Occasionally throughout his hour of stand-up he makes references to an experience on a flight that required his newly acquired medical knowledge, even going to the point of having prerecorded messages from flight attendants. Eventually reaching his story, Vincent is both simplistic in his concepts and hilarious in delivery, but his long set-up has the potential to either keep you eager or somewhat annoy you.

Vincent’s stand-up material is observational, critical, and overall highly physical. He has clearly thought about the mundane aspects of life in way too much detail – sometimes to the scale that would make Kanye West seem normal. It’s perhaps more frightening that once you’ve finished laughing and had a good think about it, you might realise that a lot of what Vincent says on stage makes sense. If it were up to him to make the decisions in life, it would be a better working world that we live in. A strange world, for sure – we would have billboards around Melbourne with a man who makes minestrone soup from scratch, because ‘that would stop people from speeding’. Once you sit through Vincent’s show, you will understand why this is such a good idea.

Go and see his show, and get to know him. And the next time you see someone talking to a bird in a tree at five in the morning, say hi to him. It’s probably Adam Vincent.

It’s quite obvious why they could be popular – Australia has a large multicultural community, and very little of the existing comedy festival caters directly to that audience. Some of their jokes are brilliant in that aspect, as it plays on the cultural differences while still being accessible; jokes about growing up, about family members, about problems in the workplace – all of this had the audience laughing.

The point where it started to lose people are jokes about stabbings, war, and torture or just straight out racism. I don’t know whether Hussain and Rahman felt impassioned to use their audience as an opportunity to make a political or societal point, but it is taken a little too far with jokes about blowing up certain Channel Nine shows, and then going to the funerals and blowing up those as well. I would be concerned about anyone who found that funny, let alone the people telling those sort of jokes.

Hussain and Rahman clearly know their stuff – they have a great sense of timing, they’re good at impersonations, and they deliver well. But comedy is about making people laugh. Successful comedy is about laughing at similarities and finding common ground. In trying to engage with their target audience, the material in Fear of a Brown Planet Returns quickly divided the audience into clearly delineated ethnic subgroups. I found this a shame, because before we entered the show, we were clearly all there for the same thing – a good night out, and the opportunity to laugh. We entered together, and yes, we laughed. But when we left the show, we left separately.

Bandmembers Jordan, Lee and Benny have great chemistry, and while their musical abilites are reasonable (it’s clear why they’re a comedy band), their finely-honed sense of theatrical timing really make up for it. While you’ll get a kick out of parodies of songs you know and love (or in the case of Kings of Leon, know and tolerate), it’s in their original work that they truly shine. I challenge you to leave the place without at least one of their songs stuck in your head for the remainder of the night.

Never let it be said that the band won’t go the extra mile for a joke – when you first step into the theatre room, you’ll be presented with a pair of 3D glasses, and this segment of the act has to be seen (and ducked!) to be believed.

If you liked the band’s ‘Four Chord‘ song on YouTube, you should definitely make the effort to see them this festival. The Axis of Awesome live up to their name: there’s some awe involved, and there isn’t a rhombus in sight. Plus there’s an extra hint of bovine flavour this year.

And really, by the end of the show, you realise that of course everything’s just fine – except you may have popped something from laughing. Lawrence has a way of engaging with the audience with a blend of naughty words, observational humour, random ranting, and scaringly accurate mimicry that means there’s something in there for everyone.

If you’re easily offended, then this might not be the show for you. Mooney treats all races, religions and beliefs equally – that is, they’re all valid targets for comedy. Add to that a ‘razor with a massive wet nest of pubic hair’ and… well… there’s something for everyone there.

Lawrence excels as the favourite, slightly embarrassing Aussie uncle of the comedy festival – the one that everyone is warned to keep an eye on at family gatherings, as the pants are likely to drop if he consumes too much alcohol.

It might also be worth pointing out that Lawrence was the recipient of the Piece of Wood award in 2009, which is the comic’s choice award for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. If you can’t take the word of the comedians of the festival that Lawrence is worth dropping some coin on, then who can you trust?

Five stars for you, Lawrence. Despite the fact that you bagged out the suburb that I live in in your show. You did have a point though, I tripped over three lesbians on the way home tonight.

Lawrence Mooney is theatrical, educated and dramatic throughout his entire performance – to the point where you can almost imagine that you’re watching high-class theatre interspersed with knob gags. He makes the lowbrow seem almost highbrow (take note of that ‘almosts’ in there).

He uses stories of his recent past to recount failures, inviting you to laugh at his mistakes with him, and string along the point that through it all his fiance has been laughing with him, no matter how much he stuffs things up. It is clear throughout the show that Mooney loves her for this, and it’s material that he’s comfortable with, and comes from the heart.

In coming up with a show that appeals to women, Mooney has managed to come up with a show that appeals to everyone. And while that is clearly the intention of every comedian, it takes a skilled one to accomplish it.