Jeff Green Letters Home

By Lisa Clark 

Jeff Green is one of those comedians who feel like part of the furniture, that he’s been around a long time and yes he’s been doing comedy since the 80s but he’s only been living in Australia for ten years and this show is somewhat of a celebration of the life he has made here.

This year Jeff is doing something a bit different for the Comedy Festival. It’s a concept show with a interesting structure and script. He’s going to read to us several letters he sent to his mum over the ten years since he left home in Chester in the north west of England (a little south of Liverpool). It’s a bit like pouring over an old diary and proves nostalgic for the mostly middle aged audience, also.

Ten years ago Melbourne was in the middle of a frightening drought and the rest of the world was in recession. It’s amazing how much has happened in the past ten years, to Jeff and to the world. Not all of the show is in letter form, there are a couple of videos and plenty of in between anecdotes. He sprinkles a few photos throughout the jokes and letters and I would’ve loved some more, especially at the beginning.  There are some serious moments, but Jeff is not the type to wallow in serious subjects he keeps it all pretty light and gentle.

Jeff says the letters are real, but there are so many jokes it’s hard to believe they are not somewhat embellished, or he really loves trying out his material on his mum, who doesn’t mind some ribbing. Jeff really pumps out a lot of jokes and despite starting his career as part of the alternative comedy scene his jokes are mostly of the old-school British Club style.

Jeff is very experienced at what he does and has a relaxed friendly vibe with his audience, who clearly adore him and roar with laughter throughout. If you’ve enjoyed Jeff’s work on the Gala and elsewhere, this is definitely the year to get to know him better in this show.

Jeff Green performs Letters Home at the Swiss Club til Apr 21. Except Mondays when he is at The Melbourne Town Hall.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/letters-home

5 Reasons to see Clare Cavanagh Literally

1.     Literally features and celebrates a whole bunch of characters who care too much about stuff that doesn’t matter and who aren’t very cool, so if you care too much about stuff that doesn’t matter and aren’t very cool then you’ll feel seen.

2.     While the show does include a 90 year-old-spy who has killed many people and a school captain inciting a bloody revolution, on the whole it is an overly optimistic and energetically fun-filled affair.

3.     You’ll meet a character who will teach you the secret to becoming a billionaire (NOT A JOKE)

4.     Weekend Notes reckons the show is “bloody brilliant and just really funny”, which is all you really want out of a Comedy Festival show

5.     Three words: Black Eyed Peas.

Clare Cavanagh performs Literally at TIC Swanston – on the corner of Flinders Lane

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/clare-cavanagh-literally

Lessons with Luis Stickin’ Together

By Lisa Clark 

Yay Luis and Luellin are back on stage together again! This is “old school” Lessons With Luis for fans and a great intro to their daggy retro-style feel-good comedy for newcomers.

He’s done standup and sing offs and lectures, now Luis is keen to try his hand at creating a sitcom. In space! The sitcom, also called Stickin’ Together, requires another actor for Luis to work with so Luellin is hauled back into duty to support his big brother’s dream of show business. But while he’s been away from the stage, Luellin has gained an independent life outside of home made up of friends and hobbies.

The sitcom itself is performed in the Lessons With Luis style – like kids who’ve created this in their lounge room with very basic props and an obvious clichĂ©d plot. Everything starts off with Happy Good Times but we know this won’t last for long. Luis, emulating TV, has inserted a couple of ad breaks into the show within a show, the first being the best and possibly highlight of the evening. There is a very They Might Be Giants feel to the jingle about microwave ovens. The original songs throughout are actually surprisingly great.

Tech is always good in a Lessons with Luis show and the pre-recorded voices are handled expertly, acting as  a great way of getting around annoying the audience with interaction and also a way of getting the silent Luellin more involved. The special guest voice-over professional is; the legend that is: Pete Smith. As in “Saaaaale of the Century” Pete Smith. The voice of Chanel 9 for many decades. Well, if you need voice overs for your show, why not get the best? Pete’s voice gets to be involved in more ways than one and adds to the charmingly old fashioned vibe of the show.

It would not be a Lessons With Luis show without learning and it is Luellin who takes over the learning in this show indicating that he is maturing and able to take charge when Luis is having a meltdown. Luellin’s contributions have always been appreciated by the audience and now, hopefully, may be more appreciated by his brother. It would be a good idea though, for him to hold up The Learning White Board or to place it somewhere on stage where everyone could see, but luckily, we had a helpful audience member up the front who loudly read out what was written on the learning board without being asked.

If there was a main fault to this show it would be that the central idea of the sibling rivalry seems to have been covered in more poignant ways in the past. The finale however is glorious and possibly one of the best at the Festival, with a wild joyful 40s jive dance number on a fairly small stage (with props lying around!).

Lessons with Luis always put on a delightfully quirky show you can bring your family to for laughs and a good time and Stickin’ Together is no different – with an early evening slot too.

