Stuart Daulman – Squirrel Comedy

Stuart Daulman – Into the Galaxy

By Nick Bugeja

Stuart Daulman has laboured away on comedy stages and rooms at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) for nearly as long as some of his audience members have been alive. He’s a versatile and talented comic performer whose passion and commitment to the form is evident in his latest show, Into the Galaxy, an engrossing foray into an intergalactic world inhabited by Daulman’s cast of characters, not least himself. As it develops, you realise the show is less about a whimsical space story and more a self-examination of Daulman’s personal and professional aspirations, anxieties and convictions.

In this fictional world, Daulman had become an astronaut, and he’s setting out on a mission to space, in the company of an artificial intelligence computer much like HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (minus the malice and malevolence). His take-off and journey into space from the comfort of his spaceship is pre-recorded, and displayed on a projector. These sequences give structure to the show, and serve the incident purpose of giving Daulman enough time to change between the well-curated costumes for each of his characters.

The first of these is 12-year-old Daulman, then a South African resident of ‘Jozi’ with dreams of entering into space. Daulman winds back the clock when playing his younger self, and executes a perfect South African (or rather, South Efrican) accent. A surprise cameo from former President Nelson Mandela makes for great, good-natured comedy, characteristic of the entire show.

Daulman’s other sketch performances—as a self-promoting businessman who he’d encountered at astronaut school, practicing his golf swing, and an alien suspended in space—were equally relished by the audience. The entire performance was marked by the thought and work—evidenced by each gesture, facial expression, staging choice, costume, and joke—Daulman had invested to create a funny, personal and reflective show.

Into the Galaxy is a breath of fresh air at MICF, amid a catalogue of largely
homogeneous stand-up performances. It’s a living and breathing performance by a man clearly passionate about the arts, comedy and performance, and delivers a steady stream of laughs throughout. Stuart Daulman is a comic workhorse whose preferred genre of comedy may not enjoy the widest appeal, though it should.

Into the Galaxy is on at the Victoria Hotel until 21 April.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2024/shows/into-the-galaxy

Stuart Daulman – The Stuart Daulman Farewell Reunion Show

By Will Erskine

The Stuart Daulman Farewell Reunion Show is like watching your mad uncle pontificate at a family function – that’s meant as a compliment.

Stuart Daulman is clearly a master of his craft. The show is largely straight standup, with seemingly no firm structure and flexible content selection. He seems deeply relaxed throughout the performance and it feels at times like you’re watching an eccentric uncle hold court at a family BBQ, anecdotes many of which don’t fully materialise and migrate to tangents that deliver more tangents and occasionally bringing it all back together with a musical interlude.

Daulman achieves that wonderfully enigmatic stand-up trick of holding the room’s attention and making everyone laugh without (on the surface) having to do very much. If one were to look at the script for the show, there isn’t masses of content and certainly not hundreds of jokes, but with his delivery style Daulman manages to squeeze every bit of funny out of even the most banal detail. Getting a coffee, catching the tram, all of which become hilarious stories in Daulman’s hands. The written jokes almost becoming secondary to the style and delivery.

Words like “rambling delivery” and “not much content” might seem like this is a negative review, that’s not the intent at all and couldn’t be further from the truth. Daulman holds the audience in the palm of his hand and has everyone hanging of his every word. His set pieces of lip-synching help to keep the pace of the show and mix things up.

I’d only seen one of Stuart Daulman’s previous shows, and from memory it was a high concept performance involving staging his own funeral and he alludes in tonight’s show to it being unusual for him to be doing stand-up without lots of props and masks. It’s refreshing to see such an established indie performer to take a step back and strip back the performance to the basics.

I’d highly recommend this show for people who like relaxed easy going, quirky stand-up. A good mix of jokes, eccentric delivery and set piece lip synching.

Stuart Daulman performs The Stuart Daulman Farewell Reunion Show at Trades Hall for the duration of the festival (no shows on Wednesday)

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2021/shows/stuart-daulman

Scout Boxall: Good Egg

By Colin Flaherty

Non binary comedian Scout Boxhall made their solo festival debut with Good Egg and word of mouth of it’s excellence spread quickly so that an extra performance was added in a bigger room to meet demand. After catching this last performance I can report that all the hype and award nomination was justified. This was a brilliant and hilarious show that delighted all in attendance.

