MICF 2010: Asher Treleaven - Secret Door

Opening with incense and Indian music, Asher Treleaven’s audience could well be forgiven for thinking that the gifted and gangly comedian was about to induct them into a cult. Instead, resplendent in a white suit, Treleaven takes the audience on a hilarious tour through the knuckle-dragging world of Australian masculinity, complete with a slide show featuring ‘Poisonous Personalities of the Day’ (Senator Steve Fielding, take a bow).

From a satirical take on the tired dick jokes which are as close as some comedians get to enlightened sexual politics, and Treleaven’s absurd advice – inspired by our native fauna – on how to avoid a fight, through to a good cop/bad cop take on cunnilingus, there is not a flat moment in this entire show. Subtly expressed and perfectly timed physical comedy underlines Treleaven’s quick wit and keen intelligence. Cerebral, sublime and wonderful work from a comedian at the top of his game.

Five stars

Asher Treleaven - Cellar Door
Tues-Sat 9.45pm, Sun 8.45pm
Melbourne Town Hall
$18 - $24

This review originally appeared in The Age on Tuesday March 30.

More Comedy Festival reviews

The 2008 Melbourne International Comedy Festival continues apace. I shall probably die at the end of it. Or collapse of liver failure. Or something.

SHANE WARNE THE MUSICAL - a work in progress
Eddie Perfect's musical tribute to the boofhead bad-boy of Australian cricket is having five run-throughs at the Comedy Festival. Judging from what I saw on Friday, it needs them. The show's too long, and its narrative needs work, especially in the second act. It doesn't seem to have a real ending, and unless you're a cricket tragic, there's a lot to slog through before you get to the SMS and diet pill scandals ,which I suspect are what most people will be waiting for - I'd suggest opening with a taste of the doom that is to come, then present the first act in flashback, in order to get around that. Nor was I all that impressed with the songs to be honest: too long and not catchy enough. On the positive side, Perfect is a charismatic performer, matched with a strong cast - particularly the woman who plays Simone, his long-suffering wife - her second-act torchsong suddenly revealed an all-too-human heart beating beneath the show's satirical epidermis. It will be interesting to see how much the show is altered after this development process is completed...
Two occasional chuckles out of five.


The Hound of the Baskervilles in Every Film Ever Made
Fast-paced and very funny, this show manages to both satirise and celebrate cinema in a way that provokes hoots of laughter, thanks to its three irreverent and charismatic performers and their obvious love for the films that they're acting out. Simple props, great banter and deft physicality ensure a rib-tickling time for hardcore film buffs and popcorn-lovers both, although some obvious ad-libbing occasionally detracted from the show's tight pacing. Definitely one to catch; especially if you missed it in Fringe last year.
Three and a half hearty guffaws out of five


Asher Treleaven - Cellar Door
In which some truly awful literature is mocked for the public's edification and amusement by a charismatic performer with an endearingly floppy fringe and a droll, dramatic delivery. The only problem is, we already know this stuff is bad; we don't really need Treleaven to further skewer it for us. A solid performer, but it felt a bit like he wasn't really challenging himself with this particular show...
Three snickers out of five.


Anthony Menchetti in Gay Conversion School Drop Out Volume 2
A stand-up show about what happens when you put a group of sexually frustrated gay men in a room together in an attempt to try and 'cure' them of their same-sex attraction. Menchetti is a solid, engaging performer, and many of his stories are genuinely funny. Unfortunately the show seems almost over-produced, with too many props and gimmicks cluttering the stage and slowing down the pacing, requiring Menchetti having to strain in order to achieve the tempo he's aiming for.
Three knowing chuckles out of five.


Allsop & Henderson's The Jinglists
This talented pair of performers were last seen in the delightfully deranged sketch-comedy, A Porthole into the Minds of the Vanquished at the 2006 festival. In this new theatre piece, they give us a glimpse instead into the heads of two agrophobic jingle-writers, trapped inside their small apartment together and acting very strangely indeed. Characterisations are superb, as is timing, set design and musical interludes. Sadly the show's ending felt somewhat anti-climactic, but I'd still recommend this show highly if you like your comedy lunatic, emotive and sweetly grotesque.
Three and a half bouts of manic hilarity out of five.

