Tag: Melbourne Fringe Festival

Scout Boxall: Good Egg

By Colin Flaherty

Non binary comedian Scout Boxhall made their solo festival debut with Good Egg and word of mouth of it’s excellence spread quickly so that an extra performance was added in a bigger room to meet demand. After catching this last performance I can report that all the hype and award nomination was justified. This was a brilliant and hilarious show that delighted all in attendance.

Good Egg was a personally political show that didn’t aggressively push an agenda instead playfully poking fun at the comedian’s experiences, the current political climate and societal conventions. Scout regularly diverted down paths of daftness that managed to stick to the point being addressed while being hilariously ludicrous flights of fancy. You will never watch the Federal Budget or listen to the music of Enya the same way again.

In addition to amusing monologues Scout performed hysterial sketches using simple costuming to transform into various wacky characters. Some were presented in a blasé manner as if many ideas were being thrown at the wall to see what would stick but the quality was so consistently high that this on-stage second guessing seemed to be a ploy to keep us off balance. Scout has the funny bones to pull off anything vaguely comedic with an ease and comfort on stage proving that a number of years in straight theatre has prepared them well for the world of comedy.

Stuart Daulman’s directorial fingerprints were all over this show and he even made the odd guest appearance. Scout performed it with ease, fully committing to some absurdly long and uncomfortable set pieces to break through to the hilarity.

The sound design by James Collopy was an essential element to this performance. From the sound effect punchlines to the dry robotic quips, this was an auditory delight.

Good Egg is sure to get a reprisal in upcoming festivals so when it does, grab a ticket posthaste to witness this masterclass in performing a debut show.

Good Egg has finished its run.
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/scout-boxall-good-egg/

Tom Skelton – Blind Eye Spy

By Peter Newling

Tom made his MICF debut earlier this year with his well-regarded show Blind Man’s Bluff. As Squirrel writer Lisa Clark said at the time: “It’s really late, after you’ve spent an hour laughing with this joyful, adorable comedian and you leave and think about it, that you realise how seriously dark the undercurrent of this show is. Tom Skelton is telling the story of how he was diagnosed with a disease that took most of his eyesight at a very young age.”

His offering for the Melbourne Fringe Festival sees him move from telling his own real life story, to a more fictitious account of a blind British spy (that just happens to look and sound a lot like Tom) sent to Berlin to gather post-Brexit secrets from the newly created United States of Europe. Along the way, we meet a host of colourful (or shady) characters – some voiced by Skelton, some portrayed by unsuspecting audience members – as he tries to uncover secrets and potential double agents.

It’s a strange structure for a show – a curious mash-up of stand-up, voice recordings, audience engagement, improvisation and narrated story-telling. Fortunately, Skelton is well adept at each of these skills. A seasoned improviser, he is a founding member of several impro troupes in the UK, and has performed with some of Melbourne’s better impro companies. He is certainly very good with accents.

Despite a slowish start, the piece gathers momentum over the course of the hour – and Skelton seems to relax more into the mayhem as the audience gets more and more involved. The plot line is delightfully convoluted, but put across with maximum sincerity. Having performed this piece in Edinburgh and various other festivals, this is a well honed and confident piece of work.

If your Fringe show checklist contains the words fun, inventive, original, multi-disciplinary and currywurst, this could be just your thing.

Blind Eye Spy is playing in the Small Room at Coopers Inn until September 27.
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/tom-skelton-blind-eye-spy/

Pat McCaffrie – Politics and Polar Bears (There Are Still No Polar Bears)

By Peter Newling

When the performer personally knows the names of every audience member within the first five minutes of a show, you know you’re in a small audience. And that was certainly the case on this particular Tuesday night at the Melbourne Fringe. It’s a shame, because Pay McCaffrie is worth listening to.

McCaffrie is something of a rising star in political comedy. His clever, pithy observations have earnt him a seat in the writing room of Mad As Hell, along with other satirical programs. There is nothing to indicate he would be out of place there.

To attempt satire – especially political satire – you first need something to say. “Write about what you know”. And McCaffrie certainly has plenty to draw from. Growing up as a young gay man in the Catholic education system in Adelaide gives him plenty of material to reflect on – and as a reformed law student, he has the ability to find exactly the right word, and use it to its fullest effect.

But basing your shtick on political observations can have its downsides. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, as McCaffrie found out on a recent comedy tour of regional NSW and Victoria. He delights in telling stories of how his well honed observations relating to the recent federal election utterly failed to capture the imagination of some in the more insular communities. He riffs freely about the uber-dinkum Daggy Dad image that the current PM is promoting, freedom of religion, environmental issues, as well as Australia’s position in international politics. What’s not to love?

His style is erudite and charming, without crossing over into smugness or pomposity. There’s a warmth in his engagement with the audience, and an instant likeability – probably more to those who lean to the progressive side of the political ledger.

If you’re going looking for polar bears, you may be disappointed. But if you’re looking for an incisive, informed, very funny look at Australian politics, from a new and exciting voice in satire, this could be a great way to round out your evening at the Fringe.

Politics and Polar Bears (There Are Still No Polar Bears) is playing at Trades Hall – Evatt Room until 29 September 29
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/pat-mccaffrie-politics-and-polar-bears-there-are-still-no-polar-bears/

Showko: Occasions

By Peter Newling  

Fringe info refers to the Music Room at the Fringe Hub (Melbourne Trades Hall) as ‘our most isolated venue’. And I think this is a reasonable description. Not located within the beautiful old Trades Hall complex, if you head outside and up a desolate stair case, you’ll eventually find it at the end of a couple of poster-bedecked hallways.

It was delightful, then, having found the venue, to come inside and be greeted by a techie rocking out to a Japanese version of “Holding Out For A Hero”. Showko is a high energy act, and it appears that her energy has rubbed off onto her crew.

