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5 Good Reasons to see Mick Neven, Jennifer Wong & Ben McKenzie

5 Reasons to See #ShitMickNevenSays

1. Because you’re not just allowed to tweet from the audience, you’re expected to tweet from the audience. With a projector screen displaying the latest tweets with the #ShitMickNevenSays hashtag, it’s the future of audience participation.

2. Because there’s a Pre-Show Guided Tour podcast. Once you’ve got your ticket you can download the podcast from www.mickneven.com.au and it guides you from Melbourne Town Hall to the venue. It features commentary from guest comedians and instructions on how to get a free James Squire Golden Ale.

3. Because you get a free James Squire Golden Ale. Seriously! Get a ticket, get the podcast and get a free beer on the way to the show.

4. Because it’s a funny show featuring incisive social commentary and topical doodle jokes.

5. Because my kid wants a bike and if you don’t buy a ticket you’ll be breaking a little girl’s heart.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/shitmicknevensays/

 

5 Reasons to See Jennifer Wong – Ouch & Other Words

1. Time: Ouch & Other Words is on at 7:15pm. There is a good chance it doesn’t clash with any of the shows you want to see.

2. Location: Ouch & Other Words is on at the Forum Theatre. If you’re already nearby, this location will be very convenient for you. If not, sadly it will not be.

3. Language: Ouch & Other Words is performed entirely in English. It is much better than the solo show I once performed entirely in Finnish. I only know one word in Finnish. (Lahja. It means gift, or present, and is the name of my favourite dog on Instagram.)

4. Content: Ouch & Other Words is stand-up comedy about First Aid and some other things, such as being bookish and observational and anxiously optimistic. This may be of interest to you.

5. Guarantee: If you hate my show, I will sit in the dark and watch you talk for an hour.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/ouch-other-words-jennifer-wong/

 

5 reasons to see any one or all of Ben McKenzie’s shows

1. I have super powers: due to a mutation on my sixteenth chromosome I have slightly increased pain tolerance, a resistance to anaesthetics and extraordinary ginger mutton chops.

2. You can get your nerd on: who else will be making jokes about science (The Peer Revue), games (Pop Up Playground and Late Night Dungeon Crawl) museums (the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour) and puzzles (Late Night Letters and Numbers)?

3. We will rock you: whether you want to be rocked by the music of Queen (Somebody To Love) or learn how to properly rock out yourself at karaoke (Karenoke), we’ve got you covered. (Fame and fortune not guaranteed.)

4. You can get involved: why annoy your fellow patrons and comedians by heckling in other shows, when you can come to Dungeon Crawl or Pop Up Playground and be invited to participate in the fun? And all from the safety of the audience!

5. I’m a terribly nice man: I was described as the anti-Hitler, don’t you know?

Here are the links to book for Ben’s shows:
Pop Up Playground
The Peer Review
Late Night Letters and Numbers
Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour
Late Night Dungeon Crawl
Political Asylum’s Late Night Riot!
Somebody To Love: A Tribute to the Songs of Queen
Karenoke

Justin Hamilton – The Goodbye Guy

By Lisa Clark

In 2007 Justin Hamilton changed the way he did festival shows and raised the bar for everyone when he performed his gorgeous, melancholy trilogy of shows about his love for Melbourne, a lost relationship and growing up in Adelaide, Three Colours Hammo. If any of you have been hanging out for another episode of the trilogy this is as close as it’s going to get. What’s more, it’s better.

Justin Hamilton is one of the best comedians in Australia and a master of taking his brilliant, hilarious stand up routines and working a sublime story around them in such a way that the whole feels organic and complimentary. Despite obscuring what is true and what is fantasy, it all feels like it’s coming from Justin’s gut. The plot of The Goodbye Guy revolves around an alternate yet hauntingly similar version of Justin who is famous for writing a humorous blog on a website called ‘The Crooked Smile’ but the culture has changed, it’s no longer making him happy and he’s struggling to realise that it’s time to change his life and move on.

