NED: Ideas you’ll never have

By Colin Flaherty

In this one man character showcase, Dylan Cole presented a parody of the conference series and website NED which aims to “spread ideas” through 15 minute presentations from individuals, usually experts in their field, on a wide range of topics. The poster for the show even mimics the TED Homepage with a collection of bizzare topics accompanying the video links.

The first speaker to take the stage was Dr John Hatzenberger, a dishevelled Academic who got quite flustered while essentially not saying very much. He had an interesting way of de-constructing the NED Speech Format during his spot; an ideal aid for the audience to become acclimatised to the shows’ structure. His ability to pad the speech with highly detailed talk of his procrastination was a delight and his inclusion of random often irrelevant quotes to make a point was inspired lunacy.

Next on the stage was Joel Ham, apparently a Buddist Monk whose talk was sponsored by a very un-Buddist company. He posed unending rhetorical questions and talked in infinite circles about contentment and choice. A clever and amusing visual demonstration left no one in the audience any wiser as to his point. This character was a little one note, a Monk talking in riddles at varying volume levels, but was enjoyable nonetheless.

The last was Prof. Jeffery De Hollander, a very plastic personality who laughed in finite doses at his own obligatory jokes. His topic was Creating the Creation of Creativity and included clever visuals of famous artworks to relate to a hypothetical person to illustrate his points. Some wonderfully bizzare facts and figures were spouted to poke fun at his credibility. Although this segment started out strongly with many witty lines peppered throughout, it ended on a rather serious note which was an odd way to conclude a show.

All the characters were fleshed out well, costumed simply but effectively, given brilliantly absurd biographies and displayed appropriate extreme mannerisms. A running joke involving a sequence of images suggested the presence of recurring tropes in these types of speeches and pushed it to the extreme.

The decision to concentrate on motivational topics rather than the scientific gave him enough ammunition to attack such self righteous, agenda pushing types. I haven’t explored the TED website enough to determine whether such characters are in the majority in this arena, but they were fascinating personas and it was fun to witness them being taken down a peg or two. This was an interesting concept for a comedy show which delivered plenty of laughs.

NED: Ideas you’ll never have is playing at Trades Hall – The Annexe until October 13.
For booking details visit the Fringe Festival website http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/ned-ideas-you-ll-never-have/

Dingo & Wolf in Medea

By Colin Flaherty


In an intriguing concept, Dingo And Wolf (Laura Dunemann and Eleanor Webster) have taken on the challenge of performing the Greek tragedy Medea to showcase their brand of train-wreck theatre. As with any Dingo & Wolf performance, the main thrust of the show is the comical conflict between the pair. Wolf attempts to present a lofty piece of theatre that is often too ambitious for her talents while Dingo misses cues, fluffs lines and generally becomes preoccupied with insignificant items in the room.

This duo bounced off one another well in these daggy personas. Their bickering was creative and they used some clever insults but having this as the main focus of the show was a bit of a stretch for an hour as it got slightly tiresome at times. It was nice to see a little twist when Dingo was given the opportunity to shine briefly in the spotlight, but she was soon put back into her place and then it was back to Wolf being a bully for every flimsy reason. A fair chunk of the show involved the girls rushing about the performance space utilising homemade props and costumes while taking their places on the stage which was exhausting to watch. When on stage, they primarily drew on their character’s hammy acting and numerous mistakes to make themselves the butt of the joke, rather than the text itself.

With Medea as a framework they were given the opportunity to have some fun with the text and boy did they have fun! Characters were renamed to give them a modern feel, historical facts were wildly misquoted and plot points and locations were misconstrued. Some scenes were completely replaced by inappropriate dance numbers (including Wolf’s soulful ballad that was a great reworking of the plot in song) and there was the inclusion of wildly inventive scenarios that added to the classic story in their own wacky way (Jason’s Bah Mitzvah scene was wonderfully silly). There was even a ridiculously short and relatively extravagant interval included in the madness. The impressive thing was that despite all the detours they stuck with their brief and did give us a fairly entertaining & extremely silly version of Medea.

A video monitor added to the audio/visual component of the show by displaying title cards, showing chunks of text for the audience to read (thus the audience cleverly became the Chorus of the play), and popping up misinterpreted images in lieu of backdrops. This would have been more successful if it had been placed on a higher pedestal for all the audience to see.

