Sorry about my un-ironed shirt.
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Author Archives: Tom
Backstage At The Oxfam Gala
2012 MICF Recommendations
I love the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It’s my favourite time of year. There are shitloads of acts on, though. Here are a few people and shows that I can recommend seeing.
Yes, a lot of them are my friends, but lucky for you I just happen to be friends with some of the funniest fuckers in town.
This is not a definitive list; please feel free to go crazy and take a punt on someone you’ve never heard of ever. You might just discover your next favourite comedian.
If you’re less adventurous than that, though, just book tickets to my show, Doing Stuff.
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Al Newstead – Al’s Music Rant: The Difficult 2nd Album
Al writes a cracking music blog and has brilliantly translated it to a stage with jokes and songs. What a champ! This is smart, instructional, modern comedy.
Anyone For Tennis? – Comedy. Music. Etc.
I’ve known Doody & Jase for ages and they are consistently hilarious. See?
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Anne Edmonds – Mr. Banjo’s Name is Steven
Anne makes me joyous. I haven’t seen this show, but it got five stars at Melbourne Fringe last year and I’ve regularly been told how hilarious it is. Plus it’s got a banjo in it!
Andrew McClelland’s One Man Stand
Andy’s show Truth Be Told was one of my favourites at last year’s festival. His giddy smile and rambunctiousness are infectious, but every now and again, amongst all the twee whimsy, he’ll just hit you with a killer, cutting punchline that reminds you just how great he is. It sounds like this show will feature him doing lots and lots of crazy stuff, so you will get good value for money.
One of the funniest people around. Hands. Down.
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Bart Freebairn – Underground Awesome Quest
Downright silly, charming stand up. Bart is one of the most genuinely likeable people in theAustralian comedy scene and he can tell the shit out of a story.
Bob Franklin & Steven Gates – Stubborn Monkey Disorder
Two of the funniest guys in Australia in a show with the word “monkey” in the title? YES PLEASE!
Claudia O’Doherty – The Telescope
Consistently surprising, challenging character comedy. Claudia is a genuine original who I got to get to know whilst doing shows alongside her at the Belvoir Theatre this year and I can report that she rules.
YEP.
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Daniel Kitson – Where Once Was Wonder
A genius. My favourite comedian ever.
DeAnne Smith – Livin’ The Sweet Life
Adorable, hilarious, interesting. Plus she and my friend Tom Ward look a lot alike.
See?
Dave Thornton – The Some Of All The Parts
WHAT A BLOODY NICE TOP BLOKE. Dave’s a great, solid stand-up, and I hear in this show he talks about kissing a man. I will be there in the front row every night.
David Quirk & Benn Bennett – Man-Date
Dave has, on occasions, made me laugh harder than almost anyone else, with his freaky outlook on the world and his funny eyebrows. I have no idea what this show will be, other than interesting and worthwhile.
Daniel Burt – Inspired by Mediocrity
An awesome tweeter and a terrific writer. Check it!
Emma Zammit – Are You Finished With That?
A great new comic talking about food. What else do ya want?
Felicity Ward – The Hedgehog Dilemma
One of my oldest and dearest comedy friends, Flick always puts 100% into making a killer show. This year she’s been in a big proper Working Dog film and been nominated for awards in Adelaide and just generally been awesome. This is a very personal, raw show, and they’re always the best ones, to be honest.
Geraldine Hickey – Turns Out I Do Like Sun Dried Tomatoes
I saw this show in Adelaide last November, when it was in its very early stages, and even then I loved it. A show about coming out and embracing yourself, with fundamentally fucking funny jokes.
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The best! Hannah is the best! Please attend her show. You’re probably already planning to and this has all been a waste of time.
Harley is a giant mass of comedy energy that is unleashed upon people during his show. He is so likeable and funny and I often dream of him scooping me up in his arms and teaching me how to do manly things like spitting and woodwork. This show, originally titled Let’s Zumba!, will no doubt be great.
Jack Druce – Introvert Def Jam!
Great title, even better comedian. Young, but far funnier than he has any right to be. I did a podcast with him and you can listen to that here if you so wish.
A friend from me ol’ Comedy Zone days. The last time I saw Jacques live he destroyed the Sydney Comedy Store by yelling about muffins.
Jennifer Wong – Ouch & Other Words
For lovers of quiet, literary, smarty-pants comedy. Jennifer is very nice and very funny and can be intriguingly dark sometimes. #recommended
John Cruckshank & Ray Badran – The Cruckshank Raybadran
This wins the prize for the punniest MICF title ever in the world. These Sydney guys are tops deadpan comedians who I always like seeing.
Jonathan Schuster – Dad! (And Other Men My Mother Has Been With)
Jonathan is hilarious. He won RAW a couple of years ago. He often talks about his nan. He has great jokes. He is nice and cute and non-threatening. Look:
Kate McLennan – Homeward Bound
Kate’s a brilliant character comedian moving into the world of stand up and I say more power to her. She will make you laugh and cringe and go “awwwww”.
