As always we strongly recommend that you don’t just see comedy during the festival.  Australia (and Melbourne in particular) is blessed with an outstanding comedy scene.  Get out there and see as much as you can!  There are regular comedy nights to be found almost any night of the week.

For those of you who just can’t satisfy that comedy bug we highly recommend checking in on our friends at Gagging For It.  They’ll keep you in the loop on gigs all over Australia, as well as tasty tidbits of news and gossip all year round.  Also, don’t forget to check out when the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow may be heading to a venue near you.

Image Credit: v1ctory_1s_m1ne

Mel is a relief teacher, substituting at some of the roughest schools in Brisbane. Students have been to her gigs, too, although she doesn’t let it affect her performance. “It’s more awkward for them, not me. One of them has come up to me after the show and hugged me and still called me Miss Buttle. It’s fun – when they see me perform they get to see the real me.” She also refuses to let their presence change her material, much of which is about the schools she has worked in. “I find they don’t mind me mentioning the schools, as people just love a mention. I could stand there and say, ‘My mum has the biggest beard and she really needs to shave it all off’, and all she would hear is ‘Oh! That’s me! She’s mentioning me on stage!’”

Like all the best comedians, Mel has run into some trouble with hecklers, particularly female audience members who sometimes have issues with the languages in her shows. “Look, it’s just mainly when I do hen’s nights,” she says. “Mother and Aunty Joan are often invited along and while they have no problem with wearing penis shaped name tags, they can have a problem with my language.” Is it enough to put her off comedy? “I don’t let it affect me much. Comedy comes with both the highest highs and lowest lows. After five Chardonnays, heckles can happen. It’s all part of the gig.”

Of her debut show, Sista Got Flow, Mel says “It’s basically all about me. Surprise! How original”. Not just her ‘wacky adventures’ are discussed in her show, however, delicate and intimate topics are discussed as well, such as her virginity. When asked if she has ever had any regrets about integrating her stage and personal lives so closely, she is quick to reply: “Definitely not. Comedy should be truthful, like a dinner party with friends. All the comedians I like use really honest and truthful material. Honest material is the best and funniest comedy.” But discussing such intimate things with a room of strangers has to be daunting, doesn’t it? “I believe it to be really important to be intimate with the audience,” is her honest reply.

Sista Got Flow has been in the making since December of 2008. Mel began to put some stories with other bits of material, and found she had a ‘sort of show’ forming. After spending all of last year open mic-ing around Brisbane to polish the material, she is now excited to take on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. “I’m excited to be involved; see shows and perform shows, go to the HiFi Bar. I’ve only ever been to the festival to watch shows before. The festival is really just like Christmas for comedians. You know, you’re just walking around Melbourne and you suddenly go, ‘Oh My God! I think that’s Wil Anderson buying a curry!’”

As an industry, though she is regarded as relatively new, she has already experienced the help and support of many a comedian. As Mel states, “There’s quite a ‘we’re all in the trenches together’ mentality between comedians”, and stresses that there is definitely more of a supportive, rather than competitive, feel in the industry. She is quick to endorse other comedians as well, having already made plans to see Josie Long, Sarah Millican, Russell Kane, Tom Ballard and Fiona O’Loughlin perform at the festival.

A Twitter enthusiast, I ask Mel if she ever uses the social networking site to try out stand-up material (in under 140 characters, of course). Rather than using Twitter to trial material, though, she uses it as somewhat of a training tool. “On trains, instead of listening to music, I’ll be on Twitter trying to think of jokes. Whenever I watch something like The Circle, I will make an effort to think of a related joke and Tweet it, for instance. I use it as a way of keeping sharp.”

As Mel performs Sista Got Flow throughout this year’s festival, you can expect major laughs and raw, honest material from a talented and Twitterific new voice.

So here they are, in no particular order!  Browse away, click on the show title to see more information about the show on offer and email to win.

TRIPOD VERSUS THE DRAGON

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March

GERALDINE HICKEY – HAMMER AND TONG

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

MICHAEL CHAMBERLIN – KEEP YOURSELF NICE

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March

JEFF GREEN – CRAZY FROM THE HEAT

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Monday 29 March

GERALDINE QUINN – SHUT UP AND SING

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March

CIRCUS TRICK TEASE

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March, Wednesday 7 April

AKMAL – IT’S NOT MY FAULT

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March, Wednesday 31 March

ASHER TRELEAVEN – SECRET DOOR

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Friday 2 April, Saturday 3 April

JASON PESTELL JUMPS THE SHARK

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March, Thursday 1 April

VIGILANTELOPE PRESENTS PROPHECY OF THE QUANTUM CHILD

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

FEAR OF A BROWN PLANET RETURNS

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March

SPONTANEOUS BROADWAY

Tickets available for Wednesday 7 April

ROD QUANTOCK – THE PEOPLE WE SHOULD EAT FIRST (AND HOW TO COOK THEM)

