Don't Let Me Eat My Babies review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Holly Bohmer coolly enters the stage, cradling a baby in her arms. She stares out at the audience, challenging them. Then there’s a mic drop. Except instead of a mic, it’s a baby. A baby drop. Welcome to the sketch comedy Don’t Let Me Eat My Babies.
 
In her debut solo show, Bohmer presents a variety of characters born from her mind and nursed into existence. From an artistic perspective, this mind is delightfully wicked and oddly enchanting. We meet a woman growing frustrated with a retail assistant because the only clothes available are for “huskier” women. Then there’s a Lifeline worker who despite successfully keeping her suicide rates low, probably should be looking for other work. Bohmer leans into uncomfortable playfulness, highlighting the absurdity of real-world interactions in a way that is unsettling and amusing.

Linda (for one more week) review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Linda is dead. Except she shouldn't be. There's been an administrative stuff up and she's actually one week early. So, she is sent back to Earth. For seven more days, in which Linda decides to throw caution to the wind, quit her job at Harris & Ford, and book herself onto a cruise. What's the worst that could happen? While we never meet Linda in Linda (for one more week), we instead witness the interactions and stories of various people on board the Anders & Cooper cruise ship.

Andy Balloch and Justin Porter perform as all the characters, ranging from a frustrated magician and his assistant, to lifeguards yearning for something more, to wellness workers with big aspirations. The sketches are self-contained but gradually they become to intertwine and cross paths with others which leads to some interesting narrative threads. This also means quick costume changes for Balloch and Porter, as well as switches in movement and voice work, which they seamlessly accomplish, until they start having perhaps too much of a good time.

Hit n Hope: A Character Cabaret review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

From its opening moments, Hit n Hope: A Character Cabaret is utterly ridiculous. Ridiculously hilarious. When they venture out into the audience and ask us "what kind of fish are you?" you just know you're going to be in for an incredibly riotous time with Sugar Bits (Nicola Pohl, Tessa Luminati and Stephanie Beza).

The three performers present various sketches on the male douche bags out there. It's a strong feminist show but with a sharp eye for comedy value and cleverly conveying just how impossibly foolish - and dangerous - men can be.

Even with audience participation, they create a safe environment for all. Their engagement, responsiveness and re-activeness to what is said and done in the crowd - even when they're not seeking anything - is very impressive. And it's the small things that make a huge difference. When someone awkwardly mumbles "oh my god I hate this", Pohl lets it hang in the air and plays with the silence and what has been said.

Putting On A Show review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

How do you describe Alex Hines' new show Putting On A Show? It's about the trauma of being locked in a McDonalds freezer as a child, but it's also not. It's about being a millennial with ADHD, but it's also not. It's about the ethical and moral issues about fast fashion and online stores like Shein, but it's also not. It's everything you'd expect from Alex Hines, but guess what... it's also not. Perhaps the best way to describe it, is part stand-up, part sketch, part confessional but fully twisted and totally fucked up. And it's absolutely brilliant.

Hines has always had a magnetic presence, particularly as alter ego Juniper Wilde, but here, she pulls us further into her world. As Juniper she can lean into the bat-shit crazy and looseness and run with it, but in Putting On A Show, Hines is herself, and while she is still outlandish and over-the-top, there is a vulnerability present that's not been seen before. References to her ADHD diagnosis, childhood experiences and her family, while not exactly of a personal nature, strike a chord with the room and strengthens the connection between her and her audience.

Good Girl review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Why have we waited so long for Roxie Halley to be doing a solo sketch show? Regardless of the answer, the utter delight that Good Girl provides its audience is well worth the wait. With all 13 characters performed by Halley, the comedy explores the expectations that are put upon women through a variety of characters and sketches.

Halley has created a diverse mix of women for this show. From faded tv starlets trying to retain their sex appeal, to a teenage girl obsessing about her weight and being hot and a woman feeling just a little bit fragile at her lavish birthday party. She finds an authenticity with each one that allows these characters to be something deeper than merely a laughing point.

Please Clap review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

There isn't much of a description for what Reuben Solo's Please Clap is going to be about, except that it is likely to be a frenzied, disorderly series of live sketch comedy. Which is as accurate as you can get for a show that even though has a structure in place, seems to make a lot of what we witness on the fly.

Solo begins the show strongly with some fun audience interactions which includes moving people around, introducing him to the stage and having one person give him the harshest insult they can - and boy, did he cop it on the night attended with the most brutal sledge you could give to a performer.

When I Grow Up... review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

It's the age-old question: what do you want to be when you grow up? As a child, you might say doctor, teacher, police officer...but then there's also the kids that want to be famous, a rock star, an athlete or even a penguin. In Jeromaia Detto's comedy show When I Grow Up..., audience suggestions of what they wanted to be when they were children are played out on stage in an improvised hour of laughter.

