MAN ABOUT TOWN

I caught a media preview of the new Australian film Animal Kingdom last Friday, and am delighted to report that it lives up to all the praise that's been heaped on it since screening at Sundance (where it won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema - Dramatic). My full review of the film is up at Arts Hub , but here's the gist of the piece: 'At the centre of the film is the softly spoken teenage protagonist Joshua ‘J’ Cody (newcomer James Frecheville), thrust into a world of crime following his mother’s sudden death. “Mum kept me away from her family, because she was scared,” the teenager comments in voice-over, and we soon learn why. Joshua’s uncles – brooding armed robber Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody (a cold-eyed Ben Mendelsohn), speed-freak drug dealer Craig Cody (Sullivan Stapleton) and the youngest of the three brothers, Darren Cody (Luke Ford) – are career criminals whose lives revolve around their ferociously loving, totally uncompromising mother, Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (...

I'm trying to give up drinking at the moment, and to be honest, I'm finding it pretty hard going. After the abject failure which was my attempt at FebFast , I realised I actually had a fairly significant problem with alcohol, so consequently three weeks ago I enlisted professional help by consulting the Turning Point Drug & Alcohol Centre in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy. After my first meeting with a GP there, and regular home visits from a nurse, things started well: my first week of trying not to drink I had four days off the grog - at least a 10 year record - and the following week I was alcohol-free for six days: a personal best, given that I started drinking at about 13, when my parents introduced the idea of half a glass of wine at dinner in an attempt to convey the concept of sensible drinking (I think the plan backfired - it probably hard-wired a liking for booze into my adolescent brain, and as a concept would certainly be frowned upon today). I also managed not to dr...

I saw the new iteration of Robin Hood at the on Monday night. I was less than impressed. Here's an extract of the review I wrote for Arts Hub : 'Unfortunately for audiences, there is little to recommend in this latest version of Robin Hood . As with the trend in comic books to render once glittering, larger-than-life icons like Batman and Superman into gritty and angst-ridden contemporary characters, in making this account of the outlaw’s life ‘realistic’, the filmmakers have lost the original sparkle and romance of the legend. The story sags under a barrage of unnecessary details, such as Robin’s discovery that his late father was responsible for drafting the Magna Carta (anyone with an eye for historical accuracy will be grinding their teeth in frustration by the final moments of the film’s 140-minute running time) and the hodge-potch of politics, revisionism and family angst considerably impacts on the pacing, with the film really only finding its feet in the fi...

Despite its unusual premise – the 193 cm, 110 kilo Breen locked himself in a small bathroom for 48 hours in order to generate the material for this show – at its heart, Personal Space is about the disconnect between our childhood dreams and our adult lives; a comic contemplation on whether there’s still room for fantasy and imagination in our fast-paced urban existence. The likeable, larrikin Breen best illustrates this concept with some charmingly slapdash puppetry and a rib-tickling anecdote about a disappointing visit to Tasmania ’s Seahorse World. Additional observations about a haphazardly-organised teenage camping trip; his Queensland childhood; and a Where the Wild Things Are- inspired story about imaginary friends are equally entertaining. While his segues are sometimes abrupt, and his material (unlike its genesis) is rarely adventurous, Breen's confident delivery, energy and obvious delight in his work are infectious, resulting in an evening of solidy entertaining...

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, ...

A comic exploration of political struggle, First Against the Wall is the latest cabaret show from the Green Room Award nominated Karin Muiznieks. Accompanied by her sister Emma on drums, French horn and guitar, and pianist Rowland Brache, Muiznieks sings her way through an exploration of the class system and her plans for a benign dictatorship - intended to save us from the impending robot apocalypse. Muiznieks is an engaging and charismatic performer, and connects best with the audience when she is directly presenting her theories about feudalism and capitalism via a series of flip-chart cartoons. Some of her songs, such as 'Yard Sale' didn't seem essential to the narrative, and felt occasionally constrained by the limitations of the small Butterfly Club stage. On opening night the show also felt under-rehearsed, whicvh detracted from Muiznieks' obvious talent, ably displayed in songs such as 'Peter' (a satirical exploration of Peter Garrett's political ca...

Despite strong performances, this 'Southside Story’ about a bayside suburb whose mayor has banned musical theatre productions in order to address the scourge of roaming music-theatre gangs, fails to sustain its charm over a one-hour running time . After a dramatic opening, which successfully transforms the intimate confines of the Butterfly Club into a war zone, we’re quickly introduced to Gerard and Adrian, two gay-acting straight boys, one of whom is still carrying a torch for his former girlfriend, the musical-hating mayor, Ms Craig. From this point the narrative - expanded from an original, award-winning 10 minute production - quickly becomes laboured, and a series of jokes involving Dermot Brereton, tracksuits and poisoned cask wine fail to slow its descent into incoherence . Despite some clever pastiches of existing songs (such as the rapped break-up song ‘Franga Woman’, and a reworked version of Oklahoma ’s ‘The Farmer and the Cowman’ which posits that ‘the copper and ...