Lawrence Mooney – Lawrence Of Suburbia
The Moon-Man! One of the most underrated stand-ups in this country ever. He has made me laugh so much I hurt myself. Solid, inspiring stand-up comedy.
Lords Of Luxury – For One Night Only (But Twice In That Night)
A bunch of nerdlingers doing geeky comedy for dorks. Very funny, though.
DRY AS THE SAHARA. But fucking great. Another former RAW winner, looking forward to catching this show.
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Marney McQueen – A Rump Steak At A Vegan BBQ
Fantastic actor/singer/character comedian. SHE WAS IN HAIRSPRAY, PEOPLE.
Matt Okine – Being Black & Chicken & Shit
A good friend of mine who is effortlessly funny. I wouldn’t be surprised if this dude gets award nods and stuff.
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Michael Chamberlin – Joy & Despair
Ahhhhh little Chambo. Always great and worth seeing.
Terrific young comedian who has a cackle like you wouldn’t believe. Michael does really smart, subtle racial humour. He is good see it yes please.
Michael Williams – Mild Spectacular (in 3D)
WARRNAMBOOL REPRESENT. Michael is one of my best friends ever and he makes me wheeze with laughter. I think this show will be filled with lots of charmingly shit effects and props and I even got to record a little cameo thing in it. Michael’s show last year was perfect. It was him in comedy show form, which is probably what we’re all going for, really.
I’m going to be living with this man throughout the whole of MICF so if you don’t go see his show he will be a bit sad and that will make our living arrangements miserable. Luckily he is dark and interesting and very funny, so there’re some other reasons to go. Great drawings and pretty music are involved.
Nath regularly tells me horrible stories from his life that are highly amusing. He puts them in his shows. I think if you like my stuff and Rhys Nicholson and Fiona O’Loughlin and Joel Creasey and things of that nature you’ll be into Nath.
Properly, properly funny. He’s supported Dave Hughes, travelled around the US and just doesn’t pull any punches when does the comedeyz.
I know of Mr. Coyle’s work only by reputation. Apparently he’s hilarious and great. I really, really like the radio show he does with Claudia O’Doherty.
Pete Sharkey – Sharkey V Sharkey
Funny little man, funny little title. The Sharkster regularly runs Spleen Comedy on Monday nights in Melbourne, which is brilliant, but he can damn well do his own jokes too.
Rhys Nicholson – Almost A Person
Seen this. It’s fucking great. Rhys is fucking great and deserves your attendance. Please.
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Rob Hunter – Late O’Clock With Rob Hunter
Like Between Two Ferns but here and just as funny. I did this once with Rob. It went like this:
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Comedians across this country are currently caught up in Chieng-fever. It’s like Lin-sanity. But not in a racist way. Ronny is downright hilarious, fresh, a pleasure to watch.
Really, really nice observational comedy. Seamus kind of ponders about things in a really great, funny way. I’m looking forward to this.
Shane Matheson and His Fabulous Singing Bucket Of Gravel
When you meet Shane, you go, “Oh…I’m never going to be as weird or as funny as this person fundamentally is”. For lovers of Sam Simmons and Claudia O’Doherty and gravel.
DYNAMITE. The must-see show of this year’s MICF, I reckon.
Skills In Time – Got Dem Big City Dreams
My bros! Everyone involved in this show is hilarious. A play by the guys who brought you Jaydos and many other funny things besides. If I were prone to hyperbole, I would say something like “the future of Australian sketch comedy” or some shit.
These guys are making the best musical comedy around right now. Up there with Tripod and FOTC for me.
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Steele Saunders – The Cat’s Meow
Who doesn’t love a man who loves a cat? Check out Jerry the Persian’s twitter account, then please book tickets to see this funny hairy man.
I did this in 2008 and it was great fun. The Comedy Festival looks all over Australia to find the best up-and-comers and puts them in a show together. I have seen Khaled Khalafalla, Laura Hughes, Tom Gaynor, Dayne Rathbone and Damien Power all before and they are all, quite genuinely, very funny. This could be one of the strongest and most interesting zones for a couple of years, so go support ’em if you can.
A profoundly talented young comedian. I’ve seen a couple of Tommy’s shows and they’re always carefully put together, interesting and, best of all, very funny. Surely one of the best storytellers around, as proved by the podcast he does with his dickhead mate Karl Chandler, The Little Dum Dum Club.
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Tommy Little – A Fistful Of Apologies
Likeable and cheeky and smart and a solid joke writer and maybe a little bit of eye candy, too. I hope that’s not weird. Please don’t find that weird if you’re reading this, Tommy.
