Back From The Bed review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

English comedian Seann Walsh is tired. A lot. After all, he is 37 years old. No longer is he able to party like a 20-something year old, and with his stand-up show Back From The Bed, Walsh presents a humorous lament to the years gone by and the frustration of what awaits when you start to have less future and more past.

Despite the casual approach to his routine, and a voice that at times feels like he's just woken up, Walsh has complete control of the situation and knows exactly what he's doing. At one point, an audience member knocks their glass over and Walsh's immediate response of "dad's home!" shows that he is always on the ball and gives us a brief insight into Walsh's personal life. His banter with the audience displays his ability to improvise and go down an unknown path before getting back on course.

Vanity Fair Enough - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

In the 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Margot Tanjutco wowed audiences with her performance as Juliet in the critically acclaimed Romeo is Not the Only Fruit. This year, she returns to the festival with her solo show, Vanity Fair Enough. Tanjutco will be bringing an hour of laughs with music, sketch and stand-up as she explores capitalism, materialism and happiness. 

"I see Vanity Fair Enough as the apocalyptic Instagram feed of a self-loving twentynothing. It's a bunch of wild ideas woven together by mass consumption and impending doom," she tells me. "I initially wanted to write a show that almost defends materialism and the title popped into my head very quickly after that. It digs into my own materialistic tendencies and how society encourages those values and the consequences of them. I’m trying to understand how the world works in order to offer my own slices of truth. Those slices can be quite absurd but always grounded in something real."

The Birds and The Beats review - Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Have you ever wanted to know something about sex but were too afraid to ask? Well thanks to The Birds and the Beats, you need fear no more. Presented as part of this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Grant Busé spends his time informing us on the truth about the birds and bees through his unique fusion of stand up, storytelling and music.

What is striking about Busé as a performer is his utmost honesty and openness. Even with his parents in the audience on the evening attended, he doesn't shy away from any topic or question, especially when he bravely asks the audience if they have any questions for him about his own sex life. There is a good pacing to the show, where it creates a casual and relaxed atmosphere while also having an awareness of how long to keep a story and when to move on.

P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A review - Melbourne International Comedy Festival

P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A. Neal Portenza. The name should strike fear into anyone who does not like audience participation, because once Neal has you in his sights there's no point fighting it. Even sitting in the back of the room will not save you as Neal roams up and down just waiting for something to happen. A sneeze, a phone ringing and even a velcro strap will set Neal off on a tangent that is completely improvised but incredibly hilarious.

Neal is the creation of Josh Ladgrove - who makes sure we know that he has two degrees from the University of Melbourne, making him smarter than us in every way - and the character is the embodiment of what laughter and good times are. There is a huge sense of fun during the entire show, taking inspiration from the mundane, the silly and the downright absurd. It would certainly be an experience to be able to see the world through Ladgrove's and / or Portenza's point of view.

P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Neal Portenza is a name that anyone who has an interest in comedy should know. The creation of comedian Joshua Ladgrove, Neal Portenza is about as absurdly bizarre and hilarious as they get. The character returns to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival with a new show simply called P.O.R.T.E.N.Z.A. As with previous shows, you may read the show description and be entertained but utterly baffled by what it is actually about or you can try read between the lines...and then let Ladgrove know.

"The show is in a pre-embryonic state as of right now (20 February 2017) and so I can’t tell you what it's about with any degree of certainty," he says. "What I can say though, is that I want this show to be different from my previous outings, but to still retain all the elements of live comedy that I love. Chiefly, visceral, whole body laughter, stupidity, cleverness, characters, chaos, danger and fun. So, I suppose, going on past shows, the audience can expect a show that is very live and alive, and a bit different from night to night. I love involving the audience in a way that’s particular to that evening, but not in a hacky sort of way."

The Birds & The Beats - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

When you're growing up, sex can be a curious and foreign concept. You may have a lot of questions but where do you go to source reliable and honest answers? Returning to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, with The Birds & The Beats, Grant Busé has you covered. While his previous show, The Late Night Sexy Show looked at the joys of sex, this show goes right back to the beginning with Busé's hilarious, educational and cheeky night of a sing-a-long sex ed. class.

"With The Birds & The Beats, I'm aiming to get a little bit deeper - pun intended - than The Late Night Sexy Show which was a celebration of feeling sexy and being comfortable in your own skin," Busé explains. "The more and more I did The Late Night Sexy Show, the more I saw a huge disparity between audiences with sexual openness, awareness and education. Some nights people had no idea about some of the terms I was talking about and the show transformed into an educational sex seminar. I also had a surprising amount of parents come up to me after the show checking if it was ok to bring their teenage kids along because of the positive body image themes. That kind of prompted me to look into the topic of sex education. In a way, The Birds & The Beats can be seen as a sequel to The Late Night Sexy Show."

