The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has a staggering 600-odd shows being performed during its season, so the choice of what show to see can be somewhat overwhelming as well as navigating around all the different venues around Melbourne. Fortunately, iconic Melbourne venue, The Butterfly Club has you covered, presenting 19 shows that spans a huge variety of comedy styles.
"I think it's very kind of you to infer we are any good at all, so thank you for the compliment," says The Butterfly Club director, Simone Pulga. "We received some 200 enquiries for this year's festival and reading through them was a reward in itself. The majority turned out to be remarkably well thought-out projects and when that happens, the job at hand is to focus on quality and variety: lots of different shows, all performed by people who know exactly what they're doing."
Returning for a second time to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this year are four women bravely taking on the world's most famous male musicians. Lady Sings It Better's Here To Save The World is a humourous yet eye-opening look at pop, rock, r&b and hip-hop and revealing the blatant misogynism in the lyrics and the strange themes explored in the songs. Last year, the group covered Baha Men's Who Let The Dogs Out? and Fountain of Wayne's seriously disturbing Stacey's Mom, and I for one, am extremely eager to see what they come up with for this cabaret show. "I am stupidly excited about the new show!" Maeve Marsden, Artistic Director and member of Lady Sings It Better exclaims. "We’re doing a Prince medley which is great because his music is so good. Libby Wood is singing Last Night by Az Yet and we’ve learnt all the dance moves from their AMAZING 90s music video. We’re exploring the various ways that Kanye West has talked about his dick and we’re covering Sorry by Justin Bieber in a fairly surprising way, which I am excited about because it means I get to watch its amazing video to practice. And the show is superhero themed so we have an epic superhero medley to kick it off!"
Burlesque and cabaret star, Reuben Kaye returns to Australia for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, for, by his own admission, the "most awfully titled show" in the festival, Plugged. "I was so proud of it at first thinking it was a nice pun on "Live and Unplugged", and then when I announced it to a group of friends at a bar, one person choked on their drink, and the rest just fell silent. In the distance a child began to cry. I knew I had found my title." Kaye says.
Plugged has Kaye sharing songs, stories, shame and regret with his audience in a way "where vanity meets desperation and self-awareness meets a brick wall." Other than that, your guess is as good as Kaye's as to what to expect! "What is it about? you know, I have no idea. And it’s my show! I guess it’s the never ending story of on man and his quest for applause." When asked to describe himself and shows to people who have never seen him before, his answer is if I have seen the dentist scene from The Marathon Man. At the time I hadn't, but now I have and...maybe just watch it and come to your own conclusions. Or maybe don't, and be surprised by what you encounter?
Kaye has just finished a stint playing Freddie Mercury in a musical legendary account of Princess Diana visiting a gay bar, disguised as a man. "It was so terrifying doing Royal Vauxhall. I also jumped between playing Freddie, David Bowie and Regina Fong, one of London’s most infamous Drag Queens," he says. "There was a lot of pressure to get them right. But the whole show was a joy, and we’re currently looking for producers and a possible return season, so if any wealthy producers/investors are out there I can promise barely adequate sexual favours and a marvelous roast dinner*."
On top of Royal Vauxhall, Kaye has been presenting, directing and performing in Cabaret Des Distractions every Friday night at Cafe De Paris in London since 2014, which has seen numerous performers coming through the venue and wowing audiences. The success and regularity of the show can easily bring on performer fatigue in being able to constantly create new and exciting routines. "The Cabaret scene in Europe forces you to create quickly and regularly. There’s a high turnover of artists and the audience’s have a very high bullshit meter," he explains. "So if what you’re doing isn’t genuine, doesn’t have that spark of discovery, they can turn on you and suddenly it’s like that scene from Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer where the children on the island devour Sebastian."
Despite his excellent performance history in the cabaret and burlesque world, there are still some things that Kaye has been unsuccessful in achieving. "Reaching climax without crying. Or make a decent souffle. Sometimes the two are inextricably linked. Don’t ask," he says. "Oh, and sleeping with Danny Bhoy, so if anyone could bring him to my dressing room after my show that’d be just lovely."
