Wrong Way, Keep Going takes one on a hilarious roller coaster through the life of an average Australian. Adam Rozenbachs tickles, jars, stings, surprises as he delivers wisecracks on everyday occurrences. In the solo performance, his witty arrows never stop falling throughout this fifty-minute kaleidoscope.
There is practically no turf the artist does not trod upon in his tongue-in-cheek delivery. Satire flows freely and the audience laps it up in loud guffaws. No one is spared: ‘museum’ bankers, mobile companies, neglectful parents, illogical traffic codes, even blokes with their ‘cash converted’ …

I got a late phone call to see Wellington WHO, so I decided not to read any of the posters advertising the show and just check it out with no prior idea or expectations.
The first part of my mission late on a Saturday night was to navigate into the bowels of Trades Hall and enter through the doors of The Police Box into a slightly-larger-than-a-broom-closet like room.
After an epic sci-fi type introduction, the title Wellington WHO started to make sense. Craig Wellington declared his geek past and an obsession with …

Triple Trouble can be summed up in one word’excellent. Combining the best aspects of stand-up, some fun musical numbers, and some on the spot improvision, it delivered an amazing evening. As a long time fan of improvision shows, I was deadset on seeing this one, and my eagerness was richly rewarded. There is no real way to fully describe the sheer energy host Dan Walmsley has as he pranced about the stage, jokes coming thick and fast. The audience loved it.
Combining some great jokes from comedians like Duff, as well …

The phrase ’self help’ should be enough to make anyone run for the hills. Don’t. Trent McCarthy delivers his take on the twelve steps to recovery with a healthy dose of understated cheek. Dr. Phil devotees and the like, be warned. You may be offended’we can only hope.
Starting off with a short film, McCarthy establishes his story and struggle. We meet his fellow 12 steppers and their over zealous facilitator, a man who McCarthy points out is overcoming his own addiction for facilitating groups.
McCarthy uses his caring, sharing, highly therapised …

You can tell by the show’s title that this will not be subtle storytelling from one of Melbourne’s most versatile and volatile actors.
Clacker is not the only c-word Tammy Anderson lets loose in this howlingly funny but often cringe-worthy tour of the body’s private places and less popular functions.
Yes, there are fart jokes. And ones about childbirth, sex, anal infections and incontinence.
Just for starters.
Anderson already has a great reputation for honest and confronting writing and performance, particularly through her solo show I Don’t Wanna Play House, which examined her Tasmanian, …

Dark, humorous and weird, Strangelove the Musical is an adaptation of the 1964 classic film Dr. Strangelove. Tristan Coelho’s music is a fantastic addition to the already bizarre story. Nuclear warfare presented through song is not something you see every day, but this show is definitely worth a look.
Jon Williams is superb as the maniacal Brigadier General Ripper who torments Group Captain Mandrake, played by Kip Williams. Think comedic versions of Kurt and Marlow stuck in a small room with a six-barrelled machine gun. The things Ripper gets up to …

I was disappointed to find that I had gone to a sell-out comedy show, only to watch jokes I’d already seen performed on TV.
Stephen K Amos has done some brilliant work’brilliant enough that I’ve got tapes of his routines from various comedy festivals, including his set for Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Great Debate in 2005, which I also saw live. The topic was ‘Does God have a sense of humour?’
Unfortunately, this just means I have video proof that Amos’s routine this year was peppered with stale material. His latest set …

Middle-aged men do weird things. Some buckle their belts too tight and others cheat on their wives. Many channel their repressed emotions into lusting after Scarlett Johansson.
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 …

When comics segue from rampant rants about sex, government and the press into ‘message’ terrain, the outcome can be as dire as an election-headed politician espousing family values.
But Sean Hughes has a very important message: don’t go drunk to a charity auction.
His main prop, seated on the chair at stage right, is sober testimony to his latest life lesson.
The London-born Irish comic has been missing from the stage for some years, gleaning laughs through TV, film and novel-writing.
So it was a decidedly well-fed Hughes who declared it was ‘great to …

Boldly step into a white square room that smells of plywood and prepare yourself for Science-ology, a one-hour journey fusing glam rock with science and turning labs assistants into roadies and scientists into rock gods.
Sitting in a room jammed with people, where the person beside you is as a consequence now your new best friend, a lab coat clad Ben McKenzie immediately captures your attention with his surprising use of a matchstick, glass beaker, pinch of salt and an egg.
From there, he launches into a tirade about the conspiracies surrounding …

There are some things the ordinary mind could never conceive. Things like a talking couch, bread-shoes, and feeding bird to the breads (That’s not a typo.).ÔøΩÔøΩ But all that suggests is that Sam Simmons is no ordinary comic. His new show The Science of Sex and Boredom is 40% multimedia, 35% stand-up and 14% re-enactment of weird life experiences (Percentages may vary from show to show.).
The genius of this show lies in its ability to present the banal in weird terms, like a pool maintenance video that is feeling under …

No bullfrogs. No structure. Hell, the self-described ‘washed up comedian’ didn’t even get to the point of the show until the last five minutes. By which time, it was far too late to explain why there was a fridge-sized cardboard box bearing the words ‘OMINOUS BOX’ on stage.
Despite being a rambling drunk, after ten awkward opening minutes, Morgan soon warmed up and proved himself a hilarious comic, fond of tangents and humour so biting he’d take your nipple off if he were licking your breast instead of asking the audience …

Ramblings: Second Movement is about an Aussie piano bar singer’s exploration of Europe (oh, and an attempt at Singapore). She broke it off with her boyfriend and, without him even realising she was gone, left in search of her place in the big, wide world.
Although the portrayal of other cultures, including German, Scandinavian, Japanese and Moroccan, was fairly stereotypical, the audience welcomed such comparisons. Mark Wellington’s portrayal of each character, as described by Kristilee Ransley through song and sketch, was convincing. Ransley showed off her tremendous singing skills.
The performance seemed …

If you’re after a tale about two New Zealand brothers with leprosy looking for love, or you want to see a Flemish weasel commentate World Weasel Bashing Championships live from Belgium, Puppet Up! is the show for you.
The ingenious puppeteers show off their remarkable talent for not only performing, but also keeping a straight face when they’re trying to understand the audience suggestions or when everything goes completely pear-shaped.
Watching skits of two girls looking for sausages in a gay bar in Kazakhstan, three evil optometrist rabbits giving laser eye surgery …

Anyone who has been up at 5am watching TV will be familiar with American evangelists. And unless you’re an (il)legitimate crusader, you might consider seeing the Bongo Bus production Pastor Michael’s Second Coming (& His Wife Comes Too).
Upon taking my seat, I realised the first problem with the show’leg room. Standing five-foot nothing, I’m rarely troubled by leg room, but at Trades Hall I was. So if you’re tall, your knees will be massaging your Adam’s apple throughout the show. The next and major problem with the show became apparent …

There’s a lot to be said for turning up to Charles Ross’s One Man Starwars without any knowledge of just how he goes about squeezing all three of George Lucas’s original films into a one-hour stage show. For those who want to turn up ‘blind’, you need to know nothing more than this: One Man Star Wars is unrelentingly brilliant and comes with the highest recommendation.
For those who want to know a touch more, Ross’s performance is precisely what it says it is. Aside from a superb contribution by those …