Mae Martin: Us - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Canadian-born, London-based Mae Martin is debuting her solo show in Australia at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Called Us, the show explores the labels that people give us and the labels that we give ourselves. Martin's look at a variety of themes including identity, sexuality and loneliness made her one of the breakthrough performers at Edinburgh Fringe and she is more than a little bit excited to be heading over to our shores with Us.

"I've always wanted to do the Melbourne Comedy Festival because everyone raves about it and I'm so excited to have been invited," she says. "I'm also a huge fan of very long flights. If I don't get served at least 3 meals on a flight I don't feel I've got my money's worth, so this is perfect for me. I'll watch 17 films."

Rob Caruana: Silent Comedy - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Many would agree that a comedians best tool is his voice, after all, how can you tell a joke or a story without using your voice? But for this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Melbourne based comedian Rob Caruana is taking that away. In his aptly titled show, Silent Comedy, Caruana presents a three-act solo black and white silent cinematic experience that is bound to leave audiences speechless.


"Don’t expect me to talk, but there will be orchestral music playing the entire time that will relate to what’s happening on stage," Caruana explains. "I want people to feel like they are watching a live silent film that’s been blended with stand-up comedy. It’s a show that will cover various topics including how hard it is to write and perform silent comedy."

Time-travelling with Night Terrace

Admittedly, I am not a huge fan of science fiction. I have never watched Dr. Who and even Star Wars has never really appealed to me. So when I came across the science fiction comedy audio series Night Terrace, I was a little apprehensive about whether this type of show would be geared towards me, however, halfway through the first episode I was very much hooked.

Created by Ben McKenzie, David Ashton, Petra Elliott, John Richards and Lee Zachariah, the story revolves around retired scientist Anastasia Black, who discovers her terrace home is able to travel through time and space. The first episode "Moving House" sets the scene with Anastasia meeting university student Eddie Jones and initiates us into the world(s) of Night Terrace while at the same time, throwing us into the adventures - and misadventures - they find themselves in.

Grant Busé: The Late Night Sexy Show - Midsumma Festival review

Even though it plays at the not-so-late night sexy time of 8.30pm, you may want to fasten your seatbelts with The Late Night Sexy Show, as you’re going to be in for a bumpy night! Performed as part of the 2016 Midsumma Festival, musician, singer and comedian, Grant Busé humorously explores the wonderful world of sex, sexiness and everything else in between.

Busé enters the stage in a suit, gradually losing one piece of clothing with every sexy song he performs. Between songs, we are treated to some erotic reading material that will have everyone getting a little hot under the collar and spend some “quality time” with Busé in which he calls out questions to the audience and in return, we direct questions to him regarding sex, desire and anything else we can think of.

Christopher Doesn't Live Here Anymore by Christopher Welldon - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Everyone hate's moving house. The need to pack everything you own into boxes and then transporting it all to the new house. And then there's the unpacking and making everything feel just right. I thought I had it bad having moved 7 times in the last five years, but in his debut show, Chroistopher Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Christopher Welldon shares his story of how he moved house an epic 60 times in 34 years.

Welldon came up with the idea—one story from every address he’s lived at—in 2011, when there were still only 57 addresses.  "This is my first show. On one hand this has helped with its creation, because I have had absolutely no idea what I am doing. I don't know the process, or the right ways/wrong ways to do stuff. I've just blundered through, hammering up an eight-ish thousand word monologue and hoping it goes for an hour. I also learnt that the more traumatic an event from my childhood is, the more comedy I can wring from it. It's perverse!" He explains. "But it's also been really daunting. Luckily my director, Daniel Lammin, has pulled double duty as a script editor, and together we've crafted a solid, cohesive story.

The Merchant of Whimsy by Clara Cupcakes - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Whimsy: to be playfully quaint or fanciful behaviour or humour, which is exactly what you get with The Merchant of Whimsy, a playful celebration of the different and strange that lives within us all. Clara Cupcakes utilises every skill at her disposal with acts ranging from mind boggling hula hooping to stop motion animation filled with whimsy and wonder, all tied together with her cute yet surprisingly dark and insightful character.

The brains and talent behind Clara Cupcakes, Elly Squire, burst on to the burlesque scene six years ago and hasn’t looked back. After performing in Fringe World in 2012, she packed her bags and travelled the world, performing everywhere and anywhere she could, in as many different disciplines as possible. All these experiences culminated in the debut season of The Merchant of Whimsy at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, which rightfully earned her a 2015 Golden Gibbo nomination. 

The Sparrow Men - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

Speaking from experience, improvising on stage to a roomful of people can be a completely exhilarating experience while for some, a completely petrifying one. There is no script, no director and no safety net. You are literally in the moment and have nothing to work with except your fellow improvisers and your imagination. Retuning to Melbourne Fringe this year with their own brand of impro humour and style are Andy Balloch and Marcus Willis, aka. The Sparrow Men.

