MICF 2025 – Page 6 – Squirrel Comedy

Bunker – Jett Bond

By Colin Flaherty

Downstairs at Bard’s Apothecary is an appropriate venue for a show about a Bunker. A basement with bare brick walls is where we are to wait out the end times. Seats are strewn almost randomly throughout the space with boxes of miscellaneous items, setting the scene for this hastily thrown together refuge.

Our equally dishevelled host of sorts, Jett, wanders around the space, stumbling over empty chairs and asking questions to this disparate group of people so we can plan how to cohabitate. As it’s a small room, it’s likely they will speak with everyone but there is no pressure to play. There is plenty of chat about how we spent our time in the “before times” leading to plenty of amusing lines about pop culture.

This is one of those shows where audience interaction decides whether it’s a brilliant performance or merely a good one. In a rambling conversational manner (it is the Apocalypse, not many people are in a rational state of mind!) Jett probes for material to spark some witty lines and progress the story forward. Sometimes we’ll hit pay-dirt encountering some eccentric characters in the crowd and veer off into hilarious tangents. When these responses lead to animated discussion between audience members it makes for an entertaining communal experience.

It appears that our interaction has the ability to guide the performance to some extent but there are scripted moments to keep the show on a redetermined path. Some wonderful prop gags delight and a moment of dramatic tension brings the collective together as a team. The conclusion feels a little lacklustre but it is somewhat appropriate for this absurd high stakes situation that is tackled with minimal urgency.

This immersive piece will keep a smile plastered to your face. Even if you are part of an audience of timid folk who don’t offer up the seeds of comedy gold, Jett Bond is a fun and engaging performer with which to spend an hour.

Bunker is on at Bard’s Apothecary until April 5

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/bunker/

Luke Rocca – Doormat

By Bella Jones

You probably won’t know Luke Rocca as a stand-up comedian, Doormat is his debut show after all. But if you follow Formula One you might have enjoyed his work as one half of The Reserve Drivers podcast, and if you enjoy the nearly lost art of great free to air tv then chances are you’ve laughed at something of his on The Cheap Seats.

But despite this being a debut, Rocca’s show is one hell of a ride, the audience is only too keen to embark on it and it was definitely worth the ride. From the moment he steps onto stage (following a pre-recorded video intro to the show) the energy is there ‘hot crowd good crowd! Hot crowd good crowd!’

Rocca’s intensely likeable and endearing stage persona as well as skilfully combining sketch, character and tech comedy makes for a show that flys through its runtime. The audience enjoyed the experience of not quite knowing what would happen next as Rocca carefully weaved a mix of unrelated jokes and content that played into a larger narrative. Some highlights included a touching tribute to the big man himself…Scott Pape, Cancer Council Tinder promotional mishaps (what a sentence!) and of course an in depth look at some of the characters in the Dolmio ads.

Some of the biggest laughs of the night were reserved for a 3AW caller who keeps getting put through to the odious Kyle and Jackie O show, a tragedy for the ages.

It would be a disservice to spoil what is arguably the biggest payoff and a personal favourite moment of the show – but eulogy writers might have just found a new song to use.

Rocca is an exciting one to watch, even if he might be a Doormat.

Luke Rocca’s debut show Doormat is having a short run at Club Voltaire until Sunday March 30th

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/luke-rocca-doormat/

A Couple Decides What to have for Dinner by James Hazelden

By Lisa Clark

There’s comedy for everyone at The Melbourne International Comedy festival. Here there is no standup, impro or clowning. Instead we have a terrific short comedic play in which we witness a conversation on a couch between a married couple who know each other very well… or do they?

A Couple Decides What to have for Dinner is written and directed by James Hazelden and stars Amanda Buckley and Chris Saxton as the deciding couple. Its not hit you over the head obvious, but Chris Saxton is very much the hapless silly sidekick to Amanda Buckley’s savvy straight gal. A husband/wife dynamic familiar to most sitcom fans.

It’s lovely to have theatre troupes in Melbourne with their own style and Mystery Radio Theatre does dialogue based theatrical shows that are also funny. So it’s not surprising that this show might make a pretty good radio show, as the couple never leaves their couch and rarely look away from a TV, whose programs cannot be particularly entertaining, as they talk all the way through whatever is on. It’s a very simple set and a play that can be easily staged with only two actors.

The play does what it says on the box, an entertaining exploration of a middle aged couple’s relationship while they spend an hour deciding what to have for dinner. The bickering can get a bit much here and there, and may be a little triggering for people brought up in abusive households, but it mellows as the couple shares interesting anecdotes and gossip and never crosses the line to anger or abuse. Unlike the abhorent and shouty Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf we are presented with a couple who love each other, though there is annoyance and teasing, but they remain reasonable (if exasperatingly so at times) with no hot anger or nastiness. There is some getting to know one another throughout the play which deepens their relationship rather than pulling it apart.