Good Egg was a personally political show that didn’t aggressively push an agenda instead playfully poking fun at the comedian’s experiences, the current political climate and societal conventions. Scout regularly diverted down paths of daftness that managed to stick to the point being addressed while being hilariously ludicrous flights of fancy. You will never watch the Federal Budget or listen to the music of Enya the same way again.

In addition to amusing monologues Scout performed hysterial sketches using simple costuming to transform into various wacky characters. Some were presented in a blasé manner as if many ideas were being thrown at the wall to see what would stick but the quality was so consistently high that this on-stage second guessing seemed to be a ploy to keep us off balance. Scout has the funny bones to pull off anything vaguely comedic with an ease and comfort on stage proving that a number of years in straight theatre has prepared them well for the world of comedy.

Stuart Daulman’s directorial fingerprints were all over this show and he even made the odd guest appearance. Scout performed it with ease, fully committing to some absurdly long and uncomfortable set pieces to break through to the hilarity.

The sound design by James Collopy was an essential element to this performance. From the sound effect punchlines to the dry robotic quips, this was an auditory delight.

Good Egg is sure to get a reprisal in upcoming festivals so when it does, grab a ticket posthaste to witness this masterclass in performing a debut show.

Good Egg has finished its run.
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/scout-boxall-good-egg/

Stuart Daulman : Masterclass

By Colin Flaherty

“Comedy genius” Stuart Daulman (Steve Bennett wrote it so it must be true!) presented a seminar detailing all that’s required to survive in the comedy game. If you’re expecting serious comedic writing tips you’re better off seeking the services of someone like Tim Ferguson. While he did cover stagecraft this was mostly about The Hustle, neediness and backstabbing that goes on.

This was an ambitious performance where, in true Daulman fashion, he fully committed to the concept. As lecturer he played it completely straight with plenty of business mantra chanting and constant requests for networking opportunites. The war stories got chuckles of recognition as did the familiar elements of festival shows.

Daulman’s delivery suited the piece and cleverly blurred the line of what was lighthearted joking and heart wrenching anger. A live phone call to his mum was a stilted awkward affair that was accurate rather than funny which may or may not have been the point. His descriptions of the humiliating process of ‘putting yourself out there’ and chasing a career in the arts was bleak comedy at it’s best.

Jake Ludowyke handled all AV duties using a delightfully old school overhead projector. The text shown on the slides was wonderfully excessive to give some context for those outside the industry (if you could read quickly enough that is) while having fun with Powerpoint sins. He showed many actual photos and posts from Stu’s social media as well as carefully selected quotes from show reviews (former Squirrel Elyce Phillips got a mention, umm… hooray?). Particularly adorable was the lo-fi animations using transparencies which when combined with bombastic music was hilarious. Ludowyke’s role was so much more, regularly acting as cheerleader for the audience to provoke reactions.

The finale was a demonstration of this master performer at work. Stu ritually changed into the comedian’s uniform and ripped through a solid set that would go down well in any beer barn, but a lot of the big laughs for us are in recognising all the bad tropes covered previously. There was also the deeper understanding with the knowledge of all the shit he had gone through that provided extra layers.

This show was definitely geared towards an experienced festival audience, in particular those in the biz. This was so much more than a hilariously faux bad business seminar and laid out Stuart’s emotions bare. Stuart Daulman’s Masterclass was a powerful glimpse behind the curtain of the life of a standup comedian.

Masterclass is on at Melbourne Town Hall (Regent Room) until April 21
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/masterclass

Stuart Daulman – Death of a Daulman

By Colin Flaherty

Armed with a Moosehead Grant, Stuart Daulman has decided to stage his own funeral for this years’ Festival. With Jake Ludowyke as Pastor John, Daulman plays all the other roles that are paying tribute to him. A lot of the humour comes from the dismissive sentiments we hear from a soccer coach with a score to settle and an opportunistic fellow stand up – Justin “The Dustbin” Murray – (industry folk will find plenty to laugh at during his speech). Others provide not much more insight into the man as they wax lyrical about a youthful Daulman in their own odd ways. It was both a satire about disrespect of the dead and a wonderfully silly celebration of a regularly silly comedian.

Much like his stand up, the funeral proceedings have a slightly ramshackle feel to it. A detained friend dropped from the program at the last minute and a quickly thrown together slideshow speak volumes of the slight legacy of the man and are amusing ways that the show feels like it is always on the verge of falling apart despite being tightly scripted.

