There is a new venue in old Edinburgh Town. The 2022 Edinburgh Festival sees the House of Oz pop in for a friendly visit. Hosting a dazzling variety of tasty Australian treats, from straight music, poetry and theatre performances, to cabaret and standup, it will celebrate the breadth of Australian talent, culture and creativity with a BBQ out the back featuring Aussie food, snacks, drinks and cocktails and a cafe with Melbourne style coffee and delicious lamingtons.
Comedians include:
Dolly Diamond who’s giving us a variety of goodies including Bosom Buddies (one of her guests last night was Rhys Nicholson so you never know who might pop up).
Garry Starr in the raucous Loose Unit.
Gabbi Bolt who was a breakout musical comedy star from this year’s Australian festival season in I Hope My Keyboard Doesn’t Break.
Geraldine Quinn doing her highly acclaimed Broad which was nominated for 2022 Best Show at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The Listies are doing a show based on Hamlet for kids: Prince of Skidmark and it will be for big kids too, no doubt.
A variety night called OzMosis: The Great Australian Variety Pack hosted by Dane Simpson.
The cherry on top of the Aussie Pav will be Die Roten Punkte’s Haus Party With Otto & Astrid, an outrageous alternative comedy/cabaret/circus showcase which is always a huge highlight at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
There are two Venues: The Great Indoors and The Outback.
The Great Indoors is the Main Stage hosting most of the shows. It has a bar that’s open during shows and then Kicking On ’til late.
House of Oz is graced by a Sydney chef-in-residence David Lee who is co-curating the Taste Australia foodie events on Monday nights in The Great Indoors. Audiences can enjoy an immersive experience with artists like Reuben Kaye who will be celebrating their Russian-Jewish heritage through delicious food.
The Outback has an outdoor stage for shows such as kid’s shows and Dolly Diamond’s Hi T where she’ll be telling tales and singing songs while the audience tries not to snort their tea and lamingtons from laughing. The cafe is open during the day til 6pm.
The Outback Garden kitchen and Bar are open til 10pm. BBQ meals include sausage sizzle, pizzas and some great veggie and vegan options. At the Bar, as well as the expected wines, spirits & beers you can buy four different flavours of BBQ shapes (ÂŁ5 a box!) as well as ÂŁ1 Caramello Koalas. There is a big jar of Vegemite on the bar – for using in cocktails… and you can get some stubbies of Bundaberg Ginger Beer.
There are comfy cushions and fairy lights along with the fabulous food, drink and world class festival shows at House of Oz, so it will, no doubt, be a gorgeous and fun place to hang out during August in Edinburgh.
You will find the House of Oz in the Kings Hall down near The Meadows. Visit https://www.houseofoz.co.uk/ for all the details about what’s happening in this delicious slice of Australia.
The 75th Edinburgh Fringe Festival begins this week and, after a bit of an enforced break, there will be a strong contingent of Australian acts (as well as Aussie Expats and adopted Aussies) back in Auld Reeky town raring to tread the boards again. Here is a list of those we could find along with any reviews we have previously written.
Our British Correspondent Ron will be seeing a whole slew of shows and reviewing them for us.
To all those performers in Edinburgh, Chookas from The Squirrels and have a wonderful Fringe.
Scotland’s capital city is bursting at the seams with talented artists as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe begins this week. As is usual many Australian acts are heading up to “sunny” Edinburgh to show the world what they’ve got. If you’re in town, be sure to check out some of these fabulous funny folk listed below.
We’ve compiled a list of all the acts we could find, along with links to the reviews of those shows that our Squirrel writers have seen at previous festivals. As usual we give the disclaimer that Festival shows are ever evolving beasts so the show that we saw could be rather different to current iteration.
If we’ve missed anyone, feel free to drop us a line (or contact us on social media)…
It’s not long now until the world’s largest fringe arts festival begins in warmer climes and again a massive contingent of Australians and expats are headed to The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Many have traveled the Australian festival circuit and have been whipped into shape for international audiences. Some have been previously reviewed by Squirrel but remember they will have been further polished and may have been revised and reworked.
Hannah Gadsby
Last year Australian, Hannah Gadsby won Best Comedy at the Fringe, she’s had to cancel her Edinburgh Fringe run this year but there’s a lot more amazing comedy talent coming up from down under. If you are travelling anywhere near Edinburgh this August, have a look at the following list of shows and consider going to see an Australian act.
