Category: Festivals

Wanda Sykes

By Annette Slattery.

Wanda Sykes is one of those people you recognise but you’re not sure from where. Have you seen here on the telly? In a movie? The answer is yes to both. Her credits include the film “Monster in Law”, TV’s “The New Adventures of Old Christine” and of course Larry David’s cult hit “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. She has also written for Chris Rock on “The Chris Rock Show”. Her credentials are impressive and so is her latest stand up show.

The show is opened by Keith Robinson who does a short spot with some risqué material. He took a little while to warm up but once he got his first big laugh from the large Capitol Theatre audience, he had the room playing into his hands.

Sykes started her set with the obligatory Australian material which was enjoyable, original and strong. After that she gets into what appears to be her show proper. Wanda covers politics (US politics), showing her support for Barack Obama and her dislike of the current crop of Republican nominees. She also talks about political causes, poking fun at her own occasional hypocrisy, and delivering a very funny set on gay marriage rights.

But she is easily at her best delivering the more personal of her material. Her acerbic observations of her French wife and her twin children, Lucas and Olivia, are deeply funny and beautifully authentic. Her uncanny ability to physically impersonate both her children is a source of great delight.

Watching Wanda Sykes at work you know you’re in the hands of a professional and you won’t be disappointed.

Wanda Sykes’ final show is on the 8th at the Melbourne Town Hall. Be aware that the night I attended the show ran over by about twenty minutes.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/wanda-sykes/ 

Jon Bennett – My Dad’s Deaths

By Cathy Culliver. 

If My Dad’s Deaths is anything to go by, Jon Bennett’s father has an uncanny knack for staying alive, and making his loved ones think he’s dead.

Bennett’s latest show is a funny and at times genuinely touching look at his relationship with his conservative, no-nonsense father and the times he had sincerely thought he’d lost him for good. And considering the man has apparently had a heart attack, fallen off a ladder five times and started three bushfires, it’s suffice to say Bennett has plenty of material to go with.

Bennett’s style is more storytelling than traditional stand up, and it’s an art form he’s mastered well. Best known for his tongue-in-cheek, internationally acclaimed show Pretending Things are a Cock, Bennett’s newest offering is a natural step into more mature and thoughtful comedy, and is a great platform to show off what he does best.

The show takes the audience through Bennett’s childhood growing up on a pig farm in rural South Australia, where his father was a hard man to avoid – he was Bennett’s school teacher, his football coach, his school’s bus driver and the local minister. Apparently also a deeply serious man, Bennett’s dad never swears – unless of course his son has just shot him in the chest, but you’ll have to see the show to hear the rest of that story.

Bennett also intersperses his show with hilarious poetry, brought on by the fact his dad wanted him to be like Banjo Patterson. Don’t expect any rhyming couplets or sweeping metaphors though – Bennett’s poetry style is more about graphic descriptions of birth and quoting status updates from one of the more culturally-challenged of his 1200+ Facebook friends. The result is very funny and makes for a good break between stories of his dad, well, dying.

Bennett is warm, engaging and very likeable. He is a master storyteller, and has the audience hanging on his every word. At times it’s easy to feel like you’re just hanging with a friend who happens to be telling you particularly entertaining stories about his life, such is Bennett’s natural charisma.

My Dad’s Deaths is an unaffectedly honest and entertaining show from a gifted local talent and one of the best storytellers you’re ever likely to see.

Jon Bennett – My Dad’s Deaths is showing at LOOP Project Space and Bar on Sunday 8 April, then at Tuxedo Cat from Thursday 12 April onwards.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/my-dad-s-deaths-jon-bennett/

Neil Sinclair – Panic

By Elyce Phillips

Neil Sinclair is a survivor. Perhaps not in the heroic sense, but certainly in a shambolic ‘managed not to die’ kind of way. Panic tells the tale of how Sinclair managed to get through the London Riots with naught but his wits, and copious amounts of wine to sustain him.

Sinclair has created a delightful show from what must have been a terrifying experience. The show is largely set in a Whitechapel flat, where Sinclair is panicking with his roommates as the rioters get closer to their home. The show has a very laid-back feel to it, however, perhaps because of Sinclair’s conversational style. There are occasional pieces that feel more structured, such as the interludes in his kitchen ‘War Room’, which are hilarious – particularly his pun-tastic readings from the twitter feed. After all, who doesn’t enjoy a good dad joke on occasion? Sinclair even pulls out the ukulele for a song or two, including a mesmerizing jingle for his electronics store, Neil’s Electrics.

Of course, the show is not all innocent puns and adorable ukulele. A wonderfully painful drawn-out moment in which Sinclair crafts the perfect comeback to his mum’s lecturing had me in tears. However, Sinclair’s story of the riots is a quintessentially British one. In the aftermath, no one discusses what has happened – something Sinclair attempts to rectify with a brilliant self-help tape. His roommate even has ‘fond memories’ of the event. It’s altogether civilized.

Panic is a quirky and downright charming show. Sinclair’s act is a little rough around the edges, but is so endearing that you find yourself rooting for him the whole way through. There is a lot to like about this show and Sinclair is certainly a comedian to keep your eye on.

Neil Sinclair –Panic! is on at Rue Bebelons Upstairs until April 21.

