MICF 2010: Anyone for Tennis?

The third Comedy Festival show from Anyone for Tennis? sees this Melbourne duo abandon the narrative structure of last year’s Cutthroat in favour of a random series of sketches and comic songs. The result is a Pythonesque collection of ideas that leaps madly from penguins to time portals, and from copyright dramas to the plague.

In songs such as ‘Future Wife’, a clever pairing of masculine insecurities and feminist leanings, the pair sing about the thought of some other man having sex with the women they will one day marry; while ‘Five Cent Effect’ is a cleverly structured exploration of chaos theory. The pair’s strong gag writing skills, chemistry and comic timing are showcased in sketches exploring speed dating and competitive sleeping, although some sketches, such as those about prison and verbal graffiti, drag on too long. Such minor faults aside, Anyone for Tennis? are goofily endearing, and damn good fun.

Three and a half stars

Anyone for Tennis? - Abacus Birdcage Gramaphone Lamp
The Portland Hotel until April 18
Tue-Sat 8.30pm, Sun 7.30pm
$16 - $20

This review originally appeared in The Age on Thursday April 8.