Jonathan Rivett
The Pun, The Pun 2009, The Pun 2009 Reviews »
If you’re a Festival punter who’s not interested in performers with juggernautical reputations or FM radio contracts, I highly recommend that you see The List Operators. I enjoyed it so much that I don’t really have any caveats. I do, however, have some worries:
If I tell you that this is comedy offered via the medium of the written list, you might get the impression this performance is formulaic and dull.
If I try to counter this by mentioning that it encompasses a semiotic analysis of an obtuse comedy sketch, the licentious …
The Pun, The Pun 2009, The Pun 2009 Reviews »
Daniel Oldaker’s Live Flavor is difficult to wedge into a nutshell for the sake of a review. It’s a one man show comprising of three characters, each distinguished by a very minor change in attire, but a very major change in temperament. The routine sees a corporate presentation amalgamate (in dream-like fashion) with a cooking demonstration whilst being sporadically interrupted by the forecasts of a fortune-teller.
If it sounds outlandish, that’s because it is. It defies definition, but ‘absurd’ would be one of the few words that is applicable. ‘Unconventional’ is …
The Pun, The Pun 2009, The Pun 2009 Reviews »
There’s nothing more frustrating than a funny person with a funny story letting themselves down with shaky delivery. James Dowdeswell is a wonderful storyteller, which makes No More Mr Nice Guy a seamlessly enjoyable show. Dowdeswell’s performance is a success, in part, because he is able to move between his gags and anecdotes with consummate ease. There are no forced segueways, no jarring leaps from one topic to another – just 55 minutes of gently self-deprecating humour executed with natural smoothness.
Dowdeswell is a nice guy. It’s obvious within minutes that …
The Pun, The Pun 2009, The Pun 2009 Reviews »
An online description of Peter Morley’s comedy festival show maintains that last year’s version was a hit thanks to its “amazingly unpredictable nature, with audiences dictating the hilarious shows.”
Herein lies the very substantial problem.
Never in my 20-odd years of live event attendance have I been exposed to a more disgusting accumulation of people than the one that slithered into the covered area of the Queensberry Hotel beer garden on Friday night. To call them an audience would degrade the word – this was an impromptu gathering of human weeds intent …
The Pun, The Pun 2006, The Pun 2006 Reviews »
Variety is the spice of life, they say, and perhaps this, above all else, is why Akmal Saleh’s self titled Comedy Festival show is such a thorough winner. After an ad for Cronulla with a voice-over by (someone sounding like) Alan Jones, the show begins in earnest with Akmal’s opening monologue. This proves to be the highlight of the show as, on the same screen that displayed the mock-commercial, a pre-recorded Akmal emerges to interrupt and exasperate his live self. This meticulously constructed element (Akmal seems to have the wordplay …
The Pun, The Pun 2006, The Pun 2006 Reviews »
To me, there is nothing wrong with a show that unremittingly elicits a smile without having the audience rolling around screaming, ‘Stop, stop, I’ve wet myself!’ Corinne Grant’s Faking It, a collection of memories and anecdotes ranging from her childhood to her time at Rove Live, does exactly this. Its warm, gentle humour rarely fades and, in many ways, her ability to maintain a constant level of grin-worthy material puts her ahead of the multitude of acts that may have you guffawing one minute and wondering whether you can ask …
The Pun, The Pun 2006, The Pun 2006 Reviews »
The concept behind The Wrong Night is that various acts already performing at the Comedy Festival are given the opportunity to present their edgier, darker, more risque material to a late night audience. If Saturday’s performance is anything to go by, however, it is more like a foul language gala, exhibiting mostly B-grade humour.
The Wrong Night is held every Saturday night of the comedy festival and features different ‘guest comedians’ each week, so it’s difficult to make definite judgements about its comic value. The first night, though, was a disappointment. …
The Pun, The Pun 2006, The Pun 2006 Reviews »
On the surface, a show about Australian Rules football at the Melbourne Comedy Festival might appear to be a you-can’t-go-wrong decision. But trying to extract humour out of a subject that a large proportion of your audience is going to profess a profound knowledge of is a relatively difficult task. There is nothing worse than a comedian making fun of a subject they possess no acquaintance with, and Cal Wilson’s show succeeds because beneath the veneer of ignorance at the heart of much of the humour lies a pretty keen …
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