What's so funny!?

On Tuesday I was lucky enough to get tickets to another festival show, showcasing some of the best acts that the festival has to offer. Comedy Bites is an annual event put on by ABC radio 774 in Victoria. Of the 23 acts, the best ones were country music artist Wilson Dixon, Irish comedian Neil Delamer, UK’s Gordon Southern, UK regular Jeff Green (so regular he married a Melbourne girl) and part of the Comedy Zone – Smart Casual.

Get out and see something funny!

The MICF gala was on Wednesday night at the Princess Theatre. The show was hosted by the very funny Shaun Micallef who managed to take self-deprecation to new depths. As always the gala highlighted some of the best acts performing at the MICF, all in aid of Oxfam. International guests included regulars such as Arj Barker, Jason Byrne, Otis Lee Crenshaw (Rich Hall) and acts new to Australia such as Russell Kane and Jamie Kilstein. Local regulars included Judith Lucy, Adam Hills, Dave Hughes, Denise Scott, Tim Minchin and newbie, Hannah Gadsby.

My favourite act of the night was Nina Conti who did a great spot with her monkey. I also loved Jason Byrnes in a very confused set including lycra clad wrestlers, cling wrap and an unfortunate audience member. Otis Lee Crenshaw, Mike Wilmot and Tom Gleeson had stand out routines.

Also look out for the opening number from the Chooky Dancers. Great!

The MICF gala will be screening on
Channel Ten on Monday 30th of March.

Hi guys,

While I am ready for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and will try to review as many shows that I can, I can't be everywhere! So I am looking for people to write one line reviews and send them to me via Twitter. See the sidebar if you want to subscribe to the wsf twits.

At the end of each day I will put all the reviews into a post and mail it on the list, so you can see who's hot and who's not at this year's comedy festival.

But please, I am looking for good reviews ending with a score out of 10 at the end. Remember, you've got 140 characters to work with. Get your friends to review too!

eg. Stephen K Amos was fantastic tonight. But he really needs new material - 6/10

And as a bonus, for every review, you will go into the draw to win $100 worth of books through my bookshop!

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is heading out way, with tickets being released for such comedy greats as Dylan Moran, Russell Brand and Rhys Darby (Murray from Flight of the Conchords). Expect more tickets to be released every week!

But of equal importance is the Raw Comedy heats. Raw Comedy is a series of heats that are done across Australia looking for the next comedian you’ve never heard of. So if you’re funny, sign up as there are still places available. Otherwise, head down to a place where the heats are going on, snaffle a few beers and sit down for a laugh.

I’d love to head down, but damn my weekend job! I’ll definitely be at the final in Melbourne on the 18th of April.

From the website
Raw Comedy is on right now!

Heats are taking place at the moment in every capital city, and the regional schedule has been locked away.

Registrations are full in Melbourne and Sydney already, and Adelaide is getting close.

Get onto the Raw website at www.rawcomedy.com.au and find out when the next Raw gig is on, near you.

Check out the website to see when the heats are on! www.rawcomedy.com.au

Every year in Melbourne independent artists (both local, interstate and international) come together for the Melbourne Fringe Festival. This year there are nearly 300 shows that will be performed between the 24th of September and the 12th of October. Of these, 56 are comedy performances, such as standup from the likes of Stephen K Amos, puppetry from Sammy J or slapstick in The Last Bucket of Water.

Whatever you’re into, check out the Melbourne Fringe Festival website for more details!

September 24 – October 12

Finally I've gotten around to writing this. Rich Hall was the last comedian I saw of last month's Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2007.

I've always enjoyed Rich Hall's shows and was looking forward to an above average performance, from a man who was only performing three shows at this year's Festival.

If you don't know Rich Hall, he's been around for a while, working on such shows as Saturday Night Live, hosted TV shows in the states and and has written popular books including his sniglet series. Rich Hall is also puted to be the inspiration for Moe Szyslak from The Simpsons.

Check out these pics below, I can't see the resemblance!

Anyway, the show was at the The Forum and my group were lucky to get a good table. Rich was jet-lagged (performing in a sleep deprived state seemed to be popular this year!) and quickly set into self-deprication, claiming that he just couldn't perform in front of the grandeur of the greco-roman art that oddly adorns The Forum. Like Ross Noble, Rich uses his audiences as inspiration for his show - only a brave and experienced performer fishes for comedy in this way! Rich used some set pieces, talking about love, comedy and what it means to be an American overseas during the administration of George-Dubya. Setting up the audience to give certain answers that would guarantee him with material, he was undone again and again with audience members giving him the exact wrong answer.

Overall, his dry grizzled sense of humour is something that I enjoy each time I see Rich, and while a number of set pieces did fall flat - his self-deprecation (and audience deprecation), combined with his potty mouth and some good observations about everyday life won him some points from me. Good, but capable of more.

Rating: 7/10

In the last week of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival I got to see two more shows, that I hope to mention sometime soon.

One was a good show by Andrew Horabin which I was put onto by a good friend of mine. Andrew is quite a successful public presenter and if you check out his website www.andrewhorabin.com, you'll see that he is much more than a public speaker and comedian.

Going into the show "What a man's gotta do" I didn't have any real pretense other than the basic premise of the show, where Andrew asks the question "What's a man gotta do to be a man?".

At the intimate Northcote Town Hall, Andrew got people to attempt to answer the question for themselves on slips of paper to be examined during the show. A mixture of songs and talking to the audience, he quickly presents his case, how the question arose and his attempts to find the answer. The songs were quite funny and he knows how to engage the audience and produce some funny improvised moments. However, the show slowed down as he went through the audience responses and he rushed the ending with a nicely executed 'human rights racing call'.

As I learned, Andrew had been doing "What a man's gotta do" as a musical for some time with a 12 person cast in WA (see his website for details). Having worked on the musical for the last 6 years or so, it was clear he had put a lot of thought into his material and this came through in his performance with some amusing anecdotes.

To boot, he offered his CDs 'Georgie Boy' and 'What a man's gotta do' to the audience for free. Overall, he was a nice surprise in this year's festival and I hope to see his musical sometime in Melbourne!

Rating: 7/10

I'm a fan of Peter Berner. He's been on the scene a number of years and is a central part of the success of The Cage, the breakfast show on Triple M. He has also been hard at work on the Einstein Factor on the ABC.

I hadn't seen him in a whole live set before, so on Sunday I was looking forward to a good laugh.

The start of the show didn't bode well, with only about a third of the room filled. Peter took it in his stride with his personable blokey everyman humour that he exudes so well on the radio. He covered topics that ranged from raising his son, terrorism, plane travel and carrying a brick (to belt stupid people!).

His jokes were amusing and well told, however, his observational humour which works so well on radio didn't translate well to his standup with few big laughs.

For such a seasoned entertainer I was expecting much more from Peter. I know he's capable of a lot more. I hope for more the next time that I see him.

Rating: 4.5/10

I've been told by several people, that Daniel Kitson *is* actually at this years comedy festival.

So, for that very reason I ventured down on the Easter weekend to see this fine comedian at work.

His show this year was titled "Blame it on the fireworks". I was happy to see all new material. Daniel used the show's title to explore such nature of friendship (and the diluting of 'true' friendship by Myspace), the singularity of the 'moment' and his personal love of safety vests.

Daniel Kitson's shows typically involve a philosophical look at life (although he likes to point out the meaningless of it all) and this show is no different as he meanders through an array of stories from his life and whimsies. Prone to digressing, he always manages to get back to his point and deliver an engaging show that made the 1.5 hours he was on stage seem too short.

Rating: 8.5/10