Ethnic City

By Hooi Khaw

Ethnic City is a new  month long run of standup comedy gigs in Melbourne that brings to the stage a lineup exclusively made up of performers of colour. After going on a marketing rampage, with shout outs in The Age, The Herald Sun, and Triple R radio, Ethnic City sold out the 53 seat theatre at The Improv Conspiracy on opening night. The hype lives up to the expectation, boasting formidable lineups since the start of the run. The buzz of the audience is palpable, as they mill about the licensed bar, waiting for the show to start.

In an industry that is often decried for lack of representation, diversity has become a hot topic, and shows like Ethnic City create a space where performers can be appreciated for their talent and not seen as a token (with that added pressure to “represent”).

Room runner, local comedian Brendan Wan speaks to us in more detail about Ethnic City:

H: What is the intent behind Ethnic City?

B: The intent behind Ethnic City was to create a show where not only Performers of Colour can showcase their talents but also give audiences from diverse backgrounds a chance to see members of their own community do their thing on stage. Sometimes, it’s as simple as seeing someone that looks like you on stage that gives others the confidence to pursue their own certain projects. It’s no secret Melbourne’s creative arts industry lacks diversity. I know far too many incredibly talented ethnic actors, writers and comedians who need to create projects in order to pursue their artistic goals as their ethnicity isn’t regarded as marketable. When I started comedy, especially improv, I could count the number of people of colour on one hand. Gradually more people of diverse backgrounds have been welcomed on stage but we still have a long way to go until ethnicity isn’t regarded as unique.

H: What is your approach to balancing new comers and experienced comedians of colour?

B: I guess this is the same case with any comedy show, you have a big name headliner who initially attracts the general audiences and then the up-and-coming talent to support. I’ve been luckily enough to have the bigger name acts of Lawrence Leung and Sami Shah involved to perform at Ethnic City and they’ve been incredibly supporting of the whole show.

H: Have you been actively recruiting the acts, or are people asking for slots?

B: I’ve been actively recruiting acts but as the show has gone on for a few weeks, there have been a few people approaching me for spots. In the stand-up comedy side of things, I’m in a fortunate position to have more performers than I actually have spots for. But the nature of the show is that it’s a variety show, since comedy comes in all different genres, so finding ethnically diverse acts in other areas of comedy ie improv, clowning, cabaret, sketch – that’s been a bit of a challenge.

H: You’re currently booked for a four week run, what are your plans for Ethnic City moving forward?

B: There are definitely plans for Ethnic City to come back! However there will be a bit of a hiatus for the next few months since I’ll be involved with a few projects. There’s a lot of effort and behind the scenes work required to do this kind of show so juggling full-time work, with several projects can be stretching me real thin. So when it does come back, I’ll be giving it 100% commitment.

Ethnic City is on Friday’s 7pm at The Improv Conspiracy from the 24th of May 2019 until the 14th of June 2019. See website for Details –

https://improvconspiracy.com/shows/ethnic-city

Festive Season Comedy in Melbourne

Comedy for Christmas! Or Festivus! Or celebrating surviving 2018!

What a great idea for a festive get together with your comedy loving buddies.

Every year the comedy venues of Melbourne put on their Christmas shows and there are also quite a few one-off Christmas themed special shows happening. If you are not in Melbourne, check out the gig guides, some of these performers are touring and there should be similar nights happening in comedy clubs near you.

Here is the Squirrel Comedy annual End of Year – Christmas Gig list in roughly date order – of the local ones we could find out about
 

MON 26 Nov – SUN 2 Dec
A Very Kransky Christmas 

At Alex Theatre –  135 Fitzroy St, St Kilda at 7.30 pm

The Kransky Sisters are on a Christmas Tour of Australia and will grace Melbourne with their hilarious Gothic musical-comedy delights for three nights. (They are also touring Sydney and Perth)

Prices – Adult: $49.90 Conc: $44.90

Bookings: https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=KRANSKY18

Sat 1 Dec
The Wheeler Centre Presents: Show of the Year

At The Athenaeum Theatre at 7pm

Host Casey ‘Tasty’ Bennetto And A Cast Of Writers, Comedians And Musicians, Including Mama Alto, Steph Tisdell, Shaun Micallef, Jan Fran, Michele Lee, Candy Bowers, WāNi Le Frère, Rebecca Shaw, Laura Jean Mckay And Alan Duffy.

https://www.wheelercentre.com/events/the-show-of-the-year-2018

Sat Dec 1 – 9.30pm
Jackie Lime’s Year End Rear End  

At The Improv Conspiracy Theatre

L1 / 19 Meyers Place, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 3000

The one and only Jackie Lime is back for his final appearance of 2018. Join Jackie, Indiana, Bitch Boy and a whole slew of special guests to celebrate a massive year with the Talkie Time family in an improvised kind of way.