Properly, actually weird, not just surreal in a “put-on” way. I’ve seen Trav kill and I’ve seen him confuse. I’m going to try and make his show to see what the hell will happen.
Umit Bali – Coming To Australia
Umit is a regular at the Comedy Store in Sydney and he’s great. So refreshing to just have a lovely person enthusiastically telling you things in a very engaging way. This is Umit’s debut and I reckon he has a great story to tell. This could almost be as good as the Eddie Murphy movie.
Xavier Michelides is The Brain Whisperer
Like, a BILLION people in one man’s body! Xavier is tremendous tremendous tremendous. He won an award last year. He makes smart silly shows. Kind of a little bit like a slightly more chilled Robin Williams, mixed with a bit of Maria Bamford.
Hil-ARE. Really enjoyed Zoe’s debut last year. She’s another act that keeps you guessing without ever disappearing up her own arse. She can write a damn good joke, too.
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Okay. That’s a shitload of shows, I know. I’m sorry. This was fun to put together, but it may be frustrating to read/consider. Of course, there’s all those acts that you KNOW will be great (Frank Woodley, Wil Anderson, David O’Doherty, Wanda Sykes, Peter Helliar, Dave Callan, DeAnne Smith, Sam Simmons, the Festival Club, Paul Foot, Claire Hooper, etc), but I hope this list throws a curveball or two in there for you.
And I know that a lot of shows can be pretty pricey, but remember there’s Tightarse Tuesdays and group deals and cheap shows in smaller venues and quite a few free things as well.
I just hope that you get the chance to go and find something totally new that you really love somewhere, somehow, because for me, comedy at its finest makes me happier than anything else going.
Merry festivus!
Bill Maher: Stop Being Offended, America
My Review of Aqua
So I went to see Danish 90s pop sensation Aqua.
Live.
I went to see them playing their music live. In a venue. In front of people. People who deliberately went to that venue to see them play their music live.
This is something that I did.
Ironic nostalgia tours are so hot right now. Bizarrely, as live music venues around the country are shutting up shop and festivals are struggling to appease punters’ expectations of seeing big names like Florence Welch perform alongside Jay-Z and Kanye West with The Beatles as a backing band and Thom Yorke riding an elephant as support, business is booming for reformed shitty 90s acts, provided they’re prepared to tour to Newcastle. This year we’ve already had the The Vengaboys, Aqua and The Cranberries through (plus the cast of American Pie were here and that was fully weird and stuff), and now we can all “look forward” to the likes of Eiffel 65, S Club 7, The Backstreet Boys and New Kids On The Block in the coming months.
(Incidentally, there actually is a party like an S Club party and it’s called your office Christmas party where everyone’s trying to drink away the haunting spectre of unfulfilled dreams.)
Having said that – Aqua were pretty shittingly awesome. Taking themselves mildly seriously with a live band, black gothic outfits and chains and a lot of yelling out “SYDNEY – DO YOU LIKE HOUSE MUZIK??” to an enthusiastic crowd of shameless twentysomethings and bellowing drag queens, the four-piece were just…fun. Ridiculous, stupid fun. They powered through everything from Barbie Girl to Candyman to Roses Are Red to Turn Back Time with aplomb, but it wasn’t just the classics; we also got to taste the delights of their 2011 record Megalomania (which is something that happened, apparently), including No Party Patrol, containing timeless lyrics like “Hands up, here we go / Down the drain, getting low / We gonna tear this house down, right? / Use it up, turn it on / Let it out, in the sun / We gonna rock this place / So let me see your hands!”.
Heavy.
I think my favourite part was when back-up “talker” René Dif made the “two in the pink, one in the stink” gesture for the 14th time and was quite clearly very happy with himself for having done so.
I had a great time. And I will no doubt be attending the S Club 7 show because I genuinely think Bring It All Back is one of the greatest pop songs ever written, and I might go see Eiffel 65, if only to see what desperation personified looks like.
I don’t know if the 90s revival is, like, a “good” thing for humanity or whatever, but I have to say I’m enjoying the ride for now.
Just to be clear, though: I got a free ticket to Aqua. I wouldn’t pay for that shit.
NSW RAW Comedy State Final
I’m way excited about MCing the NSW State Final of RAW Comedy at the Sydney Comedy Store.
It’s happening on Tuesday March 20th at 8pm, tickets are between $20 and $25. All the details here.
Come and support some really really funny people you’ve never seen before.
DJing At This
I Am Part Of The Atheist Periodic Table
Shitty Gigs and Hecklers and Shit
This is a great read; Felicity Ward, Die Roten Punkte, Harley Breen, George McEncroe, Hannah Gadsby, Kate McLennan, myself and a bunch of others tell The Age about bad gigs and dealing with hecklers.
Amy Schumer is cool. Here she is dealing with a heckler in a humorous fashion.
Charlie Brooker on Kony 2012
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