And the Comedy Festival nominees are...

2008 Comedy Festival award winners.

As is traditional, the shortlist for this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival Barry Award (for the most outstanding show) and the Golden Gibbo (awarded to a local, independent show that bucks trends and pursues the artist's idea more strongly than it pursues any commercial lure) were announced late last night, the second last Saturday of the festival.

The 2009 Barry Award nominees are:

The Pajama Men - Versus vs Versus

1000 Years of German Humour

Sarah Millican - Sarah Millican's Not Nice

Wilson Dixon Rides Again

Otis Lee Crenshaw featuring Special Guest Rich Hall

Tim Minchin - Ready for This?

Asher Treleaven - Open Door


The 2009 Golden Gibbo nominees are:

Wes Snelling - Kiosk

Randy's Postcards from Purgatory

The List Operators

Rob Hunter - Moosecow

Tom Ballard Is What He Is

Vigilantelope - Tale of the Golden Lease

The awards proper - together with the comedian-voted award The Piece of Wood, The Age Critics Award for the Best Local Comedian, and The Melbourne Airoprt Best Newcomer Award - will be announced next Saturday night, April 25th.

More at MICF 2010

So it's Sunday April 11, and in 20 minutes time I'm off to a mate's place to watch the second episode of season five, aka season 31 of Doctor Who, 'The Beast Below'. Very excited indeed. But since I've got a quiet 20 minutes, I thought I mightly quickly update this blog with some micro-reviews of more of the shows I've been seeing at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

I've seen 29 shows to date, which is not as many as I would have seen this time two or three years ago, when I was a Barry Award judge, but it's still a healthy number, and for the most part I've enjoyed almost everything I've seen.

As you'll have noticed I've been posting my reviews on this here blog once they've appeared in The Age, but since there's a few more shows I've seen just for pleasure, rather than for official reviewing purposes, I figured now's the time to quickly review some of them, too. Here's the first three, with another five to come when I find the time!

Ali McGregor's Late Night Variety Hour

The perfect late night show, the Variety Hour is hosted and programmed by the charming Ms McGregor, herself a talented multi-instrumentalist and soprano, who treats the audience to some of her vocal stylings throughout the evening. Ably assisted by her butler, Saxon McAllistair (Barry Award nominee Asher Treleaven), Ali presents a selection of festival acts doing their thing. It's similar to what you might see in the Festival Club, only more focussed and less drunken.

As well as Saxon's charming interpretive dance, on the night I attended we were treated to the hilarious fumblings of Swedish magician Carl-Einar Häckner, rocking Irish lads Dead Cat Bounce, queer stand up Tom Ballard, and joy of joys, the brilliant The Pyjama Men, who once again reduced me to helpless hoots of mirth.

A great selection of acts, each well worth investigating on their own, but packaged into one show, with the velvet-voiced McGregor as MC, simply superb.

Four stars

SVETA DOBRANOCH & THE BROWN BEARS - FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

The seductive alter-ego of Simoncee Page Jones, Sveta Dobranoch is a diminutive powerhouse of passion, drama, satire and song. In this one-hour show, Sveta - accompanied by The Brown Bears (the boys from The Suitcase Royale wearing furry-eared hats) - tells us her remarkable life story, demonstrates her remarkable vocal range, and flirts outrageously with certain lucky audience members. Me, I got to lick a crushed strawberry off one of her breasts - a rare honour indeed! All in all, a remarkable and hilarious show, which culminated in a standing ovation from the audience: the only time I've ever seen this occur at a Comedy Festival show. As my friend and colleague Liam Pieper writes over at RHUM, 'Dobranoch is amazing; a diminutive, tempestuous force of nature, a thing of pure soviet kitch and high-velocity promiscuity.' SEE THIS SHOW!