This year instead of being presented in the middle of the night at the Festival Club as is traditional, The Melbourne International Comedy Festival Awards were instead presented at 1pm in the afternoon at Belleville. It was more relaxed and civilised with drinks and nibblies (and better lighting for photos) and it was great knowing that everyone in the room was involved and invested in the results, but sort of sad that it was restricted to invite only. I was very lucky to be invited, but other fans on the rim of the festival, but just as invested would have been sad (as I was when this happened once in the past) to not be a part of that middle of the night wild excitement and joy when a favourite, or someone you’ve discovered wins an award.
I can’t deny that there was some surprise as well as delight for Sam Campbell’s win. Although he has been performing in Sydney for a while and getting some TV work (you may have seen him on The Checkout), he’s still pretty much under the radar of the general public. We fell in love with his work when we saw Zanzoop! early in it’s run in 2016 and spent the rest of the Festival telling anyone who would listen that they should go and see the strange talk show hosted by a wise cracking alien in a back alley nightclub. This year we loved both shows he was involved with; his own, The Trough and Anne Edmond’s Helen Bidou – Enter the Spinnaker Lounge where he played Helen’s long suffering, very awkward son Connor.
2018 AWARD WINNERS
Hannah Gadsby Presenting The Barry Award from New York
Barry Award, for the best show: Sam Campbell The Trough Â
Nominees for The Barry Award:
Alex Edelman (USA)- Just for UsÂ
Anne Edmonds – as Helen Bidou – Enter the Spinaker Lounge
Tim Key (UK) –Â Megadate
Lano & Woodley (Colin Lane and Frank Woodley) – Fly!
Rose Matafeo (NZ) – Horndog!
Celia Pacquola – All Talk
Natalie Palamides (USA) – Laid
The Best Newcomer: Danielle Walker Bush RatÂ
Danielle Walker
This award was presented by Sarah Dodds of Soho Theatre who will be bringing Danielle to London to make her Debut at The Soho Theatre.
Nominees for The Best Newcomer Award:
Paul Williams(NZ) – Summertime Love
Stephanie Tisdell – Identity Steft
Garry Starr – Performs Everything
Lewis Garnham – The Smartest Idiot You’ll Ever Meet
Nadia Collins – Virgin Bloody Mary
The Golden Gibbo Award (for an artistic independent production):Â
Cam Venn
Cam Venn for Charles Horse Lays An Egg
The prize is a Bottle of Red Wine and was presented by Lynda Gibson’s Niece Emma Maye Gibson, also known as Betty Grumble
Nominees for The Golden Gibbo Award:
Sophie Joske and Anna Piper Scott – Almost Lesbians
Garry Starr  – Performs EverythingÂ
Julia Rorke & Elysia Hall – Not Another F***** B**** In India
Michelle Brasier & Laura Frew
(Double Denim) – Double Denim AdventureShow]
Lano & Woodley
People’s Choice Award: Lano & Woodley – Fly!
This award signifies that Fly! sold the most tickets at this year’s Festival.
The Directors’ Choice Award: Michelle Brasier and Laura Frew for Double Denim Adventure Show
The Pinder Prize: Demi Lardner – I Love SkeletonÂ
This Award funds her trip to the Edinburgh Fringe
to perform at Assembly Festival.
Heath Franklin
Piece of Wood Award (Peer Award from other comedians): Heath Franklin – Bogan JesusÂ
Funny Tonne Winner: Alasdair Bryant (76 Shows)
Deadly Funny National Grand Final winner: Leon Filewood (QLD)
RAW Comedy Grand Final Winner: Bec Melrose (NSW)Â Â
Bec has won a trip to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival to compete in So You Think You’re Funny?. RAW Runners-Up: Gavin Sempel (VIC), Emma Holland (ACT)
Class Clowns National Grand Final Winners Liam Adam, Carlin Carruth & Kyle Bennett (QLD) as ‘Awkward’! Class Clowns Runners-Up:
Dusty Diddle (VIC),
Nina Cowley-Mousinho (QLD)
Shiloh Rea (QLD)
Nicholas Doring (NSW)