Aside from the Wolf-centric programme thrust into the audience’s hands at the start and Wolf’s constant boasting, there is little in the way of background for the duo as they launch into their epic. Not that there is really anything important that you need to know about the relationship between this pair of infantile characters to enjoy the show, but their assumption that we all knew their history is bold.  Whether you’re new to this talented duo or have been following their career, you will have fun in the company of this odd couple.

Dingo & Wolf in Medea is showing at The Portland Hotel – Locker Room until October 14
For bookings see the Fringe Festival website
http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/dingo-wolf-in-medea/

How To Get Rich – Aleisha McCormack

By Lisa Clark

The most impressive thing about How To Get Rich is the first thing you notice when you sit down; a pair of actual airline chairs sitting on stage. They were apparently leant to the production by Virgin airlines and with the large monitor make up a simple but luxurious looking Fringe set. My main mistake was not paying attention to the show’s blurb in the programme. So that it did not turn out to be a wealth creating seminar spoof but was actually a one woman play about going to get a man called Richard.

That was it really, Aleisha McCormack, the writer performer of the piece was on a plane going to the UK to meet up with a man she’d fallen for over the internet and was anxious about how it was going to turn out. The story itself was a bit too thin, we learned nothing about why she loved Richard, apart from his reliability, of how their love blossomed over the 5 months they’d been skyping or what really motivated Aleisha to spend a lot of money and to risk a new job and humiliation to go to the other side of the world to meet a man. The moral of this tale seems to be that getting a man is the most important reason to do anything.

Most of the play involves Aleisha on a plane chatting to the person next to her about her life and anxieties. She has broken this up by playing a couple of characters, her aunty and her friend who are both rather vulgar characters and are less than supportive. I guess they are there to make you feel sorry for Aleisah and be on her side, but I found her selfish character so annoying that it was very hard for me to sympathise with her situation.

Another thing that broke up the performance was a surprise guest appearance on the monitor (sadly not used to provide samples of her skyping with Rich) by ‘Australian media personality’ Deborah Hutton who sort of acts as a guardian angel to Aleisha who dreams of being a TV presenter. It’s Deborah who finally gives Aleisha the sensible advice to stop worrying and if things don’t work out she should just get on with her life.

This was a pretty light and fluffy soufflĂ© of a show that would suit a girls’ night out or hen’s night, but it left me hungry for something a bit meatier. I really wanted to like this show but the laughs that were there were not enough to make up for its shortcomings. A major aspect that lost me was her brazilian waxing story. I know they titillate the crowd but after several years of these tales, it’s getting a bit tiresome. They seem to be becoming the female equivalent of a male comedian talking about his dick.

I know that as a reviewer, you’re not supposed to imagine what the play was not, but if the first half had been more about why and how Aleisha was on the plane, with a more compelling backstory and then only after the crisis of his lack of communication in Thailand the alarm bells started going off in the last part, it would have been much more dramatically interesting, instead of things going back and forth all the way through.

I’m guessing that this show is so autobiographical, (these things did actually happen to Aleisha) that it might be a bit hard for her to see the wood for the trees. Most experienced comedians know that if life isn’t that interesting that you can take ‘dramatic licence’ to pep it up. Still for a debut Fringe Festival show it was fairly polished and entertaining enough for a mainstream crowd.

This show has finished its run

Here’s the info about it http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/how-to-get-rich/

Tegan Higginbotham in Million Dollar Tegan

By Lisa Clark

When Tegan announced at a gig that she had signed herself up to train for a professional boxing tournament you couldn’t help but think that this was a bit of an extreme way to go about creating material for a festival show! She just doesn’t look like a boxer which of course she plays to great comic effect. So the first part of the show is about convincing us that boxing is something she really wanted to do, just as she, no doubt, had to convince disbelieving friends and family.

Though 24 Tegan Higginbotham looks like a highschool girl and not the sort of girl who gets boxing experience from punch ups behind the bike sheds. It’s also hard to believe that Tegan is almost a veteran of the Melbourne comedy scene starting in Class Clowns in 2005 and then in the following year getting together with Adam McKenzie and Rob Lloyd as part of The Hounds trio and now with Adam as Watson the duo and part of the team who puts together The Shelf comedy nights and podcasts.

Years of comedy experience and performance training are evident in her confidence and all the work that has gone into making this a successful production. Tegan is savvy and lucky enough to have one ofAustralia’s most skilled comedians Justin Hamilton to direct her debut festival show. She has also been around the comedy traps trying out parts of her show for many months and it has paid off with a polished performance that has laughs all the way through. Tegan has no props or film footage (as promised in the Fringe Guide – apparently it did not trial well with test audiences) instead, with only a few dramatic lighting changes and her passionate oratory skills, she has us in the gym with her.