It's evident from the second Detto appears in the room, he's here for a good time and that joy and sense of play spreads throughout the room. He's very talented at guiding the audience and letting them know what to do without putting them on the spot or placing any pressure on them. You're never uncertain of what your role is, and even if you are, Detto will find a way of incorporating that into the scene.

The John Wilkes Booth review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

The John Wilkes Booth takes place in a fancy French restaurant set in West Heidelberg. A bumbling waiter quickly takes us to our seats as he busily takes orders and serves meals, until a new customer walks in. Am imposingly tall American man, dressed all in black and carrying a briefcase. But not all is at seems in this comedy show about good food, mistaken identities and murder.

Alex Donnelly as Marcel, the questionable French waiter, is a pure delight. His over-the-top, frantic running around and servicing customers is reminiscent of a slightly less fumbling Manuel from Fawlty Towers. Lachie Gough as the restrained and matter-of-fact Texan oil tycoon is a perfect straight man foil to Marcel, until he has no choice but to join him in ridiculously funny scenarios of sheer silliness and slapstick.

Fashion 4 Passion review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

We've all been guilty of purchasing fast fashion. Whether it be because of the price point, or you need something you're only going to wear once (which should be all the time!!!) or because you simply need to have variety in your clothing options. In Fashion 4 Passion, Jennifer Laycock and Samantha LeClaire expose the seedy underbelly of fast fashion and influencer lifestyle in a series of wild sketches that puts the fashion industry under the microscope of ethics.

The duo begins each sketch with a TikTok inspired voiceover with a POV of the scenario that is about to be played out. That means point of view and not poverty as the women cautiously let us know. So, we get "POV. When you wear the same outfit as someone else to a party." Shock! Horror! Recoil! It's a great palette cleanser to start the scenes with, while reminding us of the prominent role that online influencers play in fast fashion commerce.

Annie and Lena Have A Talk Show review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Annie and Lena have a talk show. They may only be mere production assistants on it, but this isn't going to stop the pair from working their way through the ranks to become the hosts of their talk show, "Talk Show". What follows are a number of talk show based sketches with the comedy duo taking on all the roles, including host and guest and everything in between.

There are fun moments in Annie and Lena Have A Talk Show, such as when they play a game of musical chairs and whoever sits on the chair impersonates a famous talk show host. Moon's Drew Barrymore portrayal might only last a few seconds, but it is frighteningly accurate in voice and personality (as well as Moon having a slight resemblance to Barrymore). Their "Celebrities Read Mean Tweets (by Annie and Lena)" is also quite entertaining, particularly with the celebrities they record reading their mean tweets and then have them roast the pair back with VERY sassy retorts. I wish we could have seen more of this creativity.

I Love Money review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Money does indeed make the world go round, and in I Love Money, Jett Bond presents a show that revolves all around money. The sketch comedy explores money through various perspectives and ideas from retirement parties, greedy landlords and a magician who can make cash disappear with a click of their fingers.

Bond's energy is at sky high levels that is maintained with the eccentric characters we meet and the peculiar worlds we are introduced to. The show comes to a slight pause a couple of times due to technical issues, and for one that is as pre-recorded sound dependent as this, it could cause quite a problem, but Bond treats it like a small inconvenience and continues on with the sketch, with audience members spontaneously jumping in to add sound effects at one point.

Brave & Bold review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Douglas Rintoul has spent many years trying to discover the best version of himself. In his musical sketch comedy show, Brave and Bold, this WAAPA music theatre graduate shares how sometimes there is no mould that you can fit into and you just need to be yourself.

Rintoul displays considerable creativity with his original songs, and along with Marlon Grunden's music composition, he covers a variety of genres with inventive lyrics that convey his slightly off-centre view of the world. A highlight is the bizarre ode to a baby hand that also has a few nice little callbacks throughout.

FUNeral review

One inescapable fact in life is that death will always come for us in the end. No matter what we do, life can end at any moment. While that realisation can be quite bleak, Clare Taylor and Ruby Rawlings are here to make it less dire, with their comedy show FUNeral.

During the promotion of their show, the two performers capture the attention of Death itself and so Death decides to crash the party. With the odds against them, Taylor and Rawlings are determined to put Death in its place and break its 100% winning streak of successful life ends, as if this was a comedic version of Final Destination.

Am I The Drama? review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Andy Balloch is one of those performers who relishes being on stage. He's genuinely delighted to be up there and bringing people happiness and escapism. In Am I The Drama?, Balloch takes his audience on a (theme park) ride inside the thoughts that occur in his head, and after watching this show, it's definitely one where you need to strap yourself in tight.

Balloch is a gifted storyteller who moves at a frenetic pace that could easily derail the performance but he knows when to step on the breaks and when to start speeding up. There are a couple of speed bumps along the way but the audience is in good hands with the comedian. (This is also where I stop with the ride analogies).

