Last night I attempted to re-join the living for a quick nip into the city to see Tim Minchin at The Forum.  Well worth my attempts to rug up from head to toe, our second-row seats put us in the perfect position to enjoy Minchin at his rather naughty best.  Unfortunately that’s all for shows, considering the combination of Festival Flu and suddenly cold nights are conspiring to keep me indoors.  The Pun team are still hard at work, and you’ll notice the reviews are still pouring in.

After a small hold up with our printing, our Pun Postcard Editions will be hitting the streets over the weekend, so keep an eye out for the various versions.  Collect them all – swap them with your friends!  In other exciting news, our awards are shaping up nicely, and we’ll be having our customary opportunity for you to share your opinions on your favourites from this year.  Great to see so many of you already commenting all over the site.  Don’t forget to send us your SMS or Twitter reviews to be in the running for the various comedy CDs and DVDs our sponsors have so kindly provided.  And have you been listening to the Puncasts?  Presenter Matt Smith has been doing a great job of catching comics all over town, getting them to spill all the show and festival joy.

And so it goes, rolling on towards the inevitable (sad) conclusion in a bit over a week.  I still have plenty of shows to catch before I’ll be satisfied, so lets hope there is enough time after I retire my sick-bed and get back into the audience again.  Meanwhile, may you avoid the Festival Flu for just that little bit longer!

It should also be noted at this stage, half-way through the festival, that myself and a few fellow reviewers (or serial comedy audience members) have been pleasantly satisfied by many shows, but seem to universally wondering where the surprise, that gem of hidden magic, is to be found in this year’s festival. So far the buzz seems to be centred on only a few shows; The List Operators, Sam Simmons, Celia Pacquola, Suitcase Royale. Having seen only one, I can’t really comment on them individually.

That’s all for my brief update. I’ll now return to my bed in hopes of recovering enough to see Tim Minchin on Wednesday night, which I’ve been looking forward to for weeks. Expect a temper tantrum if I’m not well enough to attend.

I hope the laughs have been flowing thick and fast for you.

I did manage to catch up with one of our reviewers in the Peter Cook bar, where I happily traded horror stories about the audiences at Russell Brand’s Melbourne shows (apparently they were equally as bad at the Hamer Hall gig as the gig I attended at Palais).  After the too-brief bar stop it was off to Mike Wilmot, where, predictably I laughed and found myself appalled in equal measures, which is the point of his show.  After ducking in to Ali McGregor’s I was horrified to find that one of the guests for the evening was Jim Jeffries.  After sitting through an hour of his show already, I just couldn’t face the idea of attempting to sit through him again.  I’m ashamed to admit I bailed.

Tonight is a pleasing combination of Denise Scott and Andrew Lawrence, two shows back to back, then home again.  There is a bunch more work required to get all our reviewer’s hard work up so I’ll be tapping away until the wee small hours I expect.  Only one writer has reported seeing a horror of a show, so lets hope the standard remains high.  Very happy to see Richard McKenzie receive such a great review as his show is one I’m looking forward to seeing myself.  Tomorrow night is Daniel Kitson… very, very excited.  Can’t wait.

Meanwhile, on exiting the show, I was pretty impressed to see the giant line for Sammy J’s show… looks like being on the gala really does help your numbers!  Second excitement, stopping off at the ‘cyber centre’ in the main foyer of Melbourne Town Hall to write this post I was chuffed to find Safari already open to… you guessed it… The Pun.  Awesome.  Glad to see people are using the site at home and while they’re out on the comedy prowl.

Second show for the night is Jim Jeffries, which will be my first international of the festival.  No idea what to expect, which is always nice for a Friday night.  And now, as I wrap up to head off to the show, Mike Wilmot is in the foyer encouraging a little girl (his daughter?) to point him out on the wall of posters…  you never know who you’ll run into out here.

Don’t forget to start sending in your SMS and twitter reviews – we’ll update you on the full prizes for our favourite reviews soon – and our full reviews will also start pouring online shortly.

Compared to the packed-in crowds at the Bella Union Bar at Trades Hall on opening night, MTH hub was relatively quiet as I headed in to the first 7.00pm show.  By the time I emerged, though, those 8.00 crowds had started to assemble for the big names, crowds snaking around corners, and the place started to look alive.

Taking a quick break between shows at the Vic Hotel proved very entertaining as we overheard some industry gossip and lots of buzz about who was seeing what already.  Seems quite a few other people were impressed with Pacquola’s show.

Second show at Vic Hotel, Mathew Keneally, proved me right as it sent my companion into convulsive laughter.  It’s nice when you convince someone to come along to a show and enjoy it as much as you hoped they would.  The political humor was spot on, and this first preview showed Keneally is in for a positive festival.

Ducking out early, I headed home to check in on the website, keep an eye on the online goss and prepare for a big weekend of comedy ahead.  I suspect my reviewers are having as much fun as I am, given we’re all up for a huge amount of shows over the next few days.  Fingers crossed the crowds come out in full force, helping word of mouth spread quickly about the talent on offer this year.