Price $5 at the Door or $5.50 online to guarantee a seat.

Booking: https://www.improvconspiracy.com/shows/unit/2768/buy-tickets

Dec 6 – 7 – 9.30pm
The Chaser & The Shovel Presents: The War On 2018

At The Village Roadshow Theatrette – 179 La Trobe Street
Melbourne, Vic 3000

Join Charles Firth (The Chaser), James Schloeffel (The Shovel), Mark Humphries (Channel 10’s Pointless) And Special Guests To Be Announced As They Dissect Everything From The Leadership Crisis To The Banking Royal Commission.  (Also touring Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane)

Price: $34 – $104.04

Bookings: https://events.ticketbooth.com.au/event/the-war-on-2018-melbourneHzchcPM

Thurs 8 Dec at 7pm
Merry Salt-Mas! One Hour Of Improvised Christmas

At the Improve Conspiracy Theatre at 7pm

Help them ease into the silly season by suggesting something Christmassy to spring them into an hour of improvised comedy. The Heralayan Salt Lamps’ signature show involves creating a completely improvised show with 8 people on stage at once.

Price: $10

https://www.facebook.com/events/291125438188379/

Tues 11 Dec at 8pm
Catfish Comedy Christmas

At The Catfish upstairs, Fitzroy

Standup Comedy with Daniel Connell, Danielle Walker and Brett Blake  and more great acts To Be Confirmed

Doors open 7:30, $12 entry and don’t forget to try the Philly Cheesesteaks

Sat 15 Dec at 3pm
Don’t You Know Who I Am? 2018 XMAS SHOW

At The Catfish upstairs, Fitzroy

30 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy VIC 3056

Live podcast recording. The last live show of the year. An all-star cast raising money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation all hosted by Josh Earl from 3:00 PM

Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=446103

Mon 17 Dec at 8.30pm
Local Laughs XMAS SHOW

At The Local Taphouse 184 Carlisle St. St Kilda East

– MC Andrew McClelland, Cal Wilson, Tom Ballard, Sami Shah, Ethan Cavanagh, plus a host of special Christmassy guests.

Price: $25/20

Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=175052&

17, 19, 20, 21, 22 Dec at 7pm
A Christmas Tale a Girls Act Good Production 

At The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne

The all female Verbatim Theatre play that takes a comedic and heartfelt look at the Aussie festivities and celebrates how we can come together to remember the magic of Christmas. Yes! Verbatim Theatre! That is Funny! And about Christmas!

Bookings: https://thebutterflyclub.com/show/a-christmas-tale-2018

10, 12, 13, 14 & 15th Dec at 7pm
’Tis the Season…

At The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne a\

Winner of the prestigious Julie Michael Cabaret Award, ’Tis the Season is performed by Maverick Newman and Stacey Thomsett. It’s a comedy about divorce, dysfunction, love and Christmas!

Cost: $25-34

Bookings : https://thebutterflyclub.com/show/tis-the-season

Dec 20, 21, 22 at 8pm
A Swingin’ Bella Christmas!

At The Melba Spiegeltent this year, the legendary palace of festivity and frivolity adjoining Circus Oz /Melbourne Polytechnic / Collingwood TAFE / Collingwood Tech (depending on your era)!

– a finger-snappin’, toe-tappin’ romp through traditional carols, modern favourites and specially-written original songs of the season, executed with airy panache by a horn-laden bevy of brilliant performers known throughout the civilised world as The Bella All-Stars!

Out front, MCs Casey Bennetto and Geraldine Quinn will be joined by special guests:
Selina Jenkins – Thur 20th December
Nina Ferro & Tripod – Fri 21st December
Mike McLeish – Sat 22nd December

Limited tickets remaining
Bookings: https://www.bellaunion.com.au/

Sat 22 Dec at 8pm
Basement Comedy Club – Special Xmas Show!