Stickybeak review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Everybody needs good neighbours right? But what happens when you don't necessarily like the people who live next door to you but have to find ways to tolerate them as they float around the periphery of your daily life. In the sketch comedy Stickybeak, Kimberley Twiner, Jessie Ngaio, Laura Trenerry and Patrick Dwyer introduce us to three families, their pets and other animals that reside in the hood, and give us a hilarious peek into a space where the demarcation of public and private life is at its most blurred.

First things first, Ngaio wins this year's Fringe award for best impersonation of an animal. Her portrayal of Psycho the bulldog (in my mind) in movement and mannerism was scarily precise. If there were a runner-up for this award it would go to Twinner and her slithering snail, but less said about that the better to not lessen the surprise and joy of watching it transpire. The ensemble have given so much thought to movement and how to use their bodies, and given their experience with clown, bouffon and previous performances this is not surprising, but they have clearly honed in on this for Stickybeak.

Jazz Or A Bucket Of Blood review (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

It seems to be an unwritten rule that the later your Fringe Festival show is scheduled, the more outlandish and wacky the show will be. Jazz or a Bucket of Blood is a great example of this. Performed by Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt, the hour of sketch comedy takes us to some weird but extremely amusing places with the two performers (hopefully) playing extremely heightened versions of themselves.

The matching outfits of grey shorts and blue shirts give them a childlike disposition, like they are wearing a school uniform, lending some credibility to them being somewhat naive and innocent with what they say and do. Some. Because a lot of what they say and do is very much on the other side of that spectrum. Try Lavoipierre's instructions on how to make friends and you'll probably realise this is most definitely not the way to make friends - but a great way to endear yourselves to the audience in your comedy show.

Eighteen review

There aren't many 30 year olds who can say they've been friends for 18 years but Caitlyn Staples and Tiana Hogben are two of these. Having met at high school, the two have been thick as thieves, and with their sketch comedy / musical theatre show Eighteen, the duo lets us know just how deep this friendship runs.

They recall their time being obligated to perform in questionable student theatre productions concerning issues such as AIDS, refugees, teenage pregnancy and drug addiction, and we are ... fortunate enough to get a recreation of these scripts.

There are sprinkles of Pen15 awkwardness as we flashback to Staples and Hogben as their former teen selves in debating competitions and speaking to their parents during a school play and that comes down to the shared history they have. They know each other's strengths and how to make the other person look good. There are musical numbers that present glimpses of the quirky and offbeat humour these two have, and this is when Eighteen was at its unique best. Turkeys will forever be linked to this show.

Stickybeak Patrick Dwyer is getting nosey with the neighbours (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

Neighbours. Everybody needs good neighbours. But they're not the neighbours we often get. No. Sometimes it's the noisy ones, having shouting matches throughout the day, playing their loud music or even worse, having band rehearsals in their garage. And then there's the good old fashioned nosey parker, the one always inserting themselves into your life ... the stickybeak. Presented as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Stickybeak is a physical comedy that brings the fence down around our neighbour and exposes them for a change.

The show is devised and performed by the exceptional talents of Kimberley Twiner, Jessie Ngaio, Laura Trenerry and Patrick Dwyer, and while the four have individually known each other and worked with each other in various shows, this is the first time they have come together for one show. "Laura and myself have been working together as The Beryls in the character comedy world for a number of years now and have worked with Kimberly Twiner several times in different capacities," Dwyer explains. "We decided we all wanted to make a show together where we played multiple characters in a highly physical and dynamic way. The brilliant visual and performance artist Jessie Ngaio joined shortly after and it was a magical addition."

The sketch comedy show that's asking life's big question: is it jazz or a bucket of blood? (Melbourne Fringe Festival)

It's the age-old question: is it jazz or a bucket of blood? It has divided people even deeper than what colour that dress actually was. Performers Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt at least hope to answer the former with their upcoming Melbourne Fringe Festival season of Jazz Or A Bucket Of Blood. Their hour of absurd humour and quirky perspectives have left audiences around the world - most recently at Edinburgh Fringe Festival - utterly fixated and astounded.

With Lavoipierre's solo show also having an equally eccentric title (Your Mother Chucks Rocks and Shells, and also playing at Melbourne Fringe), she and Watt are certainly displaying a knack for coming up with unique show names, but what comes first, the title or the content? "I don’t think you’re meant to do it like this but I’m only going to write something new after I turn out a title that makes me laugh," Lavoipierre says. "The idea happens quickly and then I say it to a few of the silliest people I know and see if they laugh too, and that’s the entire process."

Happy at Times review (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)

Musical comedian Sarah Gaul is on a mission to improve her happiness levels. But what does it take to actually be happy? With Happy at Times, Gaul performs a number of delightful songs and shares her unique perspectives with her audience on how we can all increase our happiness ratio.

Gaul radiates warmth on stage and her personality shines through as she makes sure she greets everyone as we enter and take our seats. She is personable and friendly and when she recreates her passport and drivers license photo IDs she becomes someone we could sit there and listen to all night and still be entertained.