check out my review Here

Lano and Woodley - Goodbye - Her Majesty’s Theatre 03/05/06- by epod

Prior to flying into Melbourne for the comedy festival, I was debating with myself as to whether the almost $50 ticket price - including booking fee, to see this show was worth it. I then cast my mind back on how many times Lano and Woodley have made me laugh - their book, their tv series, countless other tv appearances, and in person when I saw their show, “Housemeeting”.

I saw Lano and Woodley live quite a few years ago now, and I absolutely loved their show. It was full of laughs, bickering, and a few accidents - all deliveried with apparent spontaneity. This spontaneity was probably in most cases cleverly planned and rehearsed, but without inside information or seeing the show multiple times, you would never know which bits. To put it simply, they were fabulous.

Because of all the above, I decided that it would be sacrilegious if I did not purchase a ticket to what was dubbed as their last ever run of shows. But, given the amount of performers who have their “final tour”, and suddenly appear on tour again the following year, who knows? Oh, and at almost $50 a ticket…ouch - it had better be good.

The show was to start at 730pm, and the comedy festival website said that it ran for 90 minutes - an hour and a half. I figured that the show would end at 9pm, leaving me time to see the next show I was seeing at 945pm, “I Heart Racism”, which was quite a walk away from where I was at Her Majesty’s Theatre.

The show began and I was mildly amused, but to be totally honest, something was missing - that spark and spontaneity that in the past has made me adore them so much. What I was seeing was a very slick, seemingly over-rehearsed show - which is good for some people, but I like my comedy a little more raw than this.

It was 835pm when there was an intermission announced. “Oh shit”, was my response. I asked one of the ushers when the show was likely to finish and he said, “10pm - if they are not running late.” The next show I was seeing was at 945pm. I was half asleep and not really impressed after the first part of the show, but ah I had paid almost $50 for this ticket goddamit! It pained me to do so, but I decided to leave the theatre, and walked to the next venue during intermission.

As I only saw the first half of the show, I can only give a rundown of what happened in that part. Frank did a rather clever made up sign language interpretation of what Lano was saying at the start of the show. This was followed by bickering, bickering and more bickering which wasn’t balanced with enough humour to keep my mind occupied. They had a silent movie segment, and sang some songs, which were great. Frank then did a balancing trick with a table full glasses. This went on way too long for my liking, and didn’t have the well deserved type of humourous ending that I was hoping for after all that build up.

The show I saw at the next venue was a third of the price of what I paid for Lano and Woodley, and was interesting, amusing, very clever and well staged. You can read my review of “I Heart Racism”, which was the show I left Lano and Woodley for on this very reviews page soon. I am disappointed that I didn’t see Lano and Woodley’s full show, but I was only in Melbourne for a short time during the festival and wanted to see as much comedy - particularly comedians I had never seen before - before I left to go back home.

I will point out that although I wasn’t overly impressed with what this particular show had to offer, it did sell out almost every night. Lano and Woodley were filling a pretty massive venue of around 1200 seats - a pretty mean feat in itself, especially when the cost of the tickets is taken into consideration. That they were able to do this, certainly does attest to the popularity, and twenty-year longevity of this duo. Despite the thoughts conveyed of the show in this review, this well loved comedy duo will be sorely missed by me, and also within the Australian comedy scene.

Whilst in Melbourne, I did see quite a lot of new blood though - performers who are quite capable of filling the gap which Lano and Woodley are leaving. Although these performers are not necessarily doing the same style of comedy as Lano and Woodley, they are fresh, funny, and clever, and I wish them every success. I have written reviews about quite a few of them, so feel free to check out my reviews, as it is unlikely that you have heard of too many of them as most do not have a national media profile (yet).