Big Laugh Out (The)
The Big Laugh Out is a free sampler of various acts from the Comedy Festival, hosted by a mildly amusing Justin Hamilton. It’s usually held in Federation Square, but in case of rain will be relocated to BMW Edge. The comics may change from night to night.
On Friday 14, the opening act was a very family-oriented number by the The 4 Noels. Their set was not so much a comedy performance as an exercise in audience involvement, entitled ‘Karajoke’ (Kids from the audience read out donated material from other festival performers.), which was more fun than funny. The other acts spanned a range of styles – conventional stand-up (modified for a younger audience) from David O’Doherty, and the standout of the evening, an excruciating performance by the cheerful and double-jointed Captain Frodo, who squeezed his entire body through a pair of tennis racquets. At intervals he grinned puckishly and tossed handfuls of confetti into the air as an applause cue”I’m all right! Nothing is broken! You can unclench!’
Overall, the show’s humour value is mixed. Its obvious problem is the wide demographic it must cover. It is a family event, with most of the comics catering to the children in the audience, but clearly several of them must limit themselves in order to keep the material G rated.
Still, it’s a generous offering from the comedians involved, and the kids should appreciate it. Just remember to seat them up the front. They might even get to have a shot at Karajoke!
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The Big Laugh Out – 29/04/06 @ Federation Square, Melbourne – by epod
I flew into Melbourne on the 29/04/06 from Rockhampton, and immediately set about finding comedy shows to check out. I found The Big Laugh Out was free, and happening that afternoon. Although I was tired and very hungry, I really wanted to check it out, so I headed down to Federation Square.
When I arrived in Federation Square, the show had not yet started, so I thought I would grab a bite to eat. I found a table where I had a clear view of the big screen above the stage. When the show began, I was unfortunately still waiting for my meal, and was a little frustrated when I realised that from where I was sitting, I couldn’t fully hear what was going on onstage. I could sortof hear and see enough to know what was going on though.
The MC was David Williams, who, from what I heard at that stage was doing his very best at what was a pretty tough gig. Most people were sitting quite a way from the stage. He described the empty space at the front of the stage as “a comedy moat.” He said that whenever he said something funny it had to get over the moat, bounce off the heads of people in the front row and then over to the people sitting up the back. This he said caused his jokes to be less funny. He did request for people to move up the front, but there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm from the crowd at this point.
The first act that was on were Renegades of Folk. I couldn’t really hear all the words to the songs they were singing, so I missed the point of most of them. However, the covers that I heard sounded great – Frontier Psychiatrist, and also a Fatboy Slim track that at the moment I can not recall. I hurridly finished my lunch and headed up closer to the stage where I could hear things a lot better, but by then it was almost the end of their set.
David Williams returned to the stage, and was trying his best to entertain the crowd, but the majority were still lacking enthusiasm and most importantly, laughter. This all changed though when the wonderful Justin Sane was introduced. From the moment he began his act, the crowd were enthused. He did a lot of clown type circus tricks and all the adults and the kids were impressed. He is doing a show at the Trades Hall, called AM Dilemma, which I am going to do my very best to check out, as he was very impressive and funny!
The last act were, “The Men of Steel”. This was a very odd show which featured three people dressed up as chefs, along with a couple of gingerbread man shaped cookie cutters, a small stove, a frypan, icecream, tomato sauce, and numerous other cooking implements and ingredients. There was not really any dialogue during the show, just a lot of muttering and gibberish – sort of similar dialogue to what Kenny uses in South Park. The actors involved were very enthusiastic, and the use of the props were rather clever, it just did not do a lot for me. This doesn’t mean it was bad, I just am not into surrealistic type comedy like this, but if you are, definately try to check this show out as you will love it.
In all, it was a great family friendly, free afternoons entertainment, and I am glad that I made the effort to check it out!
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