European Bier Café, 120 Exhibition St Melbourne

There will be fantastic Comedians on the bill as ever….TBA

Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=263827&

Sun 23 Dec at 8pm
The Little Dum Dum Club Orphans Christmas Live Podcast

Downstairs at Basement Comedy Club,

European Bier Cafe, 120 Exhibition St, Melbourne CBD

Come and hang out with The Dum Dums: Karl Chandler and Tommy Dassalo and heaps of their comedian friends. + a little bonus Christmas gift with every ticket sold!

Bookings: http://littledumdumclub.com/?events=orphans-christmas-december-23-8pm

A Year’s Round Up and 5 Very Good Festival Shows of 2016

By Lisa Clark

It’s hard to think of any great positive things that happened to the world in 2016. Apart from the odd sporting achievement, it was a nonstop pileup of deplorable crud. Australian comedy however didn’t let us down, delivering performances that will stand out, no doubt, for years to come. So to cheer myself up about the dreadful year that was I thought I’d just do a roundup of good things that happened in Australian Comedy this year.

It always brings me joy to see good comedy coming out of TV, I can remember when I would be rolling in the aisles to so many comedians on stage and felt so frustrated that their voices were not heard on TV except occasionally on the odd panel show. It was one of the reasons I set up this site. I wanted the world to know how wonderful Australian standup comedians are. This year it was so satisfying to see so many live standup performances on TV shows such as Comedy Next Gen and Comedy Up Late as well as the usual Festival Galas and Just For Laughs specials. We saw comedians working in different formats like The Katering Show, Sammy J’s Playground Politics, Who’s Line is it Anyway Australia and Hard Quiz. It’s exciting to watch Comedy Showroom give fresh comedy ideas a go and to see the sweet sitcom Rosehaven bloom so beautifully. Sitcoms have always been so bloody hard to do successfully in Australia and this year we’ve also had Here Come the Habibs doing well on 9 of all places and Upper Middle Bogan as strong, funny and heart-warming as ever in its third season.  This is all along side regular shows such as Mad As Hell, Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery and The Weekly.  There was happily too much comedy on TV for me to cover properly but I’ll leave that to the TV websites. Just to say 2016 was a great year to see Australian standup comedians doing exciting and wonderful things on TV and of course beaming around the world online.

Meanwhile comedians on stage have been creating astonishing, hilarious work. I didn’t get to see everything, as usual, it’s just impossible, but I thought I’d share some of my own personal highlights of the year.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival was celebrating 30 years as a Thing and put on a fun party for comedy fans with shows such as Cal Wilson’s Sunday arvos at The Victorian Arts Centre speaking with different generations of comedians in The Decades That Were and comedy tours with Rod Quantock.

Also at the Festival this year was The Wedding of Zoe Coombes Marr and Rhys Nicholson. There have been a few great comedy weddings over the years, but this riotous spectacle which was making a clear statement in support of same-sex marriage could not be bettered. The bridesmaids were Denise Scott, Judith Lucy and Celia Pacquola, MC Hannah Gadsby made a fabulous funny and moving speech. The Priest was Geraldine Hickey, Celebrant Ben Noble. Entertainment was provided by Tina Del Twist, Peter & Bambi Heaven, Hot Brown Honey, The Daredevil Chicken Club, The Butterfly Glee Club, The Royal Melbourne Philharmonic and Melbourne Uni Choirs, Wil Anderson, Adrienne Truscott and The True Australian Patriots.

Other general comedy highlights were laughter filled Sunday afternoons at the live podcast recordings of Josh Earl’s Who Do You Think I Am?  There was the return of The Bedroom Philosopher at Local Laughs singing about haberdashery and a reboot of The Doug Anthony Allstars. Tripod celebrated 20 years on stage with a gift of their songs in book form and performing them with guests on stage, ending the year with one of their best Christmas shows ever. The new exciting discoveries in 2016 included funny musical acts Jude Perl and Sarah Wall & Freya Long of The Astrudes, then the astute, warm, political comedy of Sami Shah, Alanta Colley and character comedian Haley Tantau as her alter ego Cindy Salmon.