There is no doubt that Showko (Showko Showfukutei) is very good at what she does. I certainly have no claim to being an expert in ventriloquism, but she certainly ticked all the boxes that this audience member expects of a ventriloquist – a great range of voices, movement-free lips, and a great relationship with her audience and ‘co-stars’. And hey, you don’t get to be a finalist on Australia’s Got Talent (2016) unless you’re good at your craft.

I can’t imagine how hard it would be to ventriloquise in one’s second language. Or to sing in a range of voices. But this very experienced performer handled these challenges with great humour and enthusiasm. Whilst admiring the technique, I found some of the content a bit clunky. Some of the gags felt a bit dated or predictable. It’s definitely old school stuff. Billed as kooky and off-beat, I found it a far more gentle kind of humour – nothing biting or vicious or crude. But she does show that a fondness for a fart gag is universal.

Some of the sketches went on a bit too long, and some of the audience involvement was a bit awkward, but Showko’s natural charm and warmth lets her get away with it. Her energy is infectious. She has the enthusiasm of a kids’ party performer. And the finale requires abs of steel.

Always an admirer of brave wardrobe choices, I noticed that Showko has chosen a much more spiky outfit than one would expect of one working with inflatable co-stars.

If you have a liking for old-school comedy styles, gags and routines, head across to the Music Room and meet Showko and her friends. Who knows – you may become one of her co-stars.

Showko – Occasions is playing  Sept 24 – 29 at the Fringe Hub: Trades Hall – Music Room 

Tickets through https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/showko-occasions/

Gillian English – You’re A Good Man Doctor Pirate

By Peter Newling 

Gillian English is a self-described Canadian immigrant living in Tasmania. Her offering for this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival traces her journey from small-town Nova Scotia to the suburbs of Hobart, and the role a clairvoyant-to-the-stars played in the journey.

In a dynamite 55 minutes, English explores the role of fate in our lives – however you choose to hear about it – through clairvoyance, astrology, religion, fairy tales and folklore, or through the predictions of friends and family. She explores the notions of destiny and self-fulfilling prophecy, and how we choose to respond to (or reject) what the universe has in store for us.

Most importantly, this is laugh out loud stuff.

English is first and foremost an amazingly accomplished story teller. She has a breathtaking, rapid fire style that is in equal parts exhilarating and exhausting. If you want to see a display of the mastery of the half beat pause for comic effect, here it is.

It’s a very ‘look at me’ style of comedy (is that the Sagittarius or the Gemini side winning?). It’s brash, confident, high energy and relentless. And the silver sparkly outfit immediately lets you know where your focus needs to be.

The narrative of her verbal tour of her journey to Tasmania, and her search for what’s been promised to her, has been finely crafted and honed. She is able to create amazingly clear mental images of the people who are on the journey with her – including her mum, her friends, her housemates and her partner.

What does the title of the show mean? Well, you’ll just have to go along and find out. It’s a show that deserves a bigger audience than Tuesday night at the Fringe was able to attract!

Gillian English – You’re A Good Man Doctor Pirate is playing Sept 24 – 27 at Coopers Inn t 8:40pm.

Tickets through https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/youre-a-good-man-doctor-pirate/

Game Boys Cinematic Universe

By Lisa Clark

The Game Boys are brothers Eden and Joshua Porter and this is their fifth original show together. It is not surprising that they’ve garnered a swag of award nominations, including one for The Golden Gibbo earlier this year for Cinematic Universe at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. They run their festival show like a well-oiled machine. It’s hilariously funny and highly polished with some improvised audience participation for added danger and surprises.

Eden and Josh welcome us to their fictional Studio Back Lot Tour as Damo and Mark, identically dressed with Theme Park logo polo shirts. The logos that appear throughout are part of the details that are really impressive. They drop the characters  early on, but I’m glad they don’t let them go. Alternating between characters and themselves throughout. Other characters they play include Angela Bishop & Richard Wilkins doing their own version of Entertainment Tonight on the Red carpet.

Cinematic Universe not only shows a love of films and joy of theme parks but also laughs at the ridiculousness of the film industry with clever use of video montages. We learn how many Air Bud/Buddies movies there are (a LOT) and which movie copycats earned the most at the box office (ie. we have to guess between ANTZ & A Bug’s Life). They are also very enthusiastic about, and pay tribute to another theme park satire Jurassic Park. So there is a bit of a Theme Park satire within a Theme Park satire going on which is deliciously meta. There is also a tribute to the lamest of Theme Park shows – such as the Police Academy Stunt Show at Movie World on the Gold Coast. The Game Boys spin on this is very silly.

There is a lot of audience participation in the show, from the undemanding – the audience pretending they are on a Back Lot Tour – to dragging someone on stage. I’m not a fan of extreme audience participation, but having a lot of Fringey performer types in the audience helps this go pretty smoothly. Getting an audience member doing foley sound effects for them goes on way too long though it does showcase their excellent mime skills. The thing that really wows the audience is the technical design which is just remarkable and the tech guy does a stunning job at carrying it all off.

The Game Boys are very much about popular culture, with a nerdy edge and they bounce around enthusiastically with almost too much energy for a rather late night show. Some parts of this production are so sharp and slick that it feels more like choreography than comedy, reminiscent of Aunty Donna or even the Umbilical Brothers. Their content has a wide appeal and they are extremely good at what they do. The packed audience loves them and I can see them performing to very large audiences in the future. See this brilliant, hilarious show while they are in a smaller venue and you can say I saw them when….

Game Boys Cinematic Universe is on at Trades Hall until September 29
https://melbournefringe.com.au/event/game-boys-cinematic-universe/