Tag: Jordan Barr

jks: a comedy(?)

By Colin Flaherty

Tom Ballard’s play jks: a comedy(?) is, as the Americans would say, very inside baseball. Set backstage at a comedy gig, it is filled with references to the Australian comedy scene which the comedy nerds will salivate over and a number of dark jokes that are normally confined to the safe space of the Green Room. Focusing on the thorny subject of percieved offence in comedy, it’s audience appeal extends beyond just those in the comedy world given our current culture wars.

This Green Room contained a range of characters immensely familiar to those who regularly see stand up in pubs. The cast, a mixture of trained actors and jobbing comedians, were all excellent in their portrayal of our quintet. Nicky Barry (playing the world weary Matriarch of the room) and Tom Ballard (as the “right on” SJW of comedy) seemed to be playing slightly tweaked versions of themselves so they pulled these roles off with ease. Kevin Hofbauer and Tiana Hogben were immensely impressive in their respective roles of edgy comedian and young clown. Aside from an impassioned speech near the end, Jordan Barr’s Rhi didn’t get a hell of a lot to do but her snarky comments peppered throughout were a joy.

It felt like a companion piece to Greg Fleet’s 2005 play (and subsequent television series) “Die on Your Feet”  which saw comedians talking shit to (and about) each other and pitted the old guard against the new school. Tom’s version features a more diverse cast (we actually have two females and one non-binary person, how’s that for progress over 20 years?) and really digs deep into how we consume and view comedy in the online world.

The two male characters dominated the script with their constant bickering about what type of comedy is valid. The others were mostly there trying to maintain sanity as tensions escalated to fever pitch. Laughs droped off as things got very shouty and serious – ramping up the pressure with the odd respite of a witty self aware quip to briefly release the pressure.  Tiana Hogben’s naive clown was an welcome respite adding much needed levity with the silliest of lines.

The staging was very bare boned with some chairs for our mirthmeisters to sit on when they weren’t pacing around. The audio design was well done with the sound from the “stage” encroaching the Green Room and affecting the comedians at appropriate moments. One letdown was the “audience on three sides” set up of the staging in the venue. This was fine when most of the cast wandered around but the often static character of May had her back to a large swathe of the punters throughout the performance.

A fascinating and hilarious exploration of the state of comedy in the year 2025. Bravo!

jks: a comedy(?)  is on at Trades Hall until October 12

https://www.melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/jks-a-comedy

5 Good Reasons To See Inexcusable

1) Jordan and Cat Finch are two up and coming Melbourne comics keen to make you chuckle and think.

2) We’ll be having amazing guest acts each night including Claire Hooper, Geraldine Hickey and Celia Pacquola.

3) The venue is in Trades Hall, the Melbourne Fringe Hub – so you can catch a show before ours or stick around after for some of the AMAZING hub parties.

4) This show is a celebration of the diversity in Melbourne comedy. Along with our established guests we’ll have some of the most exciting comics in the scene right now.

5) Between the two of the Cat and Jordan have received nominations for Best Comedy at previous Melbourne Fringe Festivals, been shortlisted for the Rebel Wilson Comedy Scholarship AND made it through several rounds of RAW comedy – so you know you’re in for a bloody treat.

Inexcusable is on at Trades Hall from September 21 to 29
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/inexcusable/

The 2007 Wonthaggi Blue Light Disco

By Lisa Clark 

The 2007 Wonthaggi Blue Light Disco is a bright and boisterous sketch comedy clearly written from experience by Jordan Barr (RAW Comedy 2018 state finalist) and Josh Gardiner. It is beautifully performed by Alex Cooper, Izabella Yena and Jordan Barr. I was astonished to learn that Blue Light Discos still existed in 2007 with teenagers playing out the same rights of passage as when I attended, many years earlier. I mean kids were STILL dancing the Nutbush?! But then, this was Wonthaggi.

The venue inside Belleville, a small dance space with a spiral stair leading to a platform and a mirrored wall, was well suited for the setting of the show and the show itself was perfect for the venue. Belleville often has the problem of sound bleeding through to the performance space from the bar, but that was the exact vibe of this rowdy show which had its own period music that mostly drowned out the bar music. The performers used all of the space beautifully to evoke the atmosphere of the Blue Light Disco and the entertaining touches of audience participation were there to add to the atmosphere or a particular sketch and never felt exploitative or too out of place.

The scenes were mostly set off stage – in the backrooms, where you could sneak away and actually have a conversation. The scenes all flowed well and painted a nostalgic, and accurately messy picture of the Blue Light Disco experience. There were lots of silly drunken moments from kids who aren’t supposed to be drinking. The thing that set this apart from my own teen experience was the lack of cigarette smoking – the fact that it isn’t even a point of mention to this younger generation gives me hope for the future.

The many colourful characters performed by the three actors included; the adults working at the Disco keeping an eye on things and trying to wrangle the teenagers, hormonal boys who know nothing about women that were amusingly and knowingly played by the two women, the two teen girls who make up their own Team Edward Fan Club, the surprise of a puppet boy discovering it’s sexuality and Singing Girl who almost stole the show and certainly got the biggest laugh. The characters worked better as they reappeared more than once and we got to know them.

While watching I couldn’t help but wonder: was this a loving ode to teen memories or revenge? A bit of both no doubt, if we look beneath our happy teen memories there were always those sad and then downright nasty ones. There was a bit of impressive Shakespearean inspired spoken word towards the end of The 2007 Wonthaggi Blue Light Disco that speaks articulately to all of that anger and pain we felt at the time but could not say. Haven’t we all wished to return to those awful experiences with all the hindsight, bravery and eloquence we now possess and face our foes?

This one crept up on me, I was not sure about it at the beginning, and watching a puppet slowly wank on stage was not really something I’ll ever want to see again (it may have worked if we’d gotten to know the puppet, as a character, earlier in the show, unfortunately it came off as very disturbing and unpleasant), but overall The 2007 Wonthaggi Blue Light Disco was an enjoyably nostalgic, laugh filled experience and the belly laugh at the end that had me in tears was worth it all.

The 2007 Wonthaggi Blue Light Disco is on at Belleville til Sept 23

https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/the-2007-wonthaggi-blue-light-disco/

5 Good REASONS To See Jordan Barr: HOW TO BE SEXY

1. It’s at the perfectly reasonable time of 7pm. So you can get dinner before or afterwards and once the show is over there’s still plenty of time left in the evening to catch other acts during the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

2. This show refers to Sandra Sully TWICE (one time is obvious – the other is an Easter egg).

3. It’s full of 80’s bangers that’ll fill you with joy and adrenaline.

4. How To Be Sexy is a cathartic ‘fuck you’ to beauty standards set by the patriarchy.

5. The bar in the foyer is also a fantastic cocktail bar so you can have a lil cocktail while you have a lil giggle.

How To Be Sexy by Jordan Barr is on at The Butterfly Club April 6 – 15

https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2018/shows/how-to-be-sexy