Finally, as is traditional, I’m including an End of Year List; 5 Very Good Festival Shows of 2016. As you can imagine it’s hard to pick out only five great festival shows for the whole year, its been a really great year for live comedy.

 

5 Very Good Festival Shows of 2016
Zoe Coombs Marr
1.  Zoe Coombes-Marr Trigger Warning. (MICF) The show captured the zeitgeist of the comedy world. I was laughing so hard I was worried I’d lose control of my bodily functions. I literally fell off my seat at one point. So many thoughts I’ve been thinking that she wrapped up and detonated. She destroyed me and remade me as a stronger woman. It won the Barry Award for best show at the 2016 MICF and deservedly so.

(Thanks to modern technology and smart TV people it’s been filmed and you can probably see it on ABCiView as part of Comedy Next Gen, not quite the same as live, but do it. WATCH IT. Then watch all the others)

sammy-j-award-winner

 

2. Sammy J – Hero Complex. (Melbourne Fringe) Sammy has been wowing audiences for years, but this one had the audience whooping and cheering with pure joy. It’s about the love of unpopular nerdy pursuits, in this case a passion for The Phantom comics and a friendship borne from that. The show is full of secrets and reveals, so it hard to say more except that it is gobsmacking, weepingly hilarious and will have you grinning for hours, perhaps days afterwards. This won Best Comedy at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and will get a run at festivals in 2017 so DON’T miss it.

 

Zanzoop pic

3. Zanzoop – Feeble Minds. (MICF) Who knew a late night show in a rundown night club about an alien chat show would become the talk of MICF? All three performers added their amazing talents, my highlights being Aaron Chen as Owen Wilson with Tom Walker as Jackie Chan and the heart-warming family reunion of snarky host Zanzoop (Sam Campbell) and his alien dad (Cam Campbell) at the end.

 

4. Micheal Williams: An Evening with Michael Williams (who is trapped under a boulder) – with Jack Druce. (MICF) Michael has moved from delighting us with his clip board of sophisticated cartoon humour to giving us an all singing, all dancing audio visual extravaganza and puppet show.Michael Williams 2016 A delightfully silly show had the audience gasping when the boulder suddenly came to life and was fun for the whole family. Michael has received a 2017 Moosehead Award, so am looking forward to his Moosehead show in 2017!

 

5. True Australian Patriots (MICF). Noticing in the MICF programme that three of Australia’s most promising comedians had teamed up to lampoon right wing protest groups had comedy fans very excited and we were not disappointed. Anne Edmonds,Damien Power and Greg Larsen are all at the top of their game and gave us a riotous late night of political satire and bizarre love triangle that hit the perfect tone and bashed us right in the comedy solar plexus. True Australian Patriots

 

Happy Hogmanay from the Squirrels and hoping 2017 brings you more laughs than sorrow. X

 

Melbourne Fringe Festival – Awards and Wrap Up

By Lisa Clark 

We’ve had a wonderful Melbourne Fringe Festival which was full of all things creative and wacky including, a show in a car (Equal Best Performance Winner: Dion), a shop window (Winner of Best Ideas and Words Award: Between Two Lines) and one in a huge space with only two audience members (Equal Best Performance Winner: Blindspot). We here at Squirrel Comedy are mostly interested in Comedy. That’s not to say that we didn’t see funny shows in other catagories or that there were some rather unfunny shows that found their way into the Comedy section, but, hey this is Melbourne Fringe and it’s all about mixing it up and taking risks. sammy-j-award-winner

Congratulations must first go to Best Comedy winner Sammy J who has created his Opus Magnus in Hero Complex. A work that had everyone who headed out to the Northcote Town Hall to see it howling with laughter, cheering and crying with pure joy. I saw a lot of great shows at the festival but could not imagine any I missed were better than this – in any category – and couldn’t be happier with its Best Comedy Award win. An autobiographical show with a sprinkling of his brilliant comedy songs and a lot of surprises that must be kept secret, making it difficult to review. Except to say that it is a celebration of unpopular nerdy passions, in this case comic book hero The Phantom, but of course it’s about much, much more. Look out for it at Melbourne International Comedy Festival and other Festivals no doubt, just don’t miss it.