Along for the ride, fans will be rapt to discover, are some familiar characters from the past. They include his nemesis, Jason Harrington (from The Killing Joke and Goodbye Ruby Tuesday) as the repugnant, successful, mainstream comedian made good and Kaliope his wise and mystical muse from Three Colours Hammo. These two play the good angel and the bad angel on Justin’s allegorical journey through his life and career. His comedy routines take the part of the blogs he’s written for the fictional website. Some of the routines are borne out of his actual blog and it is thrilling to enjoy them performed live. There are also tales as old as the hills appearing like old friends and new ones that had me falling about. Despite the many in-jokes for fans and those in the comedy community, Hamilton remains the everyman gag meister with hilarious stories about being mistaken for a New Zealand icon while touring with Greg Fleet and his inability to chat up women that will appeal to all.

Hamilton’s writing is cinematic with darkly humorous and romantic influences that include Woody Allen and, George Clooney’s film Up in the Air. Although it doesn’t stop being funny, there is a point where the stand up is left behind and that comes when Justin sits at his laptop to write his final blog ‘The Goodbye Guy’ while Bernard Fanning’s lovely ‘Weekend of Mystery’ plays for quite a lengthy time in a scene not unlike something from one of Daniel Kitson’s best story shows. A brilliant storyteller in his own right, Hamilton stretches beyond stand up to create theatre that’s more captivating and visceral than most of the stuff being produced by well funded theatre companies.

There are usually many shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival that advertise themselves as ‘must see’, but I can’t imagine that there will be anything as essential to this years festival experience as this. Justin makes it very clear that this will be his last festival show for the foreseeable future and although it is a devastating loss (because he is so damned good at it) I can’t wait to find out where Justin takes his talent from here. It’s a show about grief, about dealing with change, but most of all it’s about hope for the future and letting the child within dream.

The Goodbye Guy is on at The Victoria Hotel.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/the-goodbye-guy-justin-hamilton/

 

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2012

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is finally here and Melbourne is rocking with laughter in every nook and cranny.  But “What shall I see?”, “Who’s Hot & Who’s Not?” and “Am I going to ever get any sleep?” I hear you ask, well the Squirrels are here to help. We will be posting reviews, every day and keeping you up with any news or changes in the programme. Don’t forget to check the 5 Good Reasons to see festival performers’ shows and our interviews with performers who also give their 5 Good Reasons at the end of the interviews.

Let us know what you are seeing or enjoying or any important news on Twitter and on our Facebook page and email us at Squirrels@squirrelcomedy.com with pictures of you with your favourite comedians or any great festival pics and we’ll post them in our Gig Pics.

Our exciting news is that throughout the festival we are posting the MICF Daily podcast on our front page. This will take the place of our Podpick during the Festival. The team from Friggen Podcasts are comedy geeks Mike Brown who interviews Festival comedians and his sidekick Evan who reads the MICF Daily News. It will only take about 10 or so minutes out of your busy day and is packed with information.

Have a fabulous festival and don’t forget to eat some healthy food occasionally!

See you around the festival!

5 Good Reasons to see Late Night Impro, Christophe Davidson, Meg Pee & Seamus McAlary

Five Good Reasons to see Late Night Impro

1. No animals were harmed in the making of this show.

2. The show has a great line-up of Comedy Festival guests.

3. No guests were harmed in the making of this show.

4. It’s the perfect antidote for that date that’s gone horribly wrong.

5. See #2.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/late-night-impro/

 

Five Good Reasons to see Christophe Davidson – The Time Of Your Life

1. I’m Canadian, so you won’t be able to see me any other time of the year.

2. I dance!

3. I have little known facts about pigeons that will change the way you look at them…forever!

4. I underwent body modification for the finale of my show (Don’t worry, it’s not gross, very heartwarming actually).

5. There are things in my show never before attempted that you will laugh at for the first time in your life, and some things you will laugh at for the second time in your life… only harder this time.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/the-time-of-your-life-christophe-davidson/

 

Five Good Reasons to see Meg Pee – Close To You

1. If you don’t see it you’ll never know what it means be “Poofter Clapped”.

2. It will diminish your feelings of isolation if you’ve ever had a Carpenters song stuck in your head.

3. It will diminish your feelings of isolation if you had a regular childhood ritual of sitting in Hungry Jacks; opposite a woman crying at you with lettuce stuck on her eyebrow.