Tegan brings all the colourful characters of the gym to life but when she finally finds herself in the ring in front of 1,500 spectators, wearing oversize shorts and smelly 2nd hand gloves it was shocking to me that she knew the moves but had no game plan or knowledge of how to start the match. Let alone how to deal with the confronting issue of having to punch a dear friend in the face and receive blows in return. As a trained performer it is fascinating that Tegan has chosen to be both a comedian and a boxer, she obviously has some seriously masochistic tendancies!

The show is at it’s most impressive at the end where Tegan holds the audience in the palm of her hand as her comedic story culminates in the riveting, dramatic account of her first professional fight. Not surprising then that this was nominated for Best Newcomer at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival. New jokes about current issues prove that the show has not rested on it’s laurels, Tegan has revisited it with a professional refresh. This is definitely a show worth revisiting and if you’ve not heard of it, it is a festival must see.

Tegan Higginbotham in Million Dollar Tegan is on at The North Melbourne Town Hall until October 13th

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/tegan-higginbotham-in-million-dollar-tegan/

Trying Hard – Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall

By Cathy Culliver

Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall’s new show Trying Hard is probably best described as a show with identity issues. But I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just that its two halves are so dissimilar it’s like you’ve been privy to two completely different shows. And hey, there’s nothing wrong with that.

Having seen his last show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival earlier this year, this definitely seems to be a new, quirkier direction for Tremblay-Birchall. There were elements that were very Pythonesque (which he actually admits to, rather self-deprecatingly) and some that even seemed inspired by the style of 2012 Barry award winner Dr Brown.

The first half of the show is Tremblay-Birchall’s own strange interpretation of the creative process of writing comedy. I don’t want to give away how he does it, but it’s a little left-of-centre to say the least.

My advice: stay with it. Like Dr Brown, what may seem confusing and nonsensical to begin with eventually pays off. Even if you know you’ll have a hard time explaining it to people afterwards, it does make for some entertaining and delightfully original comedy. The phrase “you had to be there” comes to mind.

The second half is much more traditional stand up, and a lot more akin to what I’ve seen Birchall-Tremblay do previously. This is where his personality really comes out, as this kind of geeky-but-loveable dude who’s just trying to figure out what the hell he’s doing with his life.

Knowing that I saw only the second performance ever of this show, I’m choosing to ignore the parts that were a little rough around the edges. I’m sure it will only improve with time, because let’s face it, Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall is name you’re going to be hearing a lot more in years to come.

That is assuming he doesn’t throw it all away to evolve into a businessman
 oh never mind, you had to be there.

Trying Hard is showing at Tuxedo Cat until Saturday 13th October.

More information can be found in the Fringe Guide

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/trying-hard/

Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop

By Elyce Phyllips

Sketch comedy group Aunty Donna (Broden Kelly, Adrian Dean, Zachary Duane and Mark Samuel Bonanno) are stranded on their way to a gig at the Nar Nar Goon RSL. The only way they can make it on time is to solve the murder of the Fax Machine Shop man. What ensues is a chaotic hour of absurd and downright filthy comedy as the boys use their unique skills to unravel the mystery. If you imagine that Agatha Christie were a 13-year-old boy who had just discovered the joy of using naughty words, you might start to get an idea of the Aunty Donna experience.

‘Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine’ is a very slick production. It’s tightly scripted and well-performed. The plot often takes turns for the bizarre, and it’s in these more surreal moments that the show really shines. Aunty Donna are a wonderful team and play off each other beautifully. For the most part they play themselves and there’s great camaraderie onstage. There’s some good character acting in there too – Dean and Duane’s portrayal of the couple that run the organic bookshop is a particular highlight.

However, this was a show that divided the audience. While a good portion of the sold-out crowd was laughing uproariously through the whole show, there were also some who were clearly very uncomfortable. It comes down to how crude you like your humour. This show is full of dick jokes. There is an awful lot of talk of bodily fluids and the language is about as explicit as you can get. Personally, I enjoyed this show. I found a lot to laugh at. Admittedly, there were moments where the crudeness was a bit excessive, but I felt that the strength of the rest of the show more than made up for it. But it’s really a matter of personal preference. If you’re not a fan of crude humour, you’re probably going to find this show excessive. If you’re alright with a few c-bombs and liberal discussion of semen, you’ll have a lot of fun.

Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop is on at The Loft at the Lithuanian Club until October 13

http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/aunty-donna-and-the-fax-machine-shop/