NINA CONTI - EVOLUTIONLast year, UK ventriloquist Nina Conti blew me away (and became the first ever co-winner of the Barry Award) with her amazing show, Complete and Utter Conti. This year the Scottish-Italian comedian is back with a brand new show, Evolution, which picks off where last year's show left off - literally.
If you haven't seen Conti before, prepare to be amazed. Coupled with her foul-mouthed sidekick Monkey, and a few other puppets to flesh out the act, she's one hell of a performer.
While Evolution didn't feel as polished and as perfect as Complete and Utter Conti, it's still hilarious, with some great routines - such as a sequence where Conti blackmails her father, the actor Tom Conti, into allowing himself to appear in the show - and another, perfectly realised gag where Monkey hypnotises Nina on a pyschoanalytic couch. Good fun, and definitely recommended.
Rating: *** 1/2
DAVE BUSHELL - LET THE KID GODelightful Melbourne comedian Dave Bushell's new show Let the Boy Go could just as easily be called Let Her Go, Boy, given that it's as much concerned with his attempts to win back an ex-girlfriend as it is with his varied experiences travelling overseas. Bushell's charismatic, high-energy performance had me in stitches as he talked about his, erm, colourful experiences in Barcelona, drug adventures, game show stints and romance. Much fun.
Rating: ***
JEFF GREEN - LIVING THE DREAMBritish comedian Jeff Green met and fell in love with a Melbourne girl at the Comedy Festival 10 years ago, so his new show Living the Dream goes well beyond the shallow observational humour about Australia that many UK and US comics employ in their festival shows. Instead, Green waxes cynical about suburban life in Heidleberg, about visiting Northland Shopping Centre on 'Ugly Day' (I think it's always Ugly Day at Northland to be honest), and jokes about his wife and kids in a way that's simultaneously old fashioned yet dry and endearing. More of an occasional chuckle sort of show rather than constant hilarity, but still extremely engaging.
Rating: ***
DES BISHOP - DESFUNCTIONAL
New York born, Irish resident Des Bishop is famous at home in Ireland, but has a much lower profile here, which isn't really surprising given that he only appeared at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for the first time last year. Based on what I've seen of his shows last year and this year though, that should soon change.
In his new show, Desfunctional, this charismatic comedian talks about such serious subjects as men and their emotions, and the impact of Obama's election; but he also jokes about getting blowjobs from Leprechauns, and ends the show with a killer rap about white Australian history (which you may have seen on this year's Comedy Gala on Channel 10, and which you can also see over on Des' website). Very likeable, very funny - and pretty cute, too!
Rating: *** 1/2
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