4. My parents have no idea I have written a show about their dysfunction.

5. My Nanna ate enough chops in her week to clothe a small village and Lady Ga Ga.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/close-to-you-meg-pee/

 

Five Good Reasons to see Seamus McAlary – Eponymous

1. You’ve not seen me before. Almost no one has.

2. I refrain from using the word ‘totes’.

3. It is the best show I’ve ever written and you’ll be seeing me in top form.

4. It’s relatively cheap (compared to a four bedroom home in South Yarra).

5. If you don’t your family may be in grave danger.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/eponymous-seamus-mcalary/

5 Good Reasons to see Celia Pacquola, Dave O’Neil, Felicity Ward, Lisa-Skye and Dave Callan

5 Good Reasons to see CELIA PACQUOLA DELAYED:

1. I won’t make you feel bad about what you’re wearing. (Sometimes I go out and I feel like people are trying to make me feel bad about what I’m wearing… probably because I’m a grown woman who dresses like a 15 year old boy, anyway.

2. It’s better than a kick in the teeth.

3. My last 2 shows sold out, I know I sound like a wanker saying that, but they did, so, um…I’m a wanker aren’t I?

4. It’s a secret, but I am in charge of karma and if you come I’ll give you some. The good stuff.

5. You know you want to.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/delayed-celia-pacquola/

 

5 Good Reasons to see DAVE O’NEIL – YOU DON’T HAVE A REAL JOB DO YOU DAD 

1. It’s a brand new show full of laughs, tears, vomiting.. however you react will be fine.

2. There is no audience participation. Oh except I do get one audience member up and shave their eyebrows, but apart from that..

3. You will get an insight into what it’s like to be a working comedian, from Hollywood to Hollywood-on-the-Gold Coast.

4. I have three children, I need to feed them. So if you can’t afford the ticket price, bring a loaf of bread.

5. It’s on at the Hairy Little Sista, right around the corner from the town hall in Little Collins st- it’s got a great bar, restaurant, you can meet me, I clean the toilets as well as performing.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/you-don-t-really-have-a-job-do-you-dad-dave-o-neil/

Dave O’Neil’s other show is a panel show at the Wheeler Centre called Get Fact on the 13th & 20th of April at 7pm

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/get-fact-dave-o-neil/

 

5 Good Reasons to see FELICITY WARD – THE HEDGEHOG DILEMMA

1. It’s the funniest show I’ve ever written.

2. I will tell you how hedgehogs anatomically “do the sex”.

3. This show was just nominated for BEST COMEDY at Adelaide Fringe 2012.

4. People point out that I’m very skinny. The only way I can change that is if I buy more food. The only way I can do that is if you buy more tickets.

5. How do you get to five without sounding like a dick? Just come. It’s heaps good. You’ll laugh’n’shit. Promise.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/the-hedgehog-dilemma-felicity-ward-in/

 

5 Good Reasons to see LISA-SKYE – LADYBONER

1. Throughout the show, you will laugh, get terrified and get hard. But at which points will you do each? The answer says more about you then it does about me.

2. There’s a 1-minute video that EVERYONE will be talking about. (It made someone faint during my sold-out Melbourne Fringe Season). Get in on it.

3. I’m very sparkly.

4. I have a motherfucking metronome. This is not a drill, people.

5. The show is called LADYBONER, for Christ’s sake. LADYBONER.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/ladyboner-lisa-skye/

 

5 Good Reasons to see DAVE CALLAN: THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT

1. Because it defies the space time continuum by having ‘me present’ introduce ‘me past’ talking live.

2. It features many people on drugs, drunk or of questionable mental health unchained and on air.

3. All the cool people are going who are also good looking.

4. My Mum said it was heaps good.

5. Its actually hard to breathe at parts its so funny (not me, the callers) obviously this is not a selling point if you have breath problems.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/the-graveyard-shift-dave-callan/

Backstage at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Melbourne collective Little Picture Box have been busy producing “Backstage” at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Headed by Amanda Reedy, Little Picture Box and her team have produced a couple of seasons of Channel 31′s Studio A and have also produced comedy short films and sketches for online.

The “Backstage” project is a collaboration between Reedy, her team at Little Picture Box and comedians Tommy little, Dave Thornton and Nat Harris. They’ll be producing exclusive online content including interviews, sketches and other funny stuff during the festival plus a half hour Comedy Festival special to air on Channel 31, April 14 at 8.30.

There’s a bunch of videos online now including Tommy Little interviewing Tom Green, Frank Woodley, Tom Ballard, Paul Foot and more. Here’s a few of our fav’s. You can check out more on Little Picture Box’s YouTube Channel.