FIVE QUICKIES
If you had to name your child after a vegetable what would it be? Satsuma, no! I would call my child “Bergine” so when it did something cute we could all go Oh-Bergine! And then I would punch myself. Which reality TV show would you most like to appear/compete on?Australia’s Least Wanted.Maybe I would just like to make my own… WHAT
HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BEAUTIFUL HOUSE!? Surprise renovation show where we
hire seven epileptic homosexuals with congenital ocular degeneration to
design a senior citizen’s Warrandyte bungalow in 5hrs using only poster
paint, a firm-bodied pinot-noir and an industrial tub of mayonnaise. or Dancing With The Stars On ICE! We give Tottie Goldsmith a crackpipe and then make her do an Argentine Tango. The most irritating habit I have is, I have no irritating habits, I’m very easy to live with. (Danny Bhoy will read this right?) What's
a song that sums up your life? “Ride of The Valkyries” by Richard
Wagner. Failing that… “I Ain’t Been Licked” by Diana Ross. During the MICF, I really really really want tosleep with Danny Bhoy. Oh! And sell tickets. Sh*t. I always forget that one. But sleeping with Danny Bhoy is still up there on the list. SHOW DETAILS
Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place, Melbourne Season:5 - 17 April | Tues - Sun 10pm, Length: 55 minutes Tickets: $38 Full | $34 Conc | $28 Tightarse Tuesday Bookings:MICF website
She was a "mediawhore" for Adelaide Fringe, and now for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Isabella Valette will be a Princess, with a twist of course. Directed by Fiona Scott-Norman,Princesstuous explores a common theme running throughout the villains of fairy-tales. Snow White had one, The Little Mermaid had one and Cinderella had one too; an older, angry woman trying to hold her down. "A friend and I were talking about the Disney films we’d grown up on and identified a theme of older women as arch-villains, who were always jealous of the young, beautiful princesses," explains Valette. "That got us thinking about competition among women, the female fear of ageing, Nietzsche's philosophy on slave culture and the kind of qualities that are highlighted around princess culture as being a positive. A lot of the villains were powerful, talented women who were victims of their beauty/youth-obsessed worlds. I have also been inspired by the essay ‘Royal Bodies’, looking at the ‘princess effect’ in real life, and our relationship to royal women.”
While there is still a long way until the representation of women and their relationships with other women begin to be honestly explored, Valette feels progress is being made. "I think a lot of modern Disney and Pixar films, like most other Hollywood blockbuster films, are becoming far more aware of trying to create stronger female characters. Frozen is the obvious example, so is Mad Max and Star Wars," she says. "It would still be nice to have anti-heroes, flawed women, not overtly masculine or feminine protagonists. I think sometimes we are so en-cultured to seeing female characters as being either good or evil, and not so much grey territory. I also liked that in Mad Max, Charlize Theron’s character challenged the preconception of having to be beautiful and sexy. She had her own thing going on and she wasn’t dressed to the tits in tight spandex or a princess dress."
A wise man (George Michael) once said,
"'cause I've got to have faith". Eli Matthewson had that. The New Zealand
comedian grew up in a devoted Christian household but eventually turned his
back on Jesus for a life of "guilt-free sinning". His show at this
year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Faith, recounts his journey from being a believer to a non-believer.
"My family were pretty conservative when I was growing up - 5 kids,
Christian family driving around in a van listening to Christian cassettes. I
sung in the church band, and my first ever play was a show set in a Virtual
Reality Basketball world which we did for Sunday Schools," he says.
"I was never really "feeling it" though, and showed up mainly
for performance opportunities. I went to Church less for Jesus and more so I
could try and be the centre of attention. I stopped going in High School and
now I have no religion, just a constant looming fear of death!"
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has a staggering 600-odd shows being performed during its season, so the choice of what show to see can be somewhat overwhelming as well as navigating around all the different venues around Melbourne. Fortunately, iconic Melbourne venue, The Butterfly Club has you covered, presenting 19 shows that spans a huge variety of comedy styles.