Four and a half stars

DES BISHOP - MY DAD WAS NEARLY JAMES BOND

This is the third year in a row that engaging American-Irish performer Des Bishop has visited the Melbourne International Comedy Festival; but without doubt, this is his best show yet. Inspired by his father's terminal lung cancer, Des has wrought a show which explores father-son relationships (indeed parent-child relationships of all kinds), masculine fears and insecurities, and his dad's former acting career - which Bishop senior abandoned for a more financially stable career when Des was born - as well as lighter material about porn, adolescence, colourful Irish expressions, and the timeless appeal of B-grade movies. It's a defly written, cleverly constructed and extremely engaging show. Both poignant and hilarious, My Father Was Nearly James Bond is highly recommened.

Four stars

Things at Fringe (3)

Mea culpa, mea culpa - the insanity which has been work over the past week and a half (ie creating a brand new fortnightly LGBT arts and entertainment magazine from the ground up within a single week) , plus planning for a very short notice trip to Copenhagen tomorrow (which I had less than a fortnight's notice of!) means that I haven't had time to blog regularly. For that matter I haven't had the time to see as many shows as I'd planned to either, dammit.

Enough with the excuses though...


THE LIST OPERATORS

This two-man comedy show, built around a series of lists such as '10 alternate ways to start the show' and 'Members of the audience we'd like to do 'sex' with' was funny, engaging, and only very occasionally strained. Matt Kelly and Rich Higgins are already strong performers, with good rapport and an excellent 'warmly daggy' and 'sardonic straight man' vibe going on: given another year or two honing their writing and performance skills, they'll be amazing.

Three constant chortles out of five.


SCATTERED TACKS

Oh. My. God. This show was amazing - definitely my pick as the best show I've seen in the Fringe so far. To call it 'just circus' would be like saying J.R.R Tolkien was 'just' a fantasy writer. A complex and intense show that played with ambient sound, lighting, comedy, fragility and one's sense of smell, as well as providing moments of tension, awe and sheer joy, and which I wholeheartedly recommend you see before it closes this Sunday. Promise me you will?

Four and a half gasps of awed delight out of five.


NZAMBI NZAMBI

A deliberately low-fi, shlocky horror-comedy about a group of students making a film in a suspiciously abandoned Tasmanian town. Cue secret affairs, Evil Dead-style shennanigans, and attacking zombies. Not a great show - if nothing else it needed more blood - but certainly a fun one - and at only half an hour, what's not to like?

Two and a half hoots of mirth out of five.


I DREAM ANGUS

Though occasionally too self indulgent and self conciously intellectual for my tastes, there was much I enjoyed about this one-woman show at the Croft Institute. Inspired by a Celtic myth about the god who gives us our dreams, this show incorporated dance, performance and video projection to sometimes stunning effect: such as a sequence when a young woman danced (on stage) in awkward sync with her idealised self (projected behind her) at a party. The stories of a series of characters, including the god himself, were never quite as fully realised as they needed to be, which resulted in a lack of clarity and lucidity; but ultimately I Dream Angus conveyed both longing and dream-state confusion, and so in my book at least, was ultimately successful.

Three chin-stroking contemplative moments out of five.


SAMMY J - THE 50 YEAR SHOW

Sadly, because of work commitments, I arrived late at this show in the festival club, and had to leave early to judge So You Drink? You Can Dance! at the Bella Union Bar, but what I saw, including Asher Treleaven's fashion tips, Sammy J's songs, Heath McIvor's puppetry, and Adam Hill's interactive crossword puzzle segment (thanks Adam - now I have be a column every five years until I'm 91) was as hilarious as it was shambolic. I'm so there in 2012 or is that 2013? I so failed maths in Year Nine!

Three and a half gales of laughter out of five.


Then there's also been The League of Shideshow Superstars. the Fringe Festival Trivia Challenge to the rest of Melbourne's arts and cultural organisations (won - again - by the increasingly bloated Comedy Festival team not that I'm jealous or anything), some stunning gigs and films in the festival club, and more more more. My wholehearted and utterly unbiased congratulations to the Fringe team - luv yr work!

Sadly I have to fly out to Copenhagen this Wednesday night (indeed, I should be packing instead of blogging), which means I'll miss the final weekend of Fringe frivolity and madness - but fuck it's been a good festival this year!