Less shocking and humorous is how a group of middle-aged men wearing women’s clothes recreated The Sound of Music for stage. This drag show wasn’t unfunny, just more wacky funny than ha-ha funny.

I’ve seen The Sound of Music, and its awesomeness casts a shadow over my impressions of this production.

I don’t know much about drag. Before the show, I’d never seen a man mime singing, or mime gouging another man’s butt-hole.

I found the performers playing up their gender-confused appearance made the energy and momentum ‘drag’. I’m not sure if this gender bending is meant to challenge, but it bores.

When the performers forgot about the pink elephant between their legs, so did the audience, and the show became something special.

Miss Jessica James’s subtle portrayal ofÔøΩÔøΩMaria made this musical more than a freak show. She’s the only character who’s recognisably human, alienated from a crowd of deformed and menacing creatures.

At the nunnery where she starts out, MariaÔøΩÔøΩis scolded by heartless nuns who look something like the Gatekeeper from the video game Nightmare. As she tries to fit into the von Trapp family, Maria is sexually molested by the children and farted at by the Captain.

It’s a definite spectacle. I can’t say I understood it. I liked the shiny costumes and the dance routines. They were pretty.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated follows Dick as he attempts to stunt this documentary into meaning and entertainment. He hunts down and exposes the secret identities of parents on the MPAA board responsible for film classifications that stop children from seeing Maria Bello’s pubic hair and puppets peeing on other puppets.

Dick really shows it to them. He goes all out to achieve a dreaded NC-17 rating (no admission under 17 years of age) by creating a montage of sex scenes, which makes up a fair chunk of the film. It’s all very naughty: nipples and profanities. Dick impresses with the length and girth of his lens as he transgresses through other people’s rubbish bins.

Unlike documentaries by directors like Michael Moore, Dick’s subject doesn’t matter a whole lot, let alone justify his extreme antics. Here is something really shocking: there are some things more important than film and a filmmaker’s freedom to further sexualise children for profit.

But of course, no one need look for sense. If they did, someone might mention that a film that needs graphic oral sex scenes probably SUCKS and a script that needs swearing is probably SHIT.

Chang is the star of this hip hop documentary, / holding an LA festival as shit hot as the weather be. / Chang’s not trying to half-step, / in bringing together a clan of the hardest artists: / the innovators and creators of the Wu-Tang music. / He signs Raekwon, U-God, everyone: the entire movement. / But the Wu? The whole crew? Doubters are waiting for Chang to prove it. / Even with unofficial tenth, rapper Cappadonna, / Chang still has to overcome ‘Ol’ Dirty drama’. / All anyone can do is wait and see / if the stage will be graced by the Ol’ Dirty Bastard, / the most likely plastered ODB. /

Rock the Bells, more than the breaks and the rhymes, / is also a film about a race against time. / Slow-arse opening acts: / DJ Abilities is massaging more wax like it were his
ballsack. / And Redman’s running late for his set. / Where is he? He’s busyÔøΩƒ∂jumping on his bed. / Wu-Tang are ‘superheroes on stage’. / He said it himself, the killah Mr. Ghostface. / Together, they came to Rock the Bells. / They came to save themselves, but if they don’t hurry up and play, / they’ll have to save Chang from the crowd tearing down the place. /

Rock the Bells is hip hop. It will take your fucking shoes, / have you walking round barefoot but still putting up Ws.

Like Penny when she was a teenager, ‘Kathy worries about if she is stupid and criticises others for being stupid. The very exaggerated nerdiness of the character isn’t a reflection of all 15-year-olds, more of how I feel and how I see other people act.’

The way Kathy looks isn’t necessarily a reflection of 15-year-olds either. ‘I don’t naturally look like one. I’ve changed the way I dress, but I doubt anyone would mistake me for a 15-year-old. Although,’ Penny laughs, ‘after one show, I did hear a woman ask if I was actually from maths camp.’

Penny claims that at 15 she wasn’t particularly funny. ‘I was morbid’obsessed with death and watching The Dead Poets Society.’ But Penny does admit that she was ‘ok at maths’.

Nowadays, at least, Penny is more than ok at both maths and comedy. She has a double Arts/Science degree, majoring in Chemistry with a minor in Maths, and maths and science references can be found throughout Kathy Smith Goes to Maths Camp. Some that Penny expects ‘only two people a night will understand.’

‘But maths is really only a vehicle for the story,’ says Penny who understands that ‘some people find maths a little scary.’ She admits that when she makes maths and science references on stage, she is ‘often afraid someone in the audience will say ‘You can’t do that!’ or ‘It’s wrong!”

This year Penny Tangey won a Moosehead Award, which she explains is ‘more of a grant than an award. They are presented for an idea and make it easier to put on your show.’ For Penny, ‘it’s reassuring to know that someone thinks you’ve got a good idea and a show worth doing.’

Most real hip hop is funnier and smarter than any of their played out punchlines. These comedians have nothing on Kool Keith, Slick Rick and newer rappers like Cam’ron, Ludacris, and even most of G-Unit. The line between comedy and hip hop is further blurred in the world of freestyling and battling – both are pretty much dominated by jokes these days.

So when an act, Freestyle Love Supreme, claims to take the comic elements of hip hop seriously, you think it is going to be pretty funny. Unfortunately, it isn’t. The show needs more laughs and less boring audience members retelling their boring days. And is it still freestyling if you pass on nine audience suggestions before choosing a topic you are comfortable rapping on?

Having said that, Freestyle Love Supreme is rather sweet, if not sentimental. Its biggest problem is that it’s not funny enough. There is some decent beatboxing, but don’t expect to hear either of the two MCs rhyme more than two syllables at a time.