Collectively they have over 60 years of improv experience between them, hailing from 3 of the worlds best commonwealth states. Yikes! Individually they’ve toured locally and internationally as improvisers and teachers, and have extensive experience with all of Melbourne’s top improv companies: Impro Melbourne, The Big Hoo-Haa Melbourne, Impromptunes and Improv Conspiracy.
2. The music!
Award-winning musician Jamie Burgess adds his musical magic to all the songs. They may be improvised, but boy will they be catchy, ticking all the pop-trope boxes and using titles provided by the audience, promising a unique experience with a guaranteed earworm each night!
3.Nostalgia!
TriAngel is a chance to relive your childhood pop fantasies and get up close and personal to that It-girl band you never knew.
4. Improv!
You get a unique performance every night, where your suggestions will help create the story and the music. No two shows or songs are the same.
5.Sparkles!
Hoo-boy! There has been so much cash spent on glitter and sparkles that this makes TriAngel the most flammable show of the festival! If it couldn’t be done with a hot glue gun, it couldn’t be done.
Amanda Buckley, Amy Moule and Candice D’Arcy perform TriAngel at Trades Hall from Sept 12 – 20
The 32nd Melbourne International Comedy Festival has been officially
Lano & Woodley
Launched for 2018. Hosted by comedy legends Lano & Woodley, their reunion this year, after 12 years apart, in their new show Fly is one of the big thrills causing quite a buzz in a gigantic, exciting programme. There are more than 620 shows in this years festival. Some of the shows are encore performances and others that we Squirrels managed to catch and review at other festivals.
Feel free to click on the links below and read what we thought of these earlier iterations, keeping in mind that festival shows are ever evolving beasts that change and develop over time, so the new version may be quite different to one we saw.
See a favourite off the telly, See someone you’ve never heard of. Most of all have a wonderful time and keep an eye on Squirrel Comedy as the new reviews roll in and we keep you up to date on what’s happening via our Social Media.
Wanda and Mel is a backstage musical of sorts, a Mother/Daughter cabaret act doing a tour of regional towns of Victoria with some drama and a lot of laughs. A generation gap story about a new generation.
Amanda Buckley has been performing around Melbourne’s comedy and improv scene for a long while and is well cast as the stage mother, Wanda. She not the usual stage mother monster as portrayed in Gypsy but more sympathetic as a well-meaning woman who has had her own burgeoning career thwarted by circumstances and now in middle age is giving it another go with her talented daughter along as a side kick. Wanda is so full of energy and positivity that it makes the audience laugh and is fairly infectious. But we can also see that it could be exhausting and embarrassing for a teen.
The incredibly talented but properly socially awkward Mel is played beautifully by Kaliya Arumugam. Her job is to embody the laconic, millennial, phone obsessed teen offstage while singing and dancing her butt off onstage. Mel probably looked up to and adored her mum as a kid, wanting to be like her but now in her teens is sick of wandering with her mum and trying to discover herself and what she wants to do with her own future.
The songs are all famous tunes with new, comedic lyrics written all about current hot topics like climate change, marriage equality and Misogyny. It’s a pity that the music isn’t all fresh and original, but this is just the sort of thing that might be performed in regional schools by a cabaret/musical comedy act. They are all very funny (and not in an ironic way) and the choreography is particularly impressive and well executed. Some of the songs less so, particularly when they require the lower register which neither performer was able to master, maybe a musical retooling of these bits or even taking out one of the songs may have helped (one particular deep one didn’t seem important to the show). There were some glitches on opening night but these were mostly dealt with beautifully with much humour and Amanda’s impro experience coming to the fore turned them into show highlights.
Wanda and Mel is well acted and well danced with a lot of enthusiasm and packs in some timely political messages in an easily digestible way. This is a fairly sweet and funny bit of musical theatre you can bring the whole family to. I could see this actually going over well in regional towns. It’s a bit daggy and old fashioned, but like Wanda herself it is also well meaning, positive and joyous.
Wanda and Mel is on at The Butterfly Club until October 1