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/panic-neil-sinclair/

Victoria Healy – Independent Women Part 2

By Elyce Phillips

Victoria Healy is the BeyoncĂ© Knowles of Australian comedy. She’s dated the baddest of the bad boys, sings with all her heart, and can bring it to the dance floor. Of course, those bad boys are less like Jay-Z, and more ‘appeared on RBT’. And her microphone is a water bottle. And you may need to dodge flying bits of Pizza Hut beef mince as she shakes her booty. But hey, that’s all part of the charm.

Independent Women Part 2 is a coming-of-age musical journey. Transporting the audience through her formative years via the likes of Destiny’s Child, Shania Twain and (God help us) Fergie, Healy tracks her path to independence right from those first awkward friendships at school, as she tries to figure out exactly what it means to be a successful woman.

As a kid of the 90s, Healy’s show spoke to me. The songs that Healy loves are those ones that you know all the lyrics to, even if you hated them, because they were the ever-present soundtrack to every school trip and boozy backyard birthday party. The show is often crude, but is also very sweet and incredibly relatable. Her characters are spot on. Healy pinpoints the Australian male voice with alarming accuracy, used to great effect when telling stories of her early dating history. You could almost hear the audience crawling with discomfort as she re-enacted a date in Chinatown with an absolute charmer.

Independent Women Part 2 is painfully funny, wonderfully nostalgic and full of bogan charm. You can tell that Healy truly cares about the people she portrays, for all their flaws and eccentricities. Her story of finding independence is one she really wants to tell, and with good cause. This is a show to be seen with friends. Good friends and old friends, as many as you can convince to come along. You won’t regret it.

Warning: You may end up with Destiny’s Child songs stuck in your head for days after seeing this show.

Victoria Healy – Independent Women Part 2 is on at Rue Bebelons Upstairs until April 22

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/independent-women-part-2-victoria-

healy/

Triple J’s Good Az Friday

By Jayden Edwards

Now in it’s third year, Triple J rolled into the Melbourne Town Hall with 1200 of their closest friends for the annual “Good Az Friday” Outside broadcast.

Quickly becoming a major highlight of the festival, Triple J’s breakfast young guns Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson beamed 3 hours of stand up comedy, music and shenanigans around the country with help from Triple J buddies Sam Simmons, Dave Callan and Father Bob plus a big line up of stand up spots from the likes of Steven K. Amos, Tom Green, Celia Paquola, Mike Wilmot Paul Foot, Andy Kindler and more!

Young songstress Lisa Mitchell performed a couple of songs including a fantastic cover of M83’s Midnight City (sorry oldies, that’s a hip song the young people are down with) for regular Triple J segment “Like a Version”. The day accumulated with another Triple J tradition, a massive Friday Dance Off, which saw the Melbourne Town Hall jumping to the beats of Skrillex (more young people stuff). All in all a whole lot of fun and a great showcase to get those young folks out and seeing live comedy!

If you weren’t there, or missed it on the radio, you can hear everything i just told you here!

The Show:

Lisa Mitchell’s Like a Version:

Some Pics:

Daniel Burt – Inspired by Mediocrity

By Lisa Clark

A comedian who names his show ‘Inspired by Mediocrity’ has to be pretty careful not to put ideas about his performance in the audience’s or reviewers’ minds. Daniel Burt has certainly chosen some pretty mundane topics for his Festival show this year, such as Masterchef, over ordering in a restaurant, picnics and his disinterest in clothes buying. It’s a shame that despite being a lovely, warm guy with some neat comedy writing skills, he can’t really make any of these topics shine.

The idea behind Daniel’s show is that he’s been too much of a perfectionist and he wants to relax a bit and enjoy the middle ground. At the same time he does end up taking the mickey out of the mundane topics he touches upon, as well as himself. He began with great confidence and a pleasantly gentle, flowing, jazzy style that became more stilted and disjointed as it went along. I was thinking he might be a good comedian to bring your mum to until he got into some rather racey material that seemed to make a kid in front of me squirm just a bit.

The strongest parts of the show are actually pretty funny. I felt that he could have written an entire show around his experience as a party bus host. Audiences love a funny ‘behind the scenes’ story based around real life experiences. His talents as a journalistic writer stand out when he rises above the mediocre, such as his belief that  ‘hating pedophiles’ is a lazy and easy sell for a journo and then he had the audience in his hands when, during our show, he broke away from his script to discuss a news report about an outrageous racist in the newspaper that day. There was a frisson in the room as both audience and comedian actually got excited by something and the laughter was notably louder. Then it was back to the less interesting body of his show about being crap at housework and stuff.

The low point was when he threw in a joke about a man who is sadly famous for having relations with a goat. Not only did Daniel try to pass off an old generic joke as his own, (and I know he’s not the first comedian to do this) but he did it with such little skill that there was a barely a hint of laughter in the room. Maybe most of them had heard it done better. He pretty much lost me at that point. Here it is in the urban dictionary. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=goatfucker This throw away gag bares so little relation to his show I wonder why it is there at all. Unless it is a lack of confidence in his own comedic skill or trying to pad out the hour.

I know he does a lot of comedy writing, much of which I enjoy, but I’ve not seen Daniel around the live comedy traps. This is his third festival show and he’s still making rookie mistakes. I suggest that he might want to get out and do some spots at the regular comedy nights to iron this out in the future.

Daniel Burt – Inspired by Mediocrity is on at 1,000 pound bend

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/inspired-by-mediocrity-daniel-burt/