I think this play actually helped me understand Waiting for Godot a little. The famous play where nothing happens, reflecting on the mundane interactions of life, how life isn’t all about the exciting stuff, mostly it’s just waiting or having the same conversations going round and round eternally. Where Godot was so boring that people angrily walked out of early performances, A Couple Decides What to have for Dinner does it in a relatable modern context with warmth, laughs and a cracker of a joke at the end.

This show is having a short run at The Butterfly Club until Sunday March 30 so get in quick before it ends.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/a-couple-decides-what-to-have-for-dinner/

MICF shows we’ve already seen and recommendations.

As the Melbourne Internation Comedy Festival approaches and you are considering what shows to pop on your spreadsheet this year, we have some recomendations and shows we’ve previously reviewed to help you make your decisions. Some shows, for example those at The Butterfly Club begin as early as Tuesday 25th of March, the festival ends on Sunday April 20th. There are many shows that don’t start til a bit later, the 7th or 15th of April, and some are having very short runs, so keep an eye out.

First I will recommend some artists that have piqued my interest for various reasons. There are MANY brilliant shows and I will discover more interesting things as we go along, but these will do for now, or we’ll be here all day!

Recommendations:

One of the most charming monthly podcasts to emerge in the past couple of years is From The Hideout with three generations of Australian showbiz hanging out and making us and each other laugh. Pete Smith (85), famous for his voice over work on Channel 9 has many nostalgic stories to tell about working with Don Lane, Graham Kennedy and Bert Newton and co from the beginning of television in the 1960s and radio work. Tony Martin (60), ex Aotearoan/New Zealander famous from The Late Show in the early 1990s and his groundbreaking radio work on Martin Malloy and Get This. And finally Djovan Caro (35), more famous as Luis from the award winning Lessons with Luis and shows on Channel 31 including Famous with Luis, Catcam and Fishcam in the 2010s (these can all be found on Youtube featuring a cavalcade of other Australian comedians). Anyway these three friends are bringing their delightful podcast From The Hideout – Live! to the civilised time of 3pm on Saturday and Sunday of the first weekend of the comedy festival. I’ll be at both!

My Favourite show from last year was Flo & Joan’s One Man Musical (starring George Fouracres as a very famous writer of Westend musicals). We cannot name the subject of this musical, but if you have seen musicals about cats and things and maybe not loved them, this is the show for you. It is a pretty vicious and hilarious satire on the delicate genius. It’s a masterpiece, don’t miss it.

Elf Lyons Horses was another show we gave 5 nuts to. Performed by a “horse”, it’s won many awards such as Best Show and Spirit of the Fringe at the Edinburgh Fringe 2024 and Best Comedy Award at Adelaide Fringe 2024 and has received many rave reviews. I am looking forward to finally seeing this.

Free from his radio responsibilities Sammy J is ready to get back to his first love of performing live. In The Kangaroo Effect Sammy J will have a big story to tell, no doubt, which begins with accidentally wearing a costume to a party that wasn’t a costume party. Sammy J is a born showman who knows how to put on a stunning show. There’ll be new songs and lots of laughs. He also has a new album of old songs to look out for.

Go see Guy Montgomery, one of the best of the new wave of Aoteoroan/New Zealand comedians, who has certainly got the funniest show on Australian TV last year (I was in tears every week) Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee It’s a massive venue and slightly different to the TV version, but you will have a ball. Go see his solo stand up too, I’ve Noticed So Many Things, It’d Be Unfair To Keep Them To Myself. He’s very funny.

Rhys Darby, one of the original wave of Aotearoan/New Zealand comedians to break through at the beginning of this century (Most notably as Murray in the radio and TV series Flight of the Conchords), has returned to Australia with a new live show The Legend Returns after eight years of concentrating on TV and film work, Such as the Jumanji films, the sublime Uproar (my fave film of 2023) and as Gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet,(who’s love interest is Blackbeard) in the hilarious and heart achingly romantic queer pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death. Rhys’s standup comedy style is storytelling involving a lot of physical comedy and impressions of things such as robots. This year, the famously cheerful and non political comedian, is tackling the very real threat of robots to humanity head on.

El Salvedorian/American Julio Torres is an absurdist comedian, who writes for Saturday Night Live and also created the HBO series Fantasmas. He is bringing both his solo show Color Theories and a special one-off viewing of his movie Problemista staring Tilda Swinton, Greta Lee and the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA