Dave Warneke likes lots of things. He likes pies and bass guitar. He’s very fond of George, the keyboard zebra he has tattooed on his arm. But most of all, Dave Warneke likes facts.
The small room at the Tuxedo Cat is packed. Even allowing for a few of Warneke’s friends, roped in for media night, it’s an impressive turn-out. The crowd are not disappointed. The laugh count in this show is up there with some of the big name acts. Warnake is funny; proper laugh-out-loud funny.
In the intro he explains …

One would expect Celebrity theatresports to be a collection of well known faces. The  judges for the night’s proceedings (ABC2’s Kristy Best, Noni Hazelhurst and Circus Quirkus’ clown, Christof) were about as recognisable as it got.
On stage, Canadian improv queen Patty Stiles was joined by Rik Brown (Foxtel’s Comedy Smackdown), Lliam Arbor (George Pappas on Neighbours) and Nicola Parry (Thank God You’re Here). Otherwise, although highly talented, the many others assembled on stage were not the expected “celebs”.
The more-than-able host of the night was Patrick Duffy, a New Zealand improv veteran- who …

Attending a Sanderson Jones performance is a bit like being invited to a game of Trivial Pursuit, only to be informed on the night that you’ve actually signed up for Russian roulette.
When I met him in the street – he sells every ticket by hand – Jones came across as an eager, smiling comedian; just one among hundreds trying to spruik his brand of comedy to passers-by.
Under the spotlight, however, Jones morphed from polite comedian to grinning, devilish presenter of remarkable social media comments. Not his own comments, mind – …

I’ll admit, I’m a huge metalhead (well, I am 6’2” and I have trouble getting caps to fit, but that’s another story). Steve Hughes has made major waves in the global comedy community as the straight-talking, logic-twisting Heavy Metal comedian. This acclaim shows, he nearly sold-out the main room at Melbourne Town Hall.
Like a darkly comic Robert Anton Wilson, Hughes fired his first verbal salvo at New Zealand, asking if it was “even real” (a loud cry of “yisss!” from the audience followed). Then he had Australiain his sights, eliciting …

Wouldn’t it be cool to watch Axis Of Awesome with the venue atmosphere applicable to a rock gig instead of a seated comedy show? Yeah, it would. And you’d think such a venue like the Hi Fi Bar would get that, but no, the audience is still seated for AoA’s “World Tour 2006″ show – albeit seated giddily on the very edges of their seats.
As a trio comedy act, AoA have their onstage  interactions down pat, casually trading insults and beautifully harmonising. They are musically tight and their song craftsmanship …

At Northcote Town Hall, Karen Sims is spear-heading discussion on everything that’s wrong with our society right now. She wants the house lights up so she can see us and she wants to hear what we’ve got to say about stuff. She also wants to make us laugh and dispense a few chocolates along the way.
With audience participation well and truly encouraged, Two Champagnes From Happiness is guaranteed to be a different experience every night. Helped along by oversized flash cards that guide the topics of discussion, Sims calls for …

Danny McGinlay Learns Ukrainian is, at its heart, about doing something nice to be closer to the one you love. But don’t let the sappy theme fool you: this is a hilarious piece of work that showcases McGinlay’s strength as a stand up.
There is nothing about McGinlay to dislike. He seems to take as much delight in appearing to be the fool as the audience does in him telling us about it. His grins are infectious, and he revels in the laughter as much as we do.
A minute into the …

‘Your mum’ jokes, or as they are dubbed by the bastion of internet knowledge (yes, Wikipedia) ‘maternal insult’, can be childish, puerile, and kind of tedious. So it was with trepidation that I went along to see Jason Chong’s Mum, thinking the show would be exactly that brand of humour.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Chong’s show cleverly weaves his own stories, one-liners, and acting skills with seamless audience involvement for the ultimate maternal insult. His two most important women – his fiancee and, of course, his mum – form the basis for …

Tim Mager and Kai Smythe’s In Search of Atlantis is a lively, lyrical, aural banquet about two luckless explorers in search of, well, the lost city of Atlantis.
The award-winning Melbourne-based duo (winners of the Melbourne Cabaret Festival Award in 2009 and nominees for Best Cabaret at the Adelaide Fringe in 2010) keep the show moving at a cracking pace  from the get-go. Mager & Smythe work well as a team. Both have impressive musical skills, excellent taste in instruments (mandolins are definitely underrated), and their comedic timing couldn’t be better.
Their character …

Is there More Than This? Brenna Glazebrook wasn’t convinced a few short years ago. Staring heartbreak and paucity square in the face, she moved to spider-infested Sydney to start anew. This provides the inspiration for a comically solid fifty minute trip into Glazebrook’s life over the last couple of years. Accompanied by her “Swedish Paul Shaffer” Maya, the iTunes Enter-key presser sat to the side of the compact Spleen Bar stage.
Like a paean to the miserable with added laugh track, Glazebrook sharply took us through her unhealthy adolescent obsession with …