Lessons with Luis Stickin’ Together is on at The Melbourne Town Hall Lunch Room

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/stickin-together

Tanya Losanno : The Good, The Bad and the Elderly

By Colin Flaherty

It’s been quite a while since I’ve last seen Tanya Losanno on a Melbourne stage. Since then, family has been consuming her life and this wonderfully sweet set of stories documents the trials and tribulations of caring for elderly parents in her hometown of Canberra.

The spaghetti western theme loomed large in this show (you will be humming Morrocone’s theme for days afterwards), drawing connections between the characters in those films with her and her parents, and portraying the many misadventures as showdowns. She regularly poked fun at Mum and Dad’s peculiar habits and all the crazy situations they caused. A lot of Tanya’s jokes revolved around their Italian heritage but it was a gentle, loving ribbing of their eccentricities and the exasperating gap between the generations, rather than scoffing at the behaviours from the old country.

The show gradually built a vivid picture of her parents with amusing memories from Tanya’s childhood revealing more about how her view of them had changed over time. She loved a callback and frequently returned to several Italian motifs during the hour.

Tanya was the same convivial performer that I remember and she had the audience glued to every word. It was quite an animated performance when some of the tales were broken up with mimes to illustrate the scene she was describing. Some were merely a gun-slinger grimace while others were full on slapstick affairs and her facial expressions were a joy to behold.

The Good, The Bad and The Elderly was a charmingly amusing show with broad appeal and some damn fine comedic storytelling. It’s certainly one to take your mum to (if she can manage the stairs up to the venue).

The Good, The Bad and the Elderly is on at The Coopers Malthouse until April 21
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/tanya-losanno

Andy Matthews & Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall – Magma

By Will Erskine 

Not every comedy show will present you with a solution to solve all (or most) of the world’s problems; in fact this may be the only one I’ve seen and it is definitely the only one I’ve seen at MICF this year. Presented in the style of an infomercial or a questionable property investment seminar, Magma explains the worlds hottest emerging industry Magma Mining. With deadpan delivery and glorious pseudo-science both Andy Matthew’s and Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall are worryingly convincing in their roles as engineers pitching the proposed new industry and left me quite genuinely ready to invest and have a Magma tap installed in my house as soon as possible.

While the show largely focuses on the central theme of magma mining, our two hosts manage to expertly solve a range of other related issues including prioritising function over form by structurally stabilising the Arabic Numerals, something that had never occurred to be as necessary and now cannot be unseen. I will never be able to take the number 5 seriously again.

I don’t think there is any hiding the fact that this is a geeky show and those with experience in an engineering field will relate particularly well to both the presentation style and the type of nonsense presented. While the show’s poster describes it as “An Engineering Presentation” there is still plenty to enjoy for those who aren’t quite as intimately familiar with the style of presentation being parodied and anyone willing to embark on the sci-fi thought experiment of magma mining will be richly rewarded with one of the funniest, most absurd shows at the festival. These two had me in fits of giggles from start to finish.

Magma plays at Tasma Terrace until Apr 21

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/magma

Nina Oyama: Needs a Lift Review

By Nick Bugeja  

Nina Oyama might be a familiar face. Maybe you’ve seen her on Utopia, or SBS a few years back or Tom Ballard’s Tonightly. Or, more likely, you saw her throw up on a mass scale at a pub in rural New South Wales.

Oyama hails from the city of Bathurst. On its tourism website, Bathurst is said to have “rich heritage, museums, and a thriving arts scene”. This isn’t the immediate impression you get from listening to Oyama’s recollection of the region: where K-Marts are considered an upper crust institution, where there’s nothing to do but drink yourself blind, and also apparently pick up innumerable road fines.

The show is framed around Oyama’s unusual aptitude for picking up fines for speeding, driving without a valid licence, and not displaying her P-plates – all of which has to disgrace her father, who’s a well-known figure in taxi driver circles. It’s doubtful that she was pleased about these at the time, but her recklessness has provided Oyama with a wealth of amusing jokes.

Unlike plenty of other comics I can think of, Oyama has a self-consciousness that serves her comedy well. Instead of regurgitating trite and tired lines about house prices, the price of avocados, or the incompetency of our politicians, her set frequently mocks them intelligently. She’s not afraid of self-deprecation either, but again this is adopted in a genuine, honest way – maximising its interest to us and its comedic value.

All performances are embellished to some degree, but there’s a strong sense in which we’re getting to know Oyama over the duration of her show. She’s not just spitting out randomly funny jokes, but material that clearly has some personal resonance for her. And this makes her performance all the more engaging.

At 25 years of age, and presumably not wanting to return to Bathurst anytime soon, it seems that Oyama has more than a few good years left. Effervescent, likeable, and self-aware, she’s got all the tools to flourish in Australia’s comedy ecosystem. The years of her getting by as a “human possum” – stealing fruit off trees in Brunswick – are over, you’d have to think.

Nina Oyama: Needs a Lift is showing at the Forum until 21 Apr

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/nina-oyama-needs-a-lift