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March

ANDY & ADRIAN – RADIO HUSBANDS

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

LUKE & WYATT: STACKS ON

Tickets available for Tuesday 30 March

SANDERSON JONES – ANOTHER HEARTBREAKING YET ULTIMATELY LIFE AFFIRMING SHOW ABOUT DEATH

Tickets available for the duration of the festival

TOM BALLARD – COGITO ERGO SOME FUNNY

Tickets available for Sunday 4 April

HANNAH GADSBY – THE CLIFF YOUNG SHUFFLE

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March

MARK TRENWITH – FUN

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March, Monday 30 March

THE KRANSKY SISTERS – THREE BAGS FULL

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

HALLEY METCALFE – FIVE STARS

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Wednesday 31 March

THE AXIS OF AWESOME – INFINITY ROCK EXPLOSION

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March, Thursday 1 April

CATH STYLES IN LOVE AND MARRIAGE

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March

THE SHAMBLES – LIVE AT A BALLROOM

Tickets available for Thursday 8 April

KARL CHANDLER IS 100 JOKES PER HOUR

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

ALL IN THE SAME BOAT: A SHIP LOAD OF LAUGHS

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March

COLOUR IN STEREO

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

STEVE HUGHES – HEAVY METAL COMEDY

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March

DAVE THORNTON – A DIFFERENT KIND OF NORMAL

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March

BULMER’S BEST OF THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Wednesday 31 March, Thursday 1 April

TOM GLEESON – GET IT INTO YA

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March

THE CONCERT BY THE BUSINESS

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March

EUROPEAN MAN 1

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April, Thursday 8 April

SUPERMANCHILD

Tickets available for Thursday 1 April, Friday 2 April, Saturday 3 April

DYLAN COLE – I’M NOT HERE

Tickets available for Thursday 1 April, Friday 2 April

KARIN MUIZNIEKS – FIRST AGAINST THE WALL

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April, Thursday 8 April, Sunday 11 April

PEDRO TOCHAS – THE SCULPTOR CLOWN

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

DAVID SMIEDT – INTRODUCING DAVID SMIEDT

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

DIE ROTEN PUNKTE – KUNST ROCK

Tickets available for Thursday 8 April

WILSON DIXON’S AMERICAN DREAM

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

DEAD CAT BOUNCE

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

RUSSELL MCGILTON – ACCIDENTS ARE PROHIBITED ON THIS ROAD

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Monday 29 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March

GORDON SOUTHERN – BORDERS

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Wednesday 31 March, Thursday 1 April

BIG FAT LOSER

Tickets available for Sunday 4 April, Monday 5 April

MARCEL LUCONT – SEXUAL METRO

Tickets available for Tuesday 30 March

THE UNCANNY X-GEN

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April

JARRED KEANE – THE SECOND COMING

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April, Thursday 8 April, Friday 9 April

POET LAUREATE TELIA NEVILE PRESENTS WHILE I’M AWAY

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April, Thursday 8 April

KELLY FASTUCA – TAKE ME OUT TO THE LOGIES

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April, Thursday 8 April

SPAG AND DRAG (show only)

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March, Saturday 30 April and Wednesday 7 April

THE LOST RUNG – MAKING FRIENDS

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March, Thursday 1 April

LORRAINE’S HAIR & FACE

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

FOUR MINUTE WARNING

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

PUPPY FIGHT SOCIAL CLUB

Tickets available for Friday 2 April

MEMOIRS OF A HUMAN CANNONBALL

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

ADAM VINCENT – VITAL SIGNS

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

DEANNE SMITH: BALLSY

Tickets available for Monday 29 March, Monday 5 April

GOOKS & WOGS 2: THE RETURN OF THE CHOCO AND THE CHINK

Tickets available for Sunday 4 April

AND NOW, HERE’S YOUR HOST… TRENT MCCARTHY (WITH SPECIAL GUEST AJAK KWAI)

Tickets available for Thursday 1 April, Friday 2 April, Saturday 3 April

RODNEY.  MISSING.

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Friday 2 April, Saturday 3 April

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 JOKES FEATURING SAM MCCOOL

Tickets available for Friday 2 April, Saturday 3 April

80’S FLASH DAN’S ABOVE GROUND POOL PARTY

Tickets available for Thursday 1 April

RAYMOND CROWE

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

STEVL SHEFN AND HIS TRANSLATOR FATIMA

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

MARK PENCAK – MONSTERS IN MY WARDROBE

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

THE ULTIMATE BOARD GAME – UNSCRIPTED

Tickets available for Friday 2 April, Saturday 3 April, Sunday 4 April

DOS OR DUO

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April

THE LEMON-LIME TIME MISCELLANY HOUR LIVE WHY NOT WITH RYAN WITHERS

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Monday 29 March, Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March, Thursday 1 April

THE POLAR BEARINGS – SONGS IN THE SEA, MAJOR?