Winner of the Queensland Tour Ready Award was another stunning autobiographical comedy; Isamofarcist by Sami Shah who’s come to Melbourne from Afghanistan via studying in the USA and living in Western Australia. Sami has been doing excellent stand up around Melbourne for the past year about religion, politics and other dangerous ideas in a very accessible, warm and hilarious way. A comedian who’s definitely worth going out of your way to see if you like your comedy smart. Queenslanders can look forward to seeing Isamofarcist  next.

More congratulations to one of the hot tickets at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Andre Tonight! by Chris Ryan and special secret guests that had everyone whispering that this was a must see. It won The Discovery Award and was a discovery to everyone who managed to get seats in the Rehearsal room (now with raked seating). Chris’s character reminded me of an Epping based Norman Gunston, a beautifully rounded sad sack character with a dream to be a TV Tonight Show host and some of his dreams came true in Andre Tonight! Another show to look forward to when it pops up again.

A Squirrel discovery at Melbourne Fringe was another amazingly strong character comedy Cindy Salmon’s Empowerment Hour. The show is a send up of an American “empowering” daytime TV host such as Tyra Banks or Bethenny Frankel (the 2nd rate Oprahs). Hayley Tantau’s, Cindy Salmon is one of the most powerful high status creations on the Australian stage right now. A high status character that can be hilariously satirical, wildly inspiring, teetering on the monstrous and yet somehow sympathetic is rare among current female comedians (I can think of Sarah Ward’s Yanna Alana and Queenie Van de Zandt’s Jan Van de Stool). Hayley pulls it off; sustaining it for a full hour without dropping her perfect American accent once, while keeping the audience on side despite some hilariously appalling behaviour. Go see comedy Cindy Salmon’s Empowerment Hour if it pops up near you and we’ll be keeping an eye on Hayley Tantau.

Here are some of the Award Winners that might interest our readers:

Best Comedy:

Sammy J – Hero Complex

QLD Tour Ready Award, supported by Brisbane Powerhouse:

ISLAMOFARCIST by Sami Sha

The Discovery Award, supported by Melbourne Festival:

Andre Tonight! by Chris Ryan

NSW Tour Ready Award, supported by Sydney Fringe:

Tina Del Twist GOLD CLASS by Wes Snelling

Best Venue:

Hare Hole – Hares & Hyenas

For a Full List of Awards presented by the Melbourne Fringe Festival see their website

https://melbournefringe.com.au/news/story/melbourne-fringe-2016-award-winners

ISLAMOFARCIST Putting the “Ha” in “Jihad” by Sami Shah

By Lisa Clark 1800 X 900

What a stunning show! Sami Shah is a born comedian, unfortunately he was born in a part of the world that’s not very conducive to a satirical comedy career. Lucky for us he’s moved to Australia. Islamofarcist – Putting the “Ha” in “Jihad” tells us how this came to be, via lessons about Islam, Pakistan and the importance of Baywatch.

Sami seems to have arrived on Melbourne stages a fully-fledged, world class, comedy star. Sami has actually had an amazing life thus far. He started in impro in Pakistan which is surprising enough, but that he’s only really been throwing himself into a comedy career in Australia since 2012 is hard to believe. Since then he has appeared on QI, created a BBC4 radio series and has had a book about his life published. These things are less surprising when he starts doing his comedy for you.

He begins by taking an everyday popular meme about religion and intricately dissects it with comedy and pretty quickly has the audience in the palm of his hand. The information he gives us about Pakistan, Islam and, for example, the difference between Sunni and Shiite turns out to be funnier than you’d think and should also probably be considered a bit of a public service. It’ll have you laughing your butt off, but you get to learn stuff too.

ISLAMOFARCIST is political without really going into politics, it’s about religion without being preachy, about ideals while remaining down to earth and it’s actually quite dangerous. Sami could be killed for this show in some parts of the world. Not surprising that he lives here then and lucky us.

If you have a hankering for intelligent, yet accessible, comedy from a warm, talented comedian who knows what the hell he’s talking about, go see Sami at Fringe, ISLAMOFARCIST is everything Fringe should be and more.

Sami Shah performs ISLAMOFARCIST Putting the “Ha” in “Jihad” at The Lithuanian Club til Oct 1st

https://melbournefringe.com.au/program?event/islamofarcist/a482e708-188f-4d33-92f2-f7de0988d934