Twenty year old Tom Ballard promises his audiences two things in Cogito Ergo Some Funny : an hour of jokes unfettered by an over-arching narrative, and an account of the worst thing he ever did. The recipient of the Best Newcomer Award at last year’s festival, Ballard delivers admirably on both counts. Cogito Ergo Some Funny is a reworked, retitled version of his 2009 Melbourne Fringe show, and opens with a spectacular, high energy routine. Thereafter Ballard launches into a series of unconnected jokes exploring religion, racism and sexual orientation, as well as lighter material about Facebook, iPhones and masturbation. An accomplished comic at a relatively young age, Ballard sometimes seems defensive when gags fail to get the laughs he thinks they deserve; and some material that was fresh at Fringe, such as a routine about Melbourne’s Southern Star Observation Wheel, feels slightly dated. Nonetheless, Ballard’s frankness, wit and fresh perspective ensure abundant laughs and ga...

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 ...

Fear of a Brown Planet 's Nazeem Hussain and Aamer Rahman are not your average stand-up comedians, and while their material can venture into familiar territory, their observations on pop culture and current affairs are given a refreshing twist. Hussain and Rahman are of Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi heritage respectively, and their stand-up routines reflect and celebrate that difference. For this year's show, performed in the bastion of privilege that is the council chambers at Melbourne Town Hall, the pair tackle everything from the lack of brown faces on Australian television (except on tabloid reality TV show Border Security , which we learn is watched obsessively by Rahman's mum) and the war on terror, to race-related violence. "Melbourne, the third-most liveable city in the world - if you're not Indian," quips Hussain. Deliciously barbed comedy that cuts close to the bone. Three and a half stars Nazeem Hussain & Aamer Rahman - Fear of a Brown Planet Retu...

This one-man show about footy and compassion is a sequel to Callinan’s Barry Award-nominated 2001 production Sportsman’s Night , and again sees him playing multiple roles, including the blustering club President of the Bodgy Creek Roosters, Bull Barlow; the club’s Captain Coach Troy Carrington; and aspiring young filmmaker Neil Barlow, through whose lens we see much of the show unfold. Things are looking bad for the Roosters, who have won Carbon Neutral Football Club of the Year but are struggling to field a team. Can an influx of new blood save them from the ignominious fate of a merger with traditional rivals, Hudson’s Flat? A versatile performer with a great grasp of stage craft, Callinan acknowledges his audience without bullying or humiliating them. The show’s structure is slightly repetitive, but Callinan’s comedy skills shine through, resulting in a compelling production which will be enjoyed by fans of footy and social justice alike. Three and half stars Damian Calli...

Antidotes to pedestrian stand-up can be found across the Comedy Festival, but few are more refreshingly strange than Stevl Shefn and His Translator Fatima , the brainchild of 2003 Raw Comedy winner Steve Sheehan. As the be-suited Shefn, Sheehan is a socially awkward yet enthusiastic stranger who tells increasingly surreal stories in an unknown language. The mellifluous, burqa-clad Fatima (Colleen Cross) translates his every word. Or does she? Laughter is initially generated by Shefn’s babbled tirades and Fatima’s concise summaries of what is said, but gradually this one-note joke is layered and developed in wryly humorous ways. Stories of Shefn’s hermaphrodite lover and his mother’s adult shop segue abruptly into increasingly absurd routines about swinging cats and animal housemates. Sheehan’s subtle clowning, precise physical comedy, and an array of props generate additional laughs. The show’s highlight is a twice-translated gag involving Shefn’s girlfriend, a vacuum cleaner. A compel...

A vulgar, vivacious cabaret, When the Sex Has Gone is the story of two personalities inhabiting the one hermaphroditic body: Charlie, a fabulously foul-mouthed stripper who describes her multi-gendered body as something Picasso might have painted in his abstract years; and Alastair, an aggressive young boxer (and the slightly less engaging of the two characters). This unlikely individual is compellingly played by Tommy Bradson, a singer and performer with a voice like chilli chocolate – rich, dark and spicy – accompanied by Boris (composer Jacqueline Morton) on piano. Through dramatic monologues and original songs such as ‘Blowjob for Breakfast’ and ‘It’s Lingerie’, Bradson guides us through Charlie/Alastair’s lurid world of lost love and tragedy. His dialogue was occasionally rushed (perhaps as a result of having to condense what was initially a much longer show to a more compact whole) and a noisy air conditioner sometimes drowned out the quieter moments, but Bradson is a comp...

Local comedy troupe Vigilantelope wowed audiences in 2009 with their exuberant, pun-filled Tale of the Golden Lease , a clever series of sketches and 80s-style dance routines constructed around a fantastically improbable McGuffin-driven plot. Last year’s show concerned time travel, an epic chase and hell hounds. This year’s show features time travel, an epic chase and a marauding cyborg army. See where I’m going with this? Prophecy of the Quantum Child features many of the elements Vigilantelope used so successfully in their first production, but like a Hollywood sequel, the second time around it all feels slightly stale. It’s also undercooked; more development is needed to speed up the story and cut the weaker gags. Nonetheless, audiences unfamiliar with Vigilantelope’s shtick should be entertained, though not challenged, by this science fiction confectionary of wordplay, warring tribes, killer cyborgs and a doesn’t matter hole (like a black hole, but worse). Three stars ...

