Abel Seaman : Art! Art! Art!

By Colin Flaherty

After exploring Australian history last year (Australia! Australia! Australia!, MICF 2012) the duo of Abel Seaman (Martin Dunlop and Michael Teychenne) are back to tackle the art world. This is a silly hour of sketch mocking many artists and movements as well as taking clever swipes at the creative process, art marketing and art appreciation. If already you’ve seen the YouTube videos promoting the show you’ll be pleased to know that only some of this material makes an appearance, plenty more ideas are on offer.

There is a comfortable mix of one joke sketches and more involved pieces. Many scenes explore some clever concepts and contain witty lines while others are based on pure silliness to keep the audience chuckling. A couple of recurring sketches are problematic; one fails to repeat the brilliance of the first iteration while the other only exists to set up a rather limp finale.

At times they assume you know some background about the artist/movement to work things out on your own, but these jokes are general enough to get laughs on a superficial level. One particular sketch assumes knowledge about two kids TV shows about art and if you aren’t familiar with either program understanding the references is quite a challenge. They do preface it with a warning of age specificity and add plenty of visual gags but the considerable length of it puts it in danger of losing some punters.

Using costuming and props, they bring an array of wacky characters to life. It often seems that Michael is the one most eager to don a wig and put on a silly accent while Martin plays the straight man perfectly to keep the humorous lines flowing. They bounce off one another seamlessly and can easily cope when one goes momentarily off script or the audience throws up a surprise.

Art! Art! Art! Is a highly entertaining hour of sketch by two talented fellows. Their enthusiasm is infectious and their stagecraft is polished enough to make it look effortless. I look forward to seeing what thrice titled show they bring us next year.

Art! Art! Art! is on at Highlander Bar
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/art-art-art-abel-seaman

The Lords of Luxury

By Elyce Phillips

4-piece sketch group Lords of Luxury successfully made the transition from podcasts to live performance last year.  Now they have honed their stage skills and give us this silly, weird and very shouty offering.

The Lords (Paul Verhoeven, Luke Ryan, Dan Debuf and Matt Saracini) attack their hour with infectious manic enthusiasm.  Their constant excitement floods the venue and you can’t help but get swept up in it. The atmosphere they create is fantastic. From the moment a snaggletoothed robot introduced the gents, the audience was on board. Sections involving audience participation were handled deftly. There was not a dull moment to be found.

The sketches are diverse and often absurd.  The Lords whip from the Titanic, to a film production office, to a magic show. The pace does not let up. Though all the sketches hit the mark, by far the highlight of the evening was the dramatic recreation of a sci-fi/action/romance/adventure story, written by Ryan when he was 14. Verhoeven’s turn as a wavy-haired, angular-featured alien beauty is quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen this month.

The Lords, though all great performers in their own right, are at their best as a team. They look like they’re genuinely having a great time messing around up on stage and it really adds to energy of the sketches. There’s just something so wonderful about seeing grown men in tuxedos being utterly ridiculous. It’s an absolute joy to watch these guys do their thing.

I highly recommend Lords of Luxury. The show is downright bizarre and tear-enducingly funny.  In what is proving to be an excellent year for sketch comedy, the Lords of Luxury are right up there with the best of them. It’s worth the price of admission to see the alien nightclub scene alone. Consider the rest a hilarious bonus.

Lords of Luxury is showing in the Bookroom at Trades Hall until April 20.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/lords-of-luxury

The Wizard Sandwiches

By Elyce Phillips

The Wizard Sandwiches (Jerryd Clifford, Stuart Daulman, Andrew Belsten, Dylan Cole and Jake Ludwyke) are a local sketch comedy group and while they might be relatively new to the festival scene, the boys have put together a really accomplished and confident show. It is sketch comedy in its purest form – aside from a couple of running jokes dotted throughout proceedings, there is no overarching narrative, no message tying it all together. It is simply silliness presented in many different forms, and The Wizard Sandwiches do silliness very well.

The show is fast-paced and consistently funny. All five performers are equally strong, but it’s a diverse group of talent. Each of the Wizard Sandwiches crew brings a different energy, from the manic Charlie Day-esque Daulman to the mischievous gruffness of Ludowyke. As a team, their dynamic is fantastic. There is some great character acting in there as well. Between the five of them, with the assistance of a few props, they bring a much larger cast to life.

The sketches are twisted and delightfully absurd. The Wizard Sandwiches take you to the world of children’s netball, the Wild West and a whole lot in between. A running gag about ‘crab-thermometers’, with seemingly improvised lines involving characters telling of increasingly bizarre places where they’ve seen one before, was wonderful. Music is used to great effect, particularly in their show-stopper of an opening sketch and in some very funny callbacks to a WorkSafe ad.

The Wizard Sandwiches is inventive, playful and a whole lot of fun. This is one of the best examples of sketch comedy I’ve seen at this festival. Get in and see them now, because they’re sure to get bigger in the near future.

The Wizard Sandwiches is showing at the Old Council Chambers at Trades Hall until April 21.
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/the-wizard-sandwiches

Jackson Voorhaar & Mitch Alexander : Satan’s Finest

By Colin Flaherty

Joining forces over their love of heavy metal music, Mitch Alexander & Jackson Voorhaar (he even sounds like a black metal vocalist!) present a great two hander stand up show. Unlike other heavy metal comedians who skim over their metal material, these guys have made the effort to ensure that they stick to their metal title throughout. This is certain to please the predominately Metal-Head audience this show will attract but is careful not to alienate others.

