Poor, much ignored blog: the least I could do is update you with a list of all my
Age reviews from this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, so that they're all easily accessible in the one place. Here you go:
The Tim Vine Chat Show
A dad joke generator turned up to 11, the prop-swinging, pun-slinging UK
comedian Tim Vine takes the Parkinson route in this entertaining but
unchallenging show, in which interviews with audience members become the
inspiration for more quick-witted quips drawn from his encyclopaedic
memory.
Adrienne Truscott's Asking for It: A One-Lady Rape About Comedy Starring Her Pussy and Little Else!
Fallacies about consent and startling lessons concerning the birds and
the bees – or more specifically, ducks and gerbils – are provocatively
and intelligently explored in this debut stand-up show from US cabaret
artist and acrobat Adrienne Truscott.
Geraldine Quinn's MDMA: Modern Day Maiden Aunt
Comedian and cabaret artist Geraldine Quinn is unmarried, approaching 40, and fond of a drink. Instead of children she has 19 nieces and nephews, whom she adores, despite their tendency to over-share on social media. In the beautifully pitched
Modern Day Maiden Aunt, a
bittersweet blend of self-deprecation, family dysfunction and sardonic
wit set to music, Quinn does some over-sharing of her own, to hilarious
effect.
Read full review here.
Laura Davis - Pillow of Strength
A significant gulf sometimes separates ‘love’ from ‘like’, a distance
which Laura Davis attempts to bridge in her latest stand-up show.
Originally from Perth, where she won the Best WA Comedy award at
Fringeworld last year, Davis is now based in Melbourne; thankfully her
material steers clear of banal comparisons between the two cities in
favour of exploring wounds both physical and psychological.
Damien Power - Keit
From a gun-happy father-in-law and his own dad's peculiar anger
management issues, to a relationship with a "crazy" Estonian woman which
culminates in his son's birth, Queenslander Damien Power's new show has
a distinctly domestic focus.
Read full review here.
Stella Young - Tales from the Crip
Journalist and disability activist Stella Young opens her show with a
clever inversion of existing power structures in order to give ‘normal’
audience members a taste of what it’s like to be constantly belittled.
Read full review here.
Felicity Ward - The Iceberg
As well as being one of our best comedians, Ward is also a proficient actor, a skill she makes memorable use of in The Iceberg.
This tightly written show is aptly named: what we see is an engaging
performance; the hard work beneath the surface, the carefully connected
structure of routines and callbacks, is cleverly concealed.
Ben Pobjie - Trigger Warning
Few comedy shows begin with a recorded voiceover warning about being
''gently stroked by the fingers of a fat man'', but Ben Pobjie isn't
your typical comedian.
Clive Palmer’s weight; Ian Thorpe’s sexuality – the targets of Suns of
Fred’s jokes are neither original nor inspired. This slick but soulless
musical act have well synchronised moves, melodious voices, confidence
and chemistry; all that’s lacking is material to match the quality of
their performance skills.