Subtitled ‘ A musical that proves beauty is only skin thick ’ this wonderfully grotesque romp takes place in the suburban beauty salon that time and taste forgot. Lorraine (Andrea Powell) rules over her fading empire with an iron fist, but when celebrity hairdresser Pam Panache (played at different times by all the cast) attempts to buy the business out from under her, it takes all Lorraine’s cunning, and the dim-witted assistance of her bogan sidekick Jade (Geraldine Hickey) and best friend Val (Scott Brennan) to try and stop the developers. Double entendres, bad puns, appalling rhymes and gleeful exposition litter this deliberately trashy production, which is as subtle as a John Waters film, and just as entertaining. Hickey in particular impresses with her perfect timing and deadpan performance. Subtle and original this show isn’t (the trope of the stupidly clever sidekick has been done to death), but if you’ve got a hankering for camp and over the top comedy, Lorraine’s Hair & F...

US comedian Jamie Kilstein is a compact bundle of political fury – a Chihuahua with a pit bull’s temper whose humorous tirades are squarely aimed at politicians at both ends of the political spectrum. Former US President Bush cops a serve, with Kilstein comparing him to an abusive ex-boyfriend, but nor does Obama get off lightly. “You have to question your leaders,” Kilstein manically exhorts. Not everyone will get all his references, such as a joke about Republican pin-up girl Ayn Rand, but other gags – such as his comparison of the military’s drone bombers to every dystopian science fiction film ever made – hit dead on. Routines about the Religious Right’s homophobia, the ‘Christian side-hug’, and the Ten Commandments of Kilstein’s newly created Church of the Smiling Vagina are all strong, but it’s when he winds down the pace to reflect on his own faults that Kilstein is at his most engaging. Four stars Jamie Kilstein - Revenge of the Serfs Victoria Hotel until ...

At 10.30am today myself and three colleagues - three of us queer, coincidentally, and three - though not the same three - serious Doctor Who fans - sat down in a VIP suite at ABC Television's Elsternwick studios for a preview screening of Matt Smith's first proper outing as the Eleventh Doctor. I've spent the last few hours alternating between gleeful joy, critical thought, and wondering how best to post a review without including major spoilers. Let's give it a whirl, shall we? But before we go any further, it must be said: MILD SPOILERS LIE AHEAD if you know nothing about the new episode. That said I won't be describing plot details, rest assured. * * * Written by new showrunner Steven Moffat, the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who begins pretty much where The End of Time Part Two left off, with the TARDIS out of control and the Doctor (Matt Smith) very recently regenerated. Very much a new man, Smith's Doctor spends much of the episode discoverin...

A man walks into a shop and is touched up by the shop assistant. So begins this surreal exploration of masculinity and men’s insecurities by Sam Simmons and David Quirk. Not for the easily offended – there’s mimed masturbation, swearing, and sexual references aplenty – The Incident successfully uses adult-themed humour to mock men’s sexual obsessions, not celebrate them. Nor is this a comedy show for audiences who are seeking undemanding stand-up. Instead, this collaborative production fuses Simmons’ unpredictable absurdist humour with Quirk’s pitch-black observational comedy, to great success. Braggadocio, boys and their toys, and buddy movies all cop a serve, interspersed with mock ad breaks and a satirical take on current affairs; but the show is at its best when Quirk and Simmons crash through the divide which separates homo-social behaviour from homosexual activity, to frankly explore the difference between mates and mating. Male bonding has never been funnier. Four s...

A new initiative at this year’s Comedy Festival, Headliners features a rotating triple bill of US comedians, reflecting American comedy traditions, where individual 20 minute sets rather than one hour shows are the norm. Opening Saturday’s proceedings was Todd Barry, a master of the Pinteresque pause, whose dry wit occasionally baffled the crowd but whose material – ranging from the enviable ability of Swedes to create new English words, through to a gag about lemongrass-scented deodorant – was always incisive. Next was the endearing John Mulaney. His professed fear of possums resulted in a protracted exchange with the audience and generated gales of laughter. Mulaney’s observations on pop culture, from the success of Avatar to a childhood jukebox incident, were equally well received. Making his Melbourne debut, rockabilly comic Greg Behrendt wrapped up the evening with a splendid series of anecdotes about aging and relationships. At Headliners , gales of laughter ar...

Self-described ‘Lego-haired English shit’ Russell Kane arrived on stage over 20 minutes late due to a curtain malfunction, and after apologising, launched into a series of anecdotes and observations so quickly delivered they almost collided coming out of his mouth. His manic delivery continued as Kane juggled observations connected to his theory of ‘human dressage’, the social training which conditions our behaviour – especially where dating is concerned. From generational and class differences to emotional literacy and reality TV, Kane presented a bewildering array of topics to support his theory, and at least half the room responded well to his shtick. Unfortunately the laughs faltered when Kane’s argument became bogged down by tangential material, such as observations about English regional accents, which failed to translate locally. A lack of research into Australia’s binge drinking culture further detracted. The hyperactive Kane needs to slow his delivery down for his material to...