Mitch gives us material that has the veneer of being exclusive to the metal scene, but underneath it all is a universality that appeals to all. Stories about mating rituals have been covered by every comedian and their dog but setting them in the metal world gives them a wonderful twist. Those familiar with the metal references can chuckle in recognition while others can laugh at how silly it all appears to the outside world. He does some obvious material relating to the hypocrisy afforded to metal but does so with such conviction. Despite putting fear into the souls of delicate punters with examples of his singing Mitch is a charming performer who commands the stage with confidence.

Jackson takes the unhinged loner approach to his stage persona. He has a warped way with words and his main source of humour comes from outrageous comments using creative descriptions to add a sense of the bizarre. It’s not so much using shock for the sake of it but rather the unexpectedness of where he steers things which provides much joy. With his gangly frame he utilises the entirety of the small stage to add plenty of colour and movement with his exaggerated rock moves.

Concluding the show with some audience participation is fun for those game enough to join in but is a little cliché. It doesn’t really end things on a huge laugh, leaving everyone sweaty instead, but it seems to be a suitable substitiute Endorphin release.

This is a brilliant pairing of two different performers to give the audience enough variety while covering the same topic. I raise the horned hand in appreciation.

Satan’s Finest is on at The Horse Bazzar.
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/satan-s-finest-jackson-voorhaar-mitch-alexander

Josie Long – Romance and Adventure

By Elyce Phillips

It’s hard not to fall for Josie Long the minute you walk into the Supper Room at Town Hall. As the audience filed in, Long was already on-stage, establishing the “party vibe” for the evening. Alternating between dancing and chatting to the growing crowd, it was clear that she had won over her audience even before the show had even begun.

‘Romance and Adventure’ is the complete package – you get pre-show entertainment, post-show entertainment and an hour of hilarity in between. ‘The show contains both romance and adventure, though perhaps not in the forms you would expect. Long discusses recent upheaval in her life as she approached her 30th birthday. Leaving her long-term relationship and feeling out of place in the posh end of town, Long turned to lists and social justice to try and re-establish order.

Long is wonderfully charismatic and very relatable.  While she may be getting older and discussing more serious subject matter, she has not lost her youthful cheekiness. Her material is quick and clever, her delivery earnest and immensely likeable – as though you are having a one-way conversation with an overexcited friend.

Long’s newfound enthusiasm for (and then weariness of) social justice makes for great material. She perfectly expresses the frustrations of living under an ideology you disagree with and the feeling of powerlessness that comes with it. Her impression of the UK’s conservative government is made all the funnier by the presence of her real passion behind the joke. Social justice could be a tough topic for comedy, but Long strikes a good balance. Though the show is deeply political in parts, you never feel like you are being preached to.

‘Romance and Adventure’ is truly wonderful and well worth checking out.  It’s guaranteed to have you  walk out still chuckling,

Josie Long – Romance and Adventure is showing in the Supper Room at Town Hall until April 21
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/romance-and-adventure-josie-long

Late Night Letters and Numbers.

By Lisa Clark This is a fun nerdy little comedy quiz show that is based upon the stupidly axed Letters and Numbers which was based on the UK show Countdown, but not called Countdown for very obvious reasons. Before that there was a French show called  Des Chiffres et Des Lettres, but you didn’t need to know that. The best way to see it on TV is being sent up in a stunning episode of The IT Crowd. called The Final Countdown.

The basic idea is; two contestants compete in various rounds, in this case they are guest comedians. The Letters round is like boggle where the contestants try to make the longest words out of 9 random letters. In the numbers round a random target number under 1000 is given by an audience member, then 6 random numbers are drawn and the contestants must use these to somehow reach the target number using mathematics. The final round is the Conundrum which is an anagram that the contestants must be the first to unscramble. Where it differentiates itself from the TV shows is that it is live, it is comedy and it is late at night.

The late night comedy atmosphere means that although they take the game seriously to a point, there is a lot of silliness, veering off topic and naughty language. They are also fairly encouraging of audience participation and will award points to impressive audience members. You could hear a lot of audience members around you guessing at words or getting the maths perfect, but not everyone was brave enough to pipe up when invited to do so. It can be pretty hard not to participate in this infectious show.

The night we were there guest comedians Karin Danger – nee Muiznieks (Hot Box) and Yianni (Numb & Number) made admirable adversaries while up the other end of the desk the Watson (Once Were Planets) duo played comedy relief with Adam McKenzie and Tegan Higginbotham as moderators in charge of the giant dictionary. Ben McKenzie (Splendid Chaps) makes a fair go at being Lily Serna, letter displayer/ maths genius but for reasons I can’t put my finger on, cannot quite capture her demure allure. The host, in great contrast to the cheerful and rather straightlaced Richard Morecroft, is the famously cynical & comically grumpy Nick Caddaye who does a great job of keeping it all rolling and not running too late.

Late night Letters and Numbers is a fun way to finish a full Friday night of comedy. Also keep your eye out for further Letters and Numbers nights happening outside of the festival at Trades Hall throughout the year.

Late Night Letters and Numbers is only on Friday nights of the Festival at Trades Hall in the Old Council Chambers
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/late-night-letters-and-numbers