5 Good Reasons to see Late Night Letters and Numbers

1. It’s by far and away the best thing to do on Monday night at Town Hall at MICF 2017 that involves both letters and numbers… Probably… We haven’t looked through the guide to confirm this… But it’s a statistical probability. (See! Maths!)

2. It’s interactive! That’s right, you can play along if you want to and embarrass professional entertainers with your mad skills.

3. There are prizes! Sometimes! Depending on how organised Nick Caddaye (your woefully under-qualified host) is.

4. It has killer line-ups of some of the best comics from across the festival, and not just the sort of people who have breakfast radio shows and three-night seasons in 1000 seat venues; the real heart-and-soul performers who make MICF great year-in, year-out!

5. It’s fun for the whole family! Assuming your family are a bunch of fucking nerds.

Late Night Letters and Numbers is on Monday nights at Town Hall from Apr 3 – 17

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/late-night-letters-and-numbers

 

5 GOOD REASONS TO SEE CHELSEA ZELLER IN HIGH ACHIEVERS.

1. It’s easier than trying to get Chelsea to come to your house.

2. Chelsea plays five characters – you’re sure to like one of them.

3. Even if you don’t like any of them; that was intentional.

4. It features a Life Coach, an ex-Test cricketer, an adventurer, an Australian rapper, and a zoologist,

all offering motivational speeches to help you be a better you. Because, let’s face it; you suck.

5. Acceptance. Oh sorry; that’s the fifth stage of grief. Which you may experience if you don’t book

early.

Chelsea Zeller performs High Achievers at Tasma terrace Apr 10 – 22

For Tix & Info go to the MICF website:

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/high-achievers

The Do’s & Don’t’s of Promoting your Festival Show by comedian George Dimarelos

By George Dimarelos

There are many do’s and don’t’s to getting the word out for your festival show. Here’s a list on some of the more well-known methods.

Friends

DO

Politely ask friends to come along, a lot of the time they genuinely don’t know about the show and are more than happy to come along if asked.

DON’T

Fake your death and schedule the funeral for your opening night. They won’t be as happy that you’re alive as you think.

 

Paid advertising

DO

Think about paid advertising, is it right for you and your audience? After all, if you have a show about rats then it makes sense to post an ad about it in Melbourne Rats Weekly in their thriving ‘things to do about town’ section. Just let Glenda know I recommended you and you’ll get a good price.

DON’T

Pay a witch to promote your show with the dark arts. The animal cruelty is not worth the small increase in audience size.

 

Facebook

DO

Use Facebook, not just the paid advertising but also thinking of communities or groups that would be interested in what you have to talk about. Facebook is the online community noticeboard, use it!

DON’T

Throw books at peoples faces screaming “I LIKE YOU NOW COME TO MY SHOW.”

 

Gigging

DO

Think to yourself “I’ll gig around, the best way to get people to see what I do is to show them some of my moves. If they like me for my 5 minutes they may be interested to see me onstage for a full hour.

DON’T

Think to yourself “I’ll sleep around, the best way to get people to see what I do is to show them some of my moves. If they like me for my 5 minutes they may be interested to see me onstage for a full hour.”

 

Flyering

DO

Plan your flyering for maximum effectiveness, unless you’re superhuman you will have a limited amount of energy to exert on flyering, make sure you use it wisely!

DON”T

Stick flyers to peoples backs without their knowledge, turning them into mini walking noticeboards for your show. Don’t do that unless you want an effective flyering strategy that will get people to your show.

 

Articles

DO

Send Squirrel Comedy an article on 5 Good Reasons To See Your Show.

DON’T

Spend all your time playing Clash Royale on your iPhone and then rush through a lazy half formed article masquerading as something useful.

George Dimarelos is performing Self Sabotage at The Bull & Bear Tavern

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/self-sabotage

5 Good Reasons people should come and see Dr. Duck in General Quacktitioner

1. You can tell your Mum you’ve been to see the Doctor recently, and it won’t even be a lie.

2. More of the female characters are played by actual women than by men hilariously dressed up as women.

3. You want to see jokes about Satanists and Financial Planners in the same show.

4. Barry the Safe Sex Banana. See the show and find out.

5. We call our fans Duckheads, and comedy doesn’t get any better than that.

Dr. Duck in General Quacktitioner is on at The Tickle Pit Mar 29 – apr 9

For tix and info go to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Website:

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/the-duck-will-see-you-now

5 Good Reasons to see Ben’s Illustrious Fact Show and the Case of the Stolen Fact Book

1. You love silly things.

2. You are sick of alternative facts and would much prefer illustrious facts.

3. You’ve seen my live shows and/or listened to my podcasts before and have enjoyed those/generally enjoy the things I do. Or maybe you don’t know who I am in which case; hello my name is Ben and I’m from Melbourne and I do shows on stage and radio about facts that I’ve made up that incorporate absurdity and wordplay and there’s lots of characters and segments and it’s quite fun.

4. This is going to be a narrative show which means me trying something wildly different to anything that I’ve done before but still very much my kind of humour and I’m VERY EXCITED and if I’m VERY EXCITED that means the show will rather hopefully also be VERY EXCITING for you.

5. Dogs.

Ben Volchok performs Ben’s Illustrious Fact Show and the Case of the Stolen Fact Book at The Butterfly Club from March 29 to April 2 at 5.30pm.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/ben-s-illustrious-fact-show-and-the-case-of-the-stolen-fact-book

5 Good Reasons to See Michael Shafar Jewish-ish

1. Jewish-ish is Michael Shafar’s debut solo show and he is definitely not writing this in third person.*

2. You might have seen me – I mean, Michael – on SBS’s RAW Comedy National Grand Final, representing Australia in the Laugh Factory’s Funniest Person in the World Competition or Channel 31’s The Leak. He also writes jokes for Channel 10’s The Project.

3. You can check out some of Michael’s stuff here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swsuqLLpYfk

4. I have had – sorry, Michael has had – some very nice reviews. Funny Tonne said “he is really very good” and the Herald Sun said “Mel Brooks would have been proud.”

5. Come along and see Jewish-ish at Trades Hall from March 30 – April 23 at 8:30pm (7:30pm on Sundays). The first few preview shows are cheap and tickets are available here: https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2017/shows/jewish-ish

*Just kidding! It was me all along! Gotcha!