Melbourne International Comedy Festival reviewer Mikey Cahill takes a look at what is on offer at this years laugh fest
DON’T be intimidated. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival may have begun with 478 shows to choose from, but here are 14 winners worth your attention and funds.
David O'Doherty Source: News Limited
1. David O’Doherty — Will Try To Fix Everything
Some people just have funny bones. O’Doherty ambles onto stage and you’re already onside. His show this year blames Lance Armstrong for most of the things wrong with the world. Quite rightly. The hirsute Oirishman has pedigree, he fixed bikes for a living at university. Buy him a Frozen Weiss Bar after the show and he’ll be your BFF
2. Sean Cullen — I Am a Human Man
This Canadian kook is a cross between our own Andrew McClelland and Meatloaf and he will take you to very strange comedic places. Anybody who’s been nominated not once but TWICE for the Edinburgh Comedy Award is a sure bet. He sings about farmers too.
Canadian comedian Sean Cullen Source: Supplied
3. Dave Hughes — Pointless
Sure sure, Hughesy doesn’t need any extra PR but it’s worth noting how refreshed he is now he’s not getting up at the hour Sparrow’s maketh the flatulence. The gap toothed Grandad, sorry, Father of three (Hughesy’s joke, not mine) won’t be reading from notes like in previous years, he’s got the whole hour memorised, right Dave?
Comedian Dave Hughes. Source: News Corp Australia
4. Celia Pacquola — Tell Me How It All Works Out
This girl is a force of nature. She torches every room she enters with an effortless effervescence and the thing about her jokes is. They’re. Very. Very. Funny. The title riffs on something an incompetent fortune teller told her last year and Pacquola has gone a bit David Quirk (we’ll get to him) this year and decided to share with the audience something that’ll “make them judge me” she says warily. Intriguing.
5. Hannah Gadsby — The Exhibitionist
Hannah Gadsby Source: Supplied
Anonymous creeps on social media can be cruel. Gadsby’s bulletproof though, she uses some of the most stinging barbs as grist for the mill. The Tasmanian with the perfectly symmetrical face was a 2013 Barry Award nominee and will pick up where she left off with her super-dry observations and swift “unpacking” skills.
6. John Kearns — Sight Gags For Perverts
This comic is such hot property my keyboard just spontaneously combusted. The 26 year old Brit does his routine through superfluous false teeth, hence the sardonic show title. “As soon as I started wearing them during the show, something happened, I felt free,” he says. Get all up in his grill at the Melbourne Town Hall. Witness the weirdness.
7. Ronny Chieng — Chieng Reaction
Wonderfully abrasive and always subversive, the mail on Chieng’s show this year is that it’s equal to his five star 2012 debut. Lofty praise but Chieng won’t let me/you down. He’s playing The HiFi Bar each night at 7pm (Sun 6pm), an excellent early option if you want to hear material about how Apple Geniuses are anything but.
Chieng Reaction" by Ronny Chieng. Source: Supplied
8. Kyle Kinane — Self-titled.
If you’re in the mood for a warm, world-weary take on life, Kinane’s got your back. The bearded 37 year old Yank has been on top his game for an eon, he self-deprecates about the creakiness of his bones in the morning, comparing them to the last 15 seconds of a microwavable popcorn. And he has a dynamite bit about reaching an age where he reads out signage while he drives around at night. The punchline is one word beginning with N, not far from Forum Theatre.
9. David Quirk — Career, Suicide
The local skateboarder cum stand-up walked onto The Palais’ giant stage at the Comedy Allstars Supershow on Wednesday night, a little bemused at the warm round of applause he’d received and stated, deadpan, “Thankyou, yes, I am a very funny comedian.” It killed. It had no right to, it was Quirk’s first time at the Allstars Show, but it completely destroyed. That takes guts. This show is about Iranian women and Y-grade fame.
Sara Pascoe Source: Supplied
10. Sara Pascoe — Vs The Truth
This smart English comic is worried. Worried people will think her show is going to be a lecture. Fear not, Pascoe/people, the LOLs are there for the taking, including some exceptionally well written lines on all the things she’s had that aren’t a baby, example: a tapeworm.
11. Headliners at Melbourne Town Hall
Seaton Smith is part Dave Chappelle, part highly strung metaphysical, meta-critic. Jen Kirkman is milking (you’ll get it when you see her bit) her recent divorce and the rest of the line-up are no slouches either.
12. James Acaster — Lawnmower
A real dark horse for the Barry Award, Acaster promises “one hour of low-key whimsy” but delivers a lot more than just that. He doesn’t so much as hold a crowd in the palm of his hand, the 29 year old foppy-fringed Brit puts you in his top pocket and takes you for a stroll through his razor sharp mind, protecting you from the pointy bits so the only thing pricked is your curiosity.
Shappi Khorsandi Source: Supplied
13. Shappi Khorsandi — Self-titled
A few years back, Khorsandi had just gone through a bad breakup and wasn’t quite match-fit. Now she’s had a second child to another fella (separated already too, “whoa oh there she goes ...”) and is ripping through her stories with an enviable ebullience. Bit filthy too. We like that.
14. Steve Hughes — While It’s Still Legal
The Aussie expat based in England may have cut off all his hair but Samson he ain’t, Delilah. Why why why should you go see him? He’ll show you the world through the eyes of Bill Hicks for Web 3.0. His erudite wit is undeniable, one of his punchlines at the Comedy Allstars Supershow was just the word ... “Yes” in a Swiss accent. Domination.
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