Tag: Guy Montgomery

Abby Howells – Welcome to My Dream

By Peter Newling

Over recent years Australia’s comedy clubs and television shows have been blessed with an influx of incredibly talented thirty-something New Zealand comedians. Abby Howell’s is an important voice in this mix.

She comes well credentialed. She is a past winner of the prestigious Billy T Award whose past winners include Cal Wilson, Rose Matafeo, Guy Montgomery and Melanie Bracewell. Fans of Taskmaster New Zealand will remember her from season 5 where she finished a solid fifth.

Through Welcome To My Dream, Howells offers us the chance to take a sneak peek into her mind. Much of the material is based on the impact of neurodivergence on her childhood, her family, her aspirations and her career. It’s really personal, really insightful, and really funny.

Often dreams don’t come true, but sometimes they do. Through masterful storytelling, Howells takes us from childhood expectations that she should be more like everyone else, to the growing realisation that difference is powerful. Along the way we learn that she is very good at vendettas – impishly seeking comeuppance on businesses, trolls and improv artists who have tried to thwart her dreams.

We also learn that Howells is a master of the punchy non-sequitur. Seemingly completely random thoughts are delivered with hilarious bluntness, and take us off on a completely new direction. It all makes sense eventually.

All this adds up to an hour that’s insightful, disarming and full of laugh-out-loud surprises. Howells’ style is endearing and engaging, underpinned with just the right amount of menace.

In Welcome To My Dream, Abby invites us to be part of her world. It’s well worth a visit.

Abby Howells – Welcome to My Dream is playing until April 20 at the Melbourne Town Hall Lunchroom, at 7:40pm and 6:40pm on Sundays. Tickets through

//www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/welcomed-to-my-dream/

** Footnote – the performance I saw was Auslan interpreted. Big shout out to the festival and to the performer for making this happen.

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/

GUY MONTGOMERY – MY MIND IS BLOWING ME CRAZY

By Jess Welch

If you like laid-back, laconic comedy, with honest to God jokes, you need to see Guy Montgomery. A Melbourne International Comedy Festival regular, Montgomery is back with another hour of out of the box hilarity.

The first three quarters of the show is wall to wall laughs. They’re the sort of jokes most people can enjoy. They’re a mix of absurd and observational. Some are the kind you want to memorise and tell everyone you meet for the next week. There’s just something about Montgomery’s delivery that elevates puns and word-play into something more, something impossible to imitate. Maybe it’s just that famous dry and sarcastic New Zealand sense of humour.

Even beyond that, he has a certain mischievous sparkle in his eyes and a lazy grin that makes him seem almost like a mischievous school boy, excited to make the assembly laugh, but playing it cool. And yet, some of the jokes are decidedly uncool – to the point that the crowd is laughing, while fighting the urge to groan, shaking their heads at the cheesiness, but having to give full credit to just how incredibly well written they are. They’re the type of jokes that can only be described as “Dad jokes”, but with a bit of a more adult tone. And to call them dad jokes is especially fitting, as the remainder of the show is dedicated to him talking about being a step- parent.

While still wildly funny, it’s far more real and, at parts, incredibly sweet. For how common step -parenting is, comedy about it seems incredibly rare. Thankfully Montgomery is willing to step up to the plate. But if you’re looking for advice on how to step-parent, I think you’ve come to the wrong place. Despite having step-parented for 5 years, he is more than willing to admit he hasn’t quite mastered it yet. In fact, he seems to approach it with the same fun and boyishness with which he seems to approach everything.

The show examines this Peter Pan-ishness, as he struggles to reconcile being in his mid-30’s, in charge of helping raise a child, while still feeling too young himself. It’s a feeling I think a lot of people in their 20’s and 30’s can empathise with. But he, like everyone else, is doing his best and having a laugh while he’s doing it. Best of all, he’s sharing the laughs with us.

GUY MONTGOMERY – MY MIND IS BLOWING ME CRAZY is on at THE VICTORIA HOTEL.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2023/shows/guy-montgomery

Guy Montgomery: Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee

Review By Lisa Clark

Looking for a bit of Late Night Fun that’s not as exhaustingly late as Festival Club? Are you a bit nerdy, fond of word games, possibly a fan of Celebrity Letters And Numbers or Taskmaster New Zealand (season 2)? Then Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee might just be the show for you.

Guy is one of the best comedians to come out of New Zealand in recent times, why he isn’t hosting a TV Show of his own, is anyone’s guess. He’s charming, super funny, yet laid back and able to improvise goofy quips with his guests who are playing with varying levels of competitiveness.

Tonight’s guests were; Melanie Bracewell from New Zealand who has done one of Guy’s Spelling Bees over there and has her eye on the prize, Rhys Nicholson who made jokes about feeling out of place, but in the end was the people’s champion, Sam Campbell who’s main contribution was coming up with unexpected hilarious interjections and Phil Wang from the UK, Melanie’s serious main competitor. Of course a lot of the fun is the banter between the guests and Guy and also watching Phil Wang’s face drop as he realises this isn’t a traditional Bee, and he’s not the master he expected to be.

Guy has worked out some really funny ways to do a Spelling Bee competition live on stage, because just spelling words might be fun for spelling nerds but won’t make for a very exciting or hilarious comedy festival show. For the main rounds Guy has words on slips of paper kept in three receptacles. Contestants could choose from; the bucket which has the hard 3 point words, a bag holds the 2 point words, and the 1 point easy words are in a cup and if you choose the easy words you will find they are all insults.