Ludowyke was a suitably poe-faced Pastor but was on the verge of corpsing occasionally, which delighted the audience. Unlike real funerals, guilty laughs are encouraged and expected. Kitted out in elaborate costumes, Daulman handled all the roles with ease. His brother was ridiculously serious in spite of a silly tribute requested by his late sibling and Granny was adorably scatterbrained. Everyone got the giggles when the choirboy first sang in falsetto…and continued to sing all the verses of Abide With Me.

My only complaint, despite Stu’s comedy colleague, Justin, making good with the promise to promote his own show “Bin Night“as we left, is that the service ended on a rather sombre note. Instead of ending on some sort of comedic bombshell or surprise, we quietly filed out of the room where we could marvel at the most elaborate and expensive prop of the festival. I’m sure many selfies will be taken with it, just as Stuart would have wanted.

Death of a Daulman is on at the Victoria Hotel – Acacia Room until April 22
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2018/shows/stuart-daulman-death-of-a-daulman

Squirrel Comedy’s Recommended and Previously Reviewed Shows at Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2015

By Lisa Clark

Well the Squirrels are getting ruffled up and ready for autumn nut collecting. And comedy reviewing. There are soooo many shows on offer at the 2015 Melbourne International comedy Festival and it can be very difficult for us to see everything we want to see, let alone review everything we want to review. For those readers who are planning their Festival schedules and are in need of help, we have some good news: Squirrel Comedy has previously reviewed thirty of this year’s shows and we have laid out links to all those reviews below.

First Up here are some brilliant shows I previously saw & loved but Squirrel Comedy hasn’t reviewed.

I recommend you see:

Claire Hooper’s School Camp

Claire takes us back to school days in a raw & truthful way where nostalgia takes some surprising and dark turns that make this show very special.

Celia Pacquola – Let Me Know How It All Works Out.

Celia’s show about fortune telling and her international lifestyle was another of Celia’s crowd-pleasing corkers.

Barry Nominated last year as word got around it was selling out like hotcakes, so if you weren’t lucky enough to see this gorgeous show better book now.

Denise Scott – Mother Bare

Denise deservedly won the Barry Award last year for her droll and often riotous reflections on motherhood and other aspects of her comedic life.

She’s only doing four shows this year at the fan friendly time of 4.30 Sundays, so get your tickets early.

And now for shows that we have previously reviewed.

Particular highlights this year that I can also recommend include:

Are You Afraid of the Dark by Watson

Watson’s funny and occasionally genuinely scary show is not for those with a nervous disposition or heart condition but my goodness it is a monstrous load of fun. It can only fit smallish audiences into the space at the Old Melbourne Gaol so book early, I hear the first week is booking out fast. Not surprising as this show won Best Comedy at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and considering it is site specific it is one you will have to come to Melbourne to see.

Bart Freebairn Ultra Power Lord

Bart is a comedian at the top of his game just waiting to be discovered by the mainstream. I get the joyful shivers when I see a stand up comedian reach a point where they can host a room and own it keeping everyone rolling with laughter non stop. Bart is there and I hope everyone loves Ultra Power Lord as much as I did at Fringe last year.

Bucket’s List by Sarah Collins starring Justin Kennedy

Buckets List is a whimsical, beautiful and of course very funny tale with a star turn by the amazing Justin Kennedy (who we just don’t see enough of on the circuit any more – I miss him, but if this is the sort of work he’s producing then I’ll forgive his absence). Justin is blessed with the ability to make an audience laugh without saying a word and when I see independent theatre this good I think our major theatre companies should have a good hard look at themselves.

Damian Callinan – The Lost WW1 Diary of Private Paddy Callinan

A perfect show for this anniversary of ANZAC it’s another comedy character tour de force by Damian where truth and tall tales blur with loads of laughs and a streak of darkness. The true spirit of the ANZAC is thoroughly celebrated.

We can’t wait to discover new exciting comedy at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival but meanwhile

Here’s the full list with links of those we reviewed earlier:

The 13–Storey Treehouse

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=6692

Anthony Jeannot is Unaccept-a-bubble

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=7985

Bart Freebairn: Ultra Power Lord

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=7643

Clem Bastow – Escape From LA

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=7956

Damian Callinan – The Lost WW1 Diary of Private Paddy Callinan

https://www.squirrelcomedy.com/?p=6010