Tag: Rhys Darby

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/

The Cryptid Factor Podcast Live

By Lisa Clark

A highlight this Edinburgh has been the last minute decision for podcast The Cryptid Factor to suddenly do a run of live recordings at the Fringe Festival. For an unknown reason Dan Schreiber, an Australian comedian living in London, who is one of the QI Elves amongst other things, gave up his Festival space of a live recording of his We can Be Weirdos podcast and changed it to a recording of The Cryptid Factor with his buddies, New Zealand comedian Rhys Darby (Our Flag Means Death, Jumanji, Uproar etc) and Leon “Buttons” Kirkbeck the show’s producer who is also a New Zealander and became part of the show and, somehow, (despite not being a comedian and the other guys being very funny), it’s comic relief / mascot. They sold out very quickly without the need for posters or fliers.

The Cryptid Factor is ostensibly Rhys Darby’s baby, beginning around 2013 then cohosted by David Farrier, as a space to talk about their passion for Cryptozoology. Dan took over when David had to drop out and Buttons just gradually became part of the show. The podcast is normally recorded from different countries when they get the chance with Dan in London, Rhys in Los Angeles, and Buttons in Aukland, which is why getting them all in the same room is quite the catch.

Lucky for everyone, the Cryptid Guys got to be together to record their daggy podcast in person and the enjoyment and affection for each other is palpable. A lot of the humour we enjoyed was pretty visual, including the fact that they forgot to bring a stand for the huge TV screen they physically brought in for the gig. Dan had been holding it up for the audience to see it but tonight we had the producer of QI offer his screen-holding services. They also had a segment where Rhys drew an obscure cryptid while Dan described it and Buttons tried to find a picture of it on his laptop. Our obscure cryptid was called the Dildo Monster and of course hilarity ensued. It all ends with Rhys blowing the Axtec Death Whistle he bought on his hols in Mexico recently.

The podcast’s areas for discussion are somewhat broader than chryptozoology and it is described as being about “all things weird that are yet to be defined by science”. They each begin by putting forth a bid to read the most interesting recent news item about weird science and after reading their headline, the audience gets to vote by cheering on one of them to be read out in detail. Tonight, Rhys Darby’s choice was met with silence, much to everybody’s mirth. The other main topic for discussion was their over night trip to Loch Ness to hunt for the monster. They did not catch it but had a really lovely time staying at a nearby castle and Rhys loved his breakfast. Buttons drove and they say they only made it back into Edinburgh with 45 mins to spare before our show. They must’ve been exhausted but did not show it at all, taking plenty of time meeting their fans afterwards being very kind and patient with them.

Ahh, the fans, the passionate fans, and particularly the Cryptid Knights who are the podcast patrons. The fans are looked after by the podcast with a lot of genuine benefits such as video recordings, merch and on-line cocktail zooms and the fans give back in turn; showering the guys with gifts, many hand-made. Quite a few fans bought tickets for every show of the run and how some of them could afford accommodation in Edinburgh at this late stage is a mystery. But it was a rare chance to see these adorable nutbags record the podcast together, live on stage for the first time. In turn The Cryptid Guys stayed out the front after the gig, chatting, signing stuff, accepting gifts. Then organising a big group photo every night.

It was a fantastic hilarious show and the core of the experience was just enjoying a bunch of genuine friends being silly with each other. Everybody had such enormous fun that the Cryptid Guys started talking about coming back to Edinburgh next year. Better start saving now if you want to see some old friends mucking about and making each other laugh about strange science & phenomena in front of adoring fans.

Four stars!

The Cryptid Factor Podcast Live has ended it’s run