Gretchen - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

What are you supposed to do when your friends, family and the general population all seem to like your british shorthair cat more than you? Well if you're Clara Cupcakes, you make a show about it. The multi-disciplined, multi-award nominated comedian is taking audiences on an absurdly surreal trip with her new Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, Gretchen.

Considering how much of a fun loving bubble of energy and positivity Clara is, it's surprising to hear that her cat receives more attention than her. So, who exactly is Gretchen? "Gretchen is my horrible, no good, grumpy and adorable cat whom I adore despite her being utterly awful," she admits. "I’m making a show about her because she is infinitely more popular than I am so I’m giving the people what they want. It’s honestly ridiculous. Both my housemate and I get more engagement on photos and videos when we post content of Gretchen than any of our own work. I was in Perth recently and I had a drag queen that I don’t even know rush up to me and ask “WHO IS LOOKING AFTER GRETCHEN?!”."

Scandal! A Reflection on Essendon’s Doping Saga: The Musical? - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

For a country that prides itself on sport, particularly football, the doping scandal that plagued the AFL in 2013 was a devastating blow to the nation. After being investigated by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority and the World Anti-Doping Agency over the legality of its supplements program during the 2012 AFL season, the Essendon Football Club was fined $2 million, banned from the 2013 finals series, and suspended its senior coach and general manager. They're the perfect ingredients to create a musical comedy out of right? Well Kit Richards seems to think so with her new Melbourne International Comedy Festival show, Scandal! A Reflection on Essendon’s Doping Saga: The Musical? 

After being nominated for the Golden Gibbo and Green Room Awards in 2019 for Wool! The Musical, Richards is looking forward to tackling this scandal, and while it might be very different to the wool industry, the two are more closely linked than you'd think.

"I recently bought an Essendon guernsey that was made out of Merino wool and the tag on it said ‘Australian Rules Football and the wool industry are knitted together geographically, socially and financially’ so I guess it was fate!" she tells me. "Seriously though, the history of wool was a topic that had plenty of comedic potential but I always like to grow and develop as a writer so I thought it would be interesting to tackle something I don’t find funny. In that way, that was a natural progression but to outsiders, it’s probably a bit of a leap."

Lousical the Musical | Lou Wall | Melbourne International Comedy Festival interview

As someone who thrives on being meticulously organised and methodical on finishing tasks, the description for Lou Wall's Melbourne International Comedy Festival show sent shivers running down my spine. In 18 years, Wall as amassed an unfinished to-do list of 923 items. And they have been haunting her. In Lousical the Musical, she sets about finally checking these items off her list.

The number might be extreme, but Wall assures me that it is not as horrific as I imagine it to be and she is optimistic of culling the list down to zero. "I promise it’s not as bad as it sounds! I have been making to-do lists since 2002 - when I was 5 years old. So naturally there are lists from the early 2000s that have totally meaningless tasks on them such as “find a toy for show and tell” and “pray for grandma”," she recalls. "Then I’d say there are roughly 500 tasks that I haven’t completed but are no longer relevant, for example from Year 12: “Get a 99 ATAR” and “research biomed uni courses”. That leaves me with 200-ish left to get done – I will be completing all of these in the show. Although this seems as if it's a super chaotic existence, I am a perfectionist and I strive towards a high level of organisation, at any one time I don’t think I’d have more than 10 pressing things to do."

Shark Heist | Melbourne International Comedy Festival interview

If you've never attended a Cam Venn show, you are definitely in for a wild ride. If you have, you may have an inkling of what's coming, but even then you should proceed with caution. Returning with a new show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Golden Gibbo Winner presents an action-packed tale revolving around a precious jewel, a killer shark and a retired thief back for one final job to beguile his audience with. Welcome to Shark Heist.

“Shark Heist is your archetypal hero’s journey of an ex-thief doing one last heist to try and get his best friend, a great white shark, back," Venn tells me. "An audience member described it to me as “like recreating the movie you just saw in the lounge room with your mates” and I love that. There's plenty to be entertained with, and you can expect lasers, intense montages to music, and the world’s biggest diamond."

The Bride - Melbourne International Comedy Festival preview

Here comes the bride, all dressed in white. Your wedding should be one of the most memorable days of your life but for comedian Nadia Collins, this is most definitely not the case. In her new show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, , Collins finds herself in a predicament that has her facing a transformation that she never thought possible. Blending physical theatre into an immersive environment, The Bride will have audiences eagerly waiting till the very end if she makes it to the altar.

Collins' The Bride was inspired by Franz Kafka's novel The Metamorphosis, where a salesman wakes up one morning to see he has been turned into an insect. "My show however is about a bride who turns into a cockroach on her hen’s night. I’ve always been interested in The Metamorphosis as a story and the themes it raises. I love the idea that deep down we’re all cockroaches," she says.