Squirrel Comedy – Page 7 – We're Nuts About Australian Comedy

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

Previously reviewed shows:

We recommend All of them!

Elf Lyons – Horses

Here’s Ron’s Review from Edinburgh Fringe 2024

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/elf-lyons-horses/

Flo & Joan starring George Fouracres – One Man Musical

Here’s Lisa’s review from Edinburgh Fringe 2024

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/one-man-musical/

Jake & Liv – We Forgive You, Patina Pataznik

Here’s Colin’s review from Edinburgh Fringe 2024

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/we-forgive-you-patina-pataznik/

Julian O’Shea – M is for Melbourne: The World’s Mostly* Liveable City

Here’s Colin’s review from MICF 2024

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/m-is-for-melbourne-the-world-s-mostly-liveable-city/

Olga Koch Comes From Money

Here’s Ron’s review from Edinburgh Fringe 2024

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/olga-koch-comes-from-money/

The Late Nite PowerPoint Comedy Showcase

Here’s Colin’s review from Edinburgh Fringe 2024

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/the-late-nite-powerpoint-comedy-showcase/

Nina Rose Carlin: Seeking Representation

By Ron Bingham

Nina Rose Carlin performs a – not autobiographical at all☺- one woman play, about a New York girl who flies to Hollywood to realise her dreams of stardom and fame. In doing so we get to enjoy a wide showcase of her many talents.

Seeking Representation is a jaunty Cabaret which includes amusing songs, kooky impressions, a little audience participation, a lot of jokes and some sage advice for any other young girls with stars in their eyes. It’s all pretty much solid cabaret fare. Then she surprises with an audacious shock ending that is somewhat jarring after the preceding lightness, but also astute in it’s topicality about the looming AI avalanche affecting the Arts industry. I’m not sure if she completely carried it off, but I give her credit for a big bold fringey move!

A very enjoyable show, with a good story, told well by a charming performer, and a bit of scifi to keep us on our toes. Nina is a talented singer and actor, with excellent stagecraft. This is a great way to start the day of Fringe. it will definitely wake you up and get you thinking.

Seeking Representation is on at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall until August 24

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/nina-rose-carlin-seeking-representation

Danny Clives: Danny Explains It All

By Ron Bingham

Danny is from Dudley and has been doing stand-up for about ten years. He is a very deadpan comic with very few jokes. Everything is designed to fail. I can see his routine working in a ten minute slot, but it’s almost impossible to sustain that lack of tension and release for a full hour. I admit I had trouble focusing on his show, but I had just seen three high energy shows in a row so this slower pace is jarring.

Danny told some stories of his life, including living with his mum and breaking up with his girlfriend, and a few jokes with feeble punchlines and a couple of poems. It didn’t move me, but some of the audience seemed to enjoy it.

Danny Explains It All is on at Pleasance Courtyard until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/danny-clives-danny-explains-it-all

Takashi Wakasugi: Welcome to Japan

By Ron Bingham

Takashi is a Japanese comedian who has relocated to Australia which he loves, but is finding the language and cultural differences somewhat complicated. He is a quirky comedian, with a genuinely unique style that is both bossy and cheeky. It can take the audience a while to get into his rhythm, but once he gets going he wins us over with his charm and skill as a comedian.

Welcome to Japan sees Takashi pondering about some of the idiosyncrasies of the English language (I’ve always wondered why it isn’t teethbrush, too) and the general oddness of Westerners. As a comedian, it’s not surprising that he would find laughs in the tools he needs for his craft and his discovering western culture overall. He does also talk about some of the quirks of the Japanese people both in and out of their homeland, so it’s not all one way.

There is sometimes a vibe of Takashi being a school teacher or hard Taskmaster, he gets a little upset when we don’t respond quickly enough to his audience participation, but the ethical dilemmas he poses often need a little more time – CAN you justify buying the cage eggs if the free range ones are sold out? What do you do with pizza the next day, and how does it relate to your social status? The hard stuff. His slideshow is a highlight that has the audience in fits, but mostly it is just Takashi giving us some good jokes and asking us complex questions.

The room was full of well-entertained people on the night I was there. Takashi was a pleasant and genial host who kept us laughing for the full hour with his stories of encounters with the world outside Japan, and this was a fun show that may have you thinking the next day about the words you use.

Welcome to Japan is on at Assembly George Square Studios until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/takashi-wakasugi-welcome-to-japan

Gentlemen’s Club

By Ron Bingham

Freddie’s Bar, is in the New Town and well away from the main comedy venues, there is only a Fringe Venue sign outside with no mention of acts, and no staff on the door. Despite all this, I managed to find the show, but I was the only audience member (it was a quiet Wednesday), so this probably isn’t an accurate reflection of how the show would go with a full audience. The two comedians, Lotte Allan (who plays Barry) and Susanna Pukkila (Joni), each perform a 30 minute character-based comedy play.

Barry is an old man in London talking about his life and the people around him. He needed a lot of help from the audience (me) during the play. He is your standard crotchety old man, but one who has just discovered the joys of London’s Freedom Pass (free bus travel all round London). This was a fun act, but as I was on stage for most of it, I did feel I’d turned into a cast member instead of someone dragged away from their friends.

Joni is an ice hockey player (I assume, even though she/he was on roller blades) who is retiring after this big match and wants to go out a winner. Lots of inspirational speeches to the team before the game (ie me and Lotte), and a bit of bribery to the referee (again, me), a couple of national anthem type songs, the game itself with all its ins and outs agressively acted by Joni on stage, and the big finale of drinking from the winners cup.

A great show with lots of humour that deserves a bigger audience.

Gentlemen’s Club is on at Laughing Horse @ Freddy’s until August 25

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/gentlemen-s-club

Alexa, Play

By Ron Bingham

This is a play written by and starring Alexa Elmy, which takes place in a meeting room for Alexas Anonymous, a group of people who are unfortunate to have the same name as Amazon’s intrusive little assistant. I have no idea where she could have come up with the idea, but I get the impression that this is very much a passion project for Alexa, and a way of venting frustration at the idea a company can just take someone’s name and trademark it.

In the play, we the audience are all named Alexa (or close variants), and we are encouraged to join in some of the team building and relaxation exercises (nothing embarrassing) before the meetings get underway. As the meetings progress through the Nine Steps of AA, we watch our host gradually start to break down as the pressure builds. Can she (and us) win back the right to our name or is it eternally in the hands of Jeff Bezos (and his minions)?

Alexa has done a very good job with this story, throwing in comic moments and embarrassing stories along with a lot of Alexa jokes (probably taken from real life). There are no other cast members, and just a few props on stage to help the flow of the story.

A very interesting cautionary story, told in an amusing and inventive way. Definitely one to see, especially if you’re named Alexa/Alex/Allegra/etc.

Alexa, Play has finished its run.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/alexa-play