The Sparrow Men have no sets, no props, save for two or three black chairs, and have only a suggestion from the audience to begin their shows. "Because each show is entirely unique, we approach each one differently. We don't really have a "framework" that we use to guide us through. However, we generally assume everything is happening in the same world," Balloch says. "At the heart of it, Marcus and I just listen really hard to each other and pay attention as best we can. We've run scenes in the dark to help us listen to each other, trailed different ways to create and endow characters and practiced running longer scenes."

Is That A Burrito In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy You Have A Burrito by Lauren Bok - Melbourne Fringe Festival preview

To some, life may have been a box of chocolate, but for Melbourne comedian, Lauren Bok, life is like a burrito. "We’re born, we are shoveled into a channel of carbohydrate, and the weight of life's commitments are thrown on top of us. The Cheese of Career. The Tomato Salsa of Broken Dreams. The Guacamole of Expectations. The Sour Cream of Regret," she says.

Which leads us to her festival show, aptly titled Is That A Burrito In Your Pocket Or Are You Just Happy You Have A Burrito. This is Bok's solo debut show for the festival desperate beings a seasoned stand-up and comedy performer for a number of years. "I finished doing the sketch show Wander Women for the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and while I had an amazing experience collaborating and being a sketch performer, I missed stand up. Melbourne Fringe registrations opened up the week after and it felt like the right time to just go out and do my own thing, my own way. I felt sick with nerves doing it, but I registered quickly without telling anyone, then it was done, so I had to just go through with it!" She explains. "It feels different then other festivals as it's just me, without any other influences. That makes everything a lot quieter on the outside, but a lot louder in my head."

About Sex review

Let's talk about sex baby. If you like my body and you think I'm sexy. Let me play with your body make you real hot. Despite these three sentences being lyrics to three very well known songs about sex, they also encapsulate Katerina Vrana's show, aptly titled About Sex.

Born in Greece but having lived almost two decades in England, Vrana's has a wealth of stories and anecdotes to share of these two cultures and their dealings with sex. Her impersonations of her family members, including her mother and father, are brilliant but it is when she talks about her 17-year-old brother asking her for sex advice that things really get cracking. One simple question from him is all it takes for the audience to be simultaneously shocked and howling in laughter.

Catchy Show Title review

I'll be completely honest, I remember seeing Dr. Professor Neal Portenza (Joshua Ladgrove) in 2012 and not really being impressed by what I saw and thus stayed away from future shows. Since then, every review I read mentioned how great his shows are so I finally bit the bullet and went along to his Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, Catchy Show Title and am I glad I did. Hands down, the best show I've seen during the festival and highly doubtful that anything is going to beat it.

It's really hard to explain what this show is about, especially as there seems to be a little of bit of everything in it. Sketch comedy, character pieces, improvisation (the good kind) and (for some, the dreaded) audience participation. No one is safe in this show, you cross your arms, you whisper something to your friend or even sneeze, you will be pulled up. The audience tonight was particularly open and eager to play along, which is imperative for a show like this to succeed and this is also in part to Ladgrove's charm. There was even one instance where I thought "uh-oh, he's going too far" but he just makes it work; we are literally putty in his hands.

Avenue Q review

Having seen the West End production six years ago (and remembering it strongly), I had high expectations for Trifle Theatre Company's production of Avenue Q. Furthermore, I had some reservations as to whether it could match the magic of my original viewing, but within the first few minutes that doubt disappeared. We may only be in March but I can confidently say that this will be one of the best shows I see this year. 

The story follows a recent college graduate, Princeton (played by Jordan Pollard), who is a little wet behind the ears and entering the "real world". Moving to Avenue Q (the best he can afford) he gets acquainted with the locals, including Kate Monster (played by Sarah Golding), Trekkie Monster (played by the wonderful Andy McDougall), married human couple Christmas Eve and Brian (Leah Lim and Michael Linder) and Gary Coleman (in an interesting casting choice, played by Zuleika Khan).

Quiet Achievers review

Performing an improvised comedy show can be more terrifying than performing stand up. You have no idea what's going to happen next from both your fellow cast and the audience. In essence, you have no safety net. You'd think that's risky enough but the Quiet Achiever's have taken it a step further with their Melbourne International Comedy Festival show and taken away a comedian's most powerful tool; their voice.

With nothing but a musical soundtrack of 500 songs played at random, the Quiet Achievers (Andrew Strano and Charlie Sturgeon) set out to captivate us with a mixed bag of silent impro sketches. As with any impro show, there is always a chance scenes will not hit the mark and with this show there are moments when stories do fizzle out with an awkward ending or the story gets convoluted and confusing.