Tickets available for Tuesday 30 March, Wednesday 31 March, Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April

ALZHEIMER’S THE MUSICAL – A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March, Wednesday 31 March Thursday 1 April

TWO AND A HALF MICKS

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March, Tuesday 30 March

PRETENDING THINGS ARE A COCK

Tickets available for the duration of the festival

TOMMY LITTLE’S BRAINTHOUGHTS

Tickets available for Wednesday 31 March

TADARIA STUDIO – SERENADE

Tickets available for the duration of the festival

BARNESY FOR PRESIDENT

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March, Sunday 28 March

A NIFTY HISTORY OF EVIL WITH JOHN ROBERTSON

Tickets available for Tuesday 6 April, Wednesday 7 April

DONNA & DAMO – AN ASEXUAL LOVE STORY

Tickets available for Saturday 27 March

LINDA CATALANO IS SHOPPER

Tickets available for Sunday 28 March

The Pun cannot be held responsible for the tickets to these performances.  Tickets are provided at the discretion of the individual shows as listed, and winners will be notified directly by them.  Entry to the draw is subject to joining The Pun’s e-list.  Please view our subscribe page to see terms and conditions.

A. Actually, women aren’t really that funny..

It’s the laughable line that gets trotted out every Comedy Festival.

Delivered in didactic terms in queues for Wil Anderson, spluttered by seedy types holding up the Festival bars, whispered guiltily as those few ladies who actually get a guernsey at the Gala take the stage.

The standard “Sheilas can’t crack a joke”, the occasional “Kristen Schaal is the exception that proves the rule”, and of course “Oh yeah, then why is there twice the number of blokes in comedy as chicks, huh?”

The logic is dubious, to say the least. But this year, the solution is simple, sassy, and kicks off the Comedy Festival. Keep Your Skirt On is a cherry-picked evening featuring the female, and the funniest, of the species.

Wednesday’s one-off event, at the terribly proper Order of Melbourne, boasts a 15-lady line up, and is hosted by GNW representative Claire Hooper and scene stalwart Geraldine Hickey. Add award-winners like Celia Pacquola and Geraldine Quinn, with fresh-faced Raw Comedy funny girls, and you’ve really got every type of comedy covered.

Hickey describes Keep Your Skirt On as “the best possible way you can start the Festival”.

Enthusiastic terms from a lady who says her own stand-up show Hammer & Tong is essentially “me and a microphone, telling dick jokes”. But the matter-of-fact comedienne, who’s used to being told she’s “pretty funny for a girl”, says the charm of Keep Your Skirt On is found in the ladies behind the scenes.

The event is produced by the Skirt Network, an alliance of female comedians, and founded by Melbourne funny girls Celia Pacquola and Lou Sanz. And a few casual drinks turned into what sounds suspiciously like Girl Power.

“For girls in comedy, there’s Jeez Louise (an annual chin-wag for female comedians), there’s Upfront (the Town Hall headliner girls’ gala), and there was never anything in between,” Hickey says.

“You start doing Jeez Louise, and it’s so supportive that you’re in a world of comfy cushions – move on to a stand-up show, and it’s more brutal, it can really scare off good comedians.”

Hickey says that girls on the scene have always given each other a lot of support, but the Network helps beginners know where to start.

“Skirt Network is only really formalising something that’s been around for years – women like Judith Lucy, Scotty (Denise Scott), they paved the way and got so much success,” Hickey says.

“It was always an unsaid thing, that of course girls would support each other – it’s just now, we’ve got a Facebook group!”

So the Network provides all the comfort of, well, a skirt.. but one of those super-hot skirts that curves in all the right places.

The inaugural Keep Your Skirt On shimmied into Trades last year, and it went “pretty damn well”, says this year’s producer Kelly McConville.

The sell-out event picked up the Pun’s Show of 2009 Award, and this the line-up has diversified towards the spectacular. It’s the benefit of the Order of Melbourne, says Hickey, “There’s going to be a trapeze swinging somewhere.”

Enter Anna “Pocket Rocket” Lumb, acrobat, trapeze artist, hula hooper. The puckish performer is gearing up for her second MICF, and says events like Keep Your Skirt On make the transition from “carney” to comedian an easy one.

The mission to find her inner clown has been “intuitive.. and I’m inspired by things in my own life, things that are funny!”

For Lumb, that’s the charm of so many of the ladies on the comedy circuit – they’re prepared to be so honest, and to put so much of themselves into their shows.

“Add the pull of variety, and all that fun sassy stuff, and that’s exciting! It’s a bit more approachable, a bit more intimate, and it offers a bit of bite!”

So who seeks out an all-lady comedy extravaganza? McConville is prepared to be honest about the crowds, too.

“Well, they were good looking last year!” McConville recalls.

In fact, if anything characterises them, McConville says it’s probably the fact the crowd is in its element. “Audience participation is definitely the pace – the crowd are a bit like the performers, pretty much up for anything.”

Skirts optional.

****

Hosts: Claire Hooper & Geraldine Hickey

Tegan Higginbotham

Celia Pacquola

Anna Lumb

Karin Muizneiks

Geraldine Quinn

Claudia O’Doherty

Kelly Fastuca

Wes Snelling

Telia Nevile

Linda Beatty

Sarah Bennetto

Halley Metcalfe

Melinda Buttle

Felcity Ward

Keep Your Skirt On

Wednesday, March 24

The Order of Melbourne

Purchase tickets at the door or online via Ticketmaster.