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I hate the Comedy Festival. I hate it. I dread it. I fear it. I like performing, and I like spending a month with my friends from all over Australia and world. I hate the build up, the writing, the stressing, the doubting. You test it and trial it, but it's always funny one night, awful the next. One good thing has come out of the build up to this particular comedy ...

I'm not a fan of hackneyed 'oxford dictionary defines' introductions to articles and speeches but, in this instance, I think it's necessary to confess my ignorance, hoping I'm not the only one out there who didn't know what spruiking was. Lots of odd images and definitions came to mind: the garnisher of restaurant meals ('Hey, kitchen-hand! Spruik that plate for service.'), a speciality cleaner or redecorator of some sort ...

Tragedy, they say, is inherently funny. It's why some of us (let's face it, most of us) try desperately, often unsuccessfully, to stifle our guilty chortles at others' misfortune. Comedic films such as The Royal Tenenbaums and The Squid and the Whale exemplify this exegesis of humour and calamity; although, it arguably gives little explanation for the popularity of 'Australia's Funniest Home Videos'. This analysis of comedy would assert ...