This next lot of reviews will perforce be brief, in order to get through several of them in the one post before I head off to the ANZAC Day game between Collingwood and Essendon. Go Pies!
Kim Hope in Rollercoaster. An entertaining night of stand-up with an edge. Hope's delivery is never less than sharp, incisive and hilarious, and even as the show takes a turn into darker territory, dealing with the vagaries of alcohol and depression, this laudable comedian keeps the laughs coming with her intelligent and audacious comedy. From pitch-perfect evocations of 1970s dinner parties to a hyper-animated discussion of ways to pick up men, Hope's show is not always hilarious; the London-based section of the show could be a little tighter; but when she hits her mark she'll have you in stitches. The greatest problem with this show was that the brave material (and I know that's a cliche but in this instance its fucking appropriate) is not always suited to what is essentially a fairly mainstream festival that attracts a very suburban crowd. Performed in the Fringe Festival, Rollercoaster would be winning greater acclaim and attracting larger houses. I definitely recommend it. Three awed silences followed by shrieks of mirth out of five. (Portland Hotel til April 29)
Alison Bice in The Wizard of Bice. A Moosehead award-winner, Alison Bice's festival show this years shows real promise - Bice has a wonderfully dry delivery and stage presence - but overall fails to work for two main reasons. Much of the material is structured around her interaction with pre-recorded video segments, during which, partially for timing reasons, all the energy drops out of the show. She's also too caught up in in-jokes about other comedians, and if you don't know who they are, or about their reputations, then too much of the show is going to leave you scratching your head. A worthy but largely unsuccessful production. Two forced laughs out of five. (Town Hall til April 29)
David O'Doherty is my name. Yawn. Another bland international Irish comedian whose middle-of-the-road humour was lapped up by a sychophantic crowd. To be fair, the night I saw O'Doherty he was getting over the flu, so had little energy in his performance, but even then the majority of his material left me cold. When he sat down to sing his twisted little songs I started to enjoy myself, but these only punctuate his material sporadically, and his actual standup struck me as tedious, in all honesty. Two and a half occasional chuckles out of five. (HiFi Bar til April 29)
Thank god for someone like Sam Simmons in the Sex and Science of Boredom. In a sea of middle-of-the-road stand-up, his surreal, unpredictable humour had me in stitches. Exploring the versatility of bread, how to maintain your inflatable pool, and bringing new life to lint and slideshows, Simmons is definitely not everyone's cup of lukewarm tea. Given that I hate tea of any sort, I adored this show, and definately recommend it to anyone seeking more challenging or creative comedy at the festival this year. Three and half howls of laughter out of five. (Bosco Theatre @ Federation Square til April 29)
3 comments:
loved kim's comment on dating: "i'm actually seeing someone my own age.... nah, it's really two 18 year-olds gaffered together".
Beautiful work on being named Chair of Melbourne Fringe!
With a chair, that boardroom only needs a dresser and some doilies...and it's complete!
I had two people try and turn me off Sam Simmons' show on the tram one night. They were exactly the type of people he had sang about in his song "I HATE!" (private school kids in pink polos with the collars turned up.)
I am going to miss going to see Janet in the booth every day.
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