The hardest round on our night was a new one made up by Guy where they had to spell the country of the flag he was holding up, so first they had to guess what country the flag belonged to. They were not very familiar flags. This game might not stay on, or maybe he has to make the flags a bit easier for a show that is not for flag enthusiasts. There was also a round of homophones that was hilarious, and reminiscent of the fake game show on 30 Rock called (erroneously) Homonym.

The best round of Spelling Bee was when he made them spell words the same way a 6 year old had spelt them to him. She had also put the words in very cute sentences. It was also hard, but super hilarious. Rhys said ‘I’m finally going to wipe the floor with the lot of you’ and he did! It brought the house down.

Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee sold out one of the biggest rooms in the Town Hall last week. The audience were spelling along with the performers and clapping before Guy announced that they were right. There are a lot of spelling fans out there. I think this show has legs and might make even make a great TV show, so get tickets now before it sells out, becomes a TV show, or possibly even, a cult.

Guy Montgomery performs Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee with different guests each week at The Town Hall in The Supper Room on Friday nights at 10.45pm Throughout the Festival.

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2022/shows/guy-montgomery-s-spelling-bee

Guy Montgomery I Was Part Of The Problem Before We Were Talking About It

By Jessica Welch

Guy Montgomery will admit that he was part of the problem before we were talking about it. In I Was Part Of The Problem Before We Were Talking About It, Montgomery brilliantly navigates the problems of today’s society and tackles the idea of shame, owning up and growing up. Huge topics cleverly and expertly covered from the perspective of the self-admitted privileged. Montgomery may be a white, straight, middle-class man, but he has some things to say and they are most definitely worth hearing.

Montgomery nimbly leaps from idea to idea, elegantly vacillating between serious and humourous in a heartbeat. Any time the mood drops, he brings it back up with a well-timed joke. He takes on the biggest and most fraught issues and gets away with it because he does it breathtakingly well and is incredibly likable. His genuine vulnerability and the fact the show comes from personal experience prevents it from becoming a self-aggrandizing rant. It feels honest and is so perfectly written. Montgomery is quick, clever and absurdly funny. He appears to go off on tangents, but it always returns to the heart of the show. It’s a tangled, layered maze of jokes and truth, or the combination of both.

By being vulnerable, Montgomery inspires us to be too and I was shocked by how honest the audience was. At the end, he stands at the door and hands out bits of paper, written on by other members of the audience at the beginning (whoever wrote the one I got, I want to hug you). It’s a chance for self-reflection. We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of, and Montgomery tells us some of his, honestly and bluntly.

This show could be dark or heavy, but somehow isn’t at all. The audience walked out smiling and laughing. It feels like a show of absolution, where we can all acknowledge our past misdeeds, then grow from them. While that might not sound like a barrel of laughs, it is liberating and peppered with more than enough laughs not to turn the hour into an over-extended TED talk.

It’s a rare gift to be able to write a show so serious and yet so uplifting. But Montgomery is talented and pulls it off without a hitch. It would be a shame to miss it.

I Was Part Of The Problem Before We Were Talking About It is on at Mantra on Russell. 

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2019/shows/i-was-part-of-the-problem-before-we-were-talking-about-it

Guy Montgomery Doesn’t Check His Phone for an Hour

By Peter Newling

A sold out Saturday night crowd converged on the Melbourne Town Hall’s magnificent Portico Room for an hour with New Zealand comic Guy Montgomery. A mid seventies version of The Hustle greeted the audience pre-show, and set the tempo for what would be a fast paced hour of stand-up.

Guy Montgomery has all the necessary skills for his chosen profession. He is affable, has a delightful turn of phrase, and great energy. He moves his show along at a cracking pace, making sure he’s bringing his audience along with him for the ride.

He’s also a man of his word. At the risk of needing a spoiler alert, the title of the show turns out to be entirely correct. He starts by reverently placing his phone to one side, and manages not to refer to it for the next hour. He helps the audience to match his heroics via the use of a large analogue clock, which he brings on to allay any need to reach for one’s phone.  And this leads him neatly into a discussion on technological addiction, then into the rest of his set.

I was a little disappointed by his choice of material. After some initial stuff on fridge contents and grocery shopping, the show shifted to reflections on his career in comedy thus far. His experiences on the MICF Comedy Road Show, and in trying his luck in the New York comedy scene provided him with a rich source of material – but I found that the particular anecdotes he chose to share from those situations were a bit passé. Smile-worthy, yes. Chortle-worthy, sometimes. But I felt the routine lacked the big laugh lines which should have resulted from his impressive story telling capacities. Fortunately, his genial demeanour kept the audience well and truly on his side.

There are some powerful messages underpinning this routine about loneliness, and the need for connection in times of failure. Montgomery explores these with a charming self deprecation and candour.

I’m sure this set will appeal to many, and many will relate to his keen observations. I will certainly look forward to seeing what he brings to future festivals.

Guy Montgomery Doesn’t Check His Phone for an Hour is playing at the Portico Room at the Melbourne Town Hall until 22 April
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2018/shows/guy-montgomery-doesn-t-check-his-phone-for-an-hour