perth export has been bobbing around the globe like a cork in the ocean these past few years, with the usual festival schedule graciously bringing her back to our shores for Well Don’t Just Stand There Dancing.

Much like in Davis’ hit show from last year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the pandemic influence is apparent, shaping some of the undercurrent of themes. But Davis’ signature strength is her ability to draw from seemingly innocuous topics – in this case, anything from Jurassic Park to revolution – and constellate a story far greater than the sum of its parts.

Davis mentions in an aside during the show that she never wanted to be a comedian; she wanted to be a poet. Her ability to weave dexterously from theme to theme, deftly using her sharp mind and anarchic energy to pull the threads of her work into position is a kind of poetry in itself, with its own meter and rhythm, something incomparably uniquely and distinctly Davis.

As a fiercely independent artist, Laura Davis is one of Australia’s most underappreciated (by those unfamiliar with her work) and fascinating comedians, and Dancing sees her at the top of her game. Word is already getting around and her shows will start to sell out. Book now, before the AFP shuts her down.

Laura Davis – Well Don’t Just Stand There Dancing is on at Campari House until April 23

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/laura-davis-well-don-t-just-stand-there-dancing