http://www.anewleaf.com.au Your guide to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:16:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Happy International Women’s Day!  With only a little over two weeks until Melbourne International Comedy Festival begins, we’re celebrating the ladies of the festival by posting our first Top 5 of the year.  Here are our Top 5 shows featuring talented women in 2010, in no particular order. Keep Your Skirt ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2010/03/08/top-5-ladies-to-make-you-laugh-2/ It’s time to get your laugh muscles in training.  Melbourne International Comedy Festival is heading our way again.  In a matter of months Melbourne will be transformed into a Mecca of comedy, and we’re back for another year to guide you through the madness. The festival website is up and running, ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2010/02/10/are-you-ready/ Are you a budding writer?  Got a passion for live performance?  The Pun is now accepting applications to be a part of our team for 2010.  We’re searching for reviewers, writers and sub-editors to cover the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.  To apply, send your resume and two samples of your ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2010/02/10/call-for-contributors/ @michaelfink: Pajama Men were ridiculously funny - deserving Barry Award winners, at least on the basis of the three acts I saw at the festival http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/pajama-men-3/ @rperdio: Harry Potted: slapstick comedy act lampooning eponymous Harry. Enjoyable for the 3-feet & below. Everyone else, enjoy the... yeah. 1.5 http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/harry-potted/ Long ago, established comedian Lawrence Mooney came to the realisation that in order for a man to feel comfortable about laughing at something, he first has to look at the woman that he’s with in order to get permission. It’s a subconscious thing, perhaps left over from more chivalrous days, ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/lawrence-mooney-in-make-the-girls-laugh/ Like fashion’s foray into flannel, one of this festival’s stronger trends has been 1990s nostalgia. A natural progression from the comic book/cartoon fascination generated by blockbusters and internet download trends, celebrating our youth ironically has been a favourite of thirty-year-old male comics. But on this closing weekend with a final ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/the-festival-club-bo-burnham/ If people browse the Comedy Festival guide like they surf the internet, the first thing they’ll hit is Sexual Perversity. So it was the first thing The Pun hit. Audience members entered this four-hander play wearing badges boasting ‘Sexy’ or ‘Perv’ and were greeted at lights up by Muddy Waters’ ‘Hoochie ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/sexual-perversity-in-chicago/ @Dan_0: saw the boy with tape on his face at trades last night - brilliantly hilarious show! http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/the-boy-with-tape-on-his-face/ @johnsyweb: I ache after laughing at #JasonByrne at #MICF. Jeez that man is funny! Great, great show! Paticularly loved the observations of Australians. http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/jason-byrne-2/ @rperdio: Adam Rozenbach: classic stand-up with a loosely-structured narrative on being single proves funny enough but also weak in parts. 2.5 http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/adam-rozenbach/ @snarkle: The MICF museum tour was great fun. I went on Thurs.. there were just a few too many schoolkids tho :( http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/museum-tour/ Charlie Pickering talks about his past in comedy and his new show, The Audacity of Frank, with The Pun's Matt Smith http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/26/puncast-episode-22-charlie-pickering/ A show that opens with an uninspired writer trying to write at their desk, but instead miserably eating chocolate, is a bad sign. You can’t help feeling the author’s imagination has gone out the window (which is incidentally the only other prop in this ingeniously stripped-back set design) and that ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/25/murder-by-chocolate/ This is definitely a comedy show. Writer Keiran King warns “these scripts are made purely to entertain, that’s it – no meanings, no thinking too hard”. There are no themes, narrative threads or messages to learn, just silly antics committed to wholeheartedly by a boisterous cast of five. The sprawling ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/25/the-evolution-of-incompetence-3-short-plays-by-keiran-king/ Dark thunderclouds meant the transition from day to night started about eight hours earlier than expected last Friday, so it was appropriate to celebrate with Evening: A Cabaret. Perched in peach-coloured shirts, the band played keyboard and varnished string instruments as they welcomed in the audience. Location is a defining factor ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/25/evening-a-cabaret/ I came to the conclusion after Pablo Francisco’s show that his style either really appeals or it doesn’t. For me, it doesn’t. That’s not to say the room wasn’t filled with uproarious laughter and there was a long queue for his DVD signing after the show. The Chilean American seems ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/25/pablo-francisco/ I was asked by my terminally un-PC younger brother if this show was actually good, or just good because they is blackfellas. Well, it's a bit of both, I guess. It was actually good, and it was good because they are blackfella's. Although unpolished and with generous lashings of cheese, there ... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/25/a-black-sheep-walks-into-a-baa/ After 21 years at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, Greg Fleet wanders into the 21st Pun Podcast with Matt Smith. This time, he's asking people for the location of his well deserved present of the equine nature, with his show Where's my Pony? http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/25/puncast-episode-21-greg-fleet/ @nedwin: i saw Xavier last night, one of the best shows of the festival IMHO http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/24/xavier-michelides-2/ @wojennifer: Daniel Townes nailed it tonight at Hi-Fi. Catch him while you can at #micf... http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/24/daniel-townes-2/ @JonnyLonny: German humour does exist-great show! Feel bad they're in a cramped, stuffy, tucked away venue- quality show deserved better. http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/24/1000-years-of-german-humour-2/ @courtney_gibson: sam simmons intense, exhilirating and very fruity @ MICF http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/24/sam-simmons/ @rperdio: Nina Conti: a girl, a monkey & 60 minutes of surreal, caustic & head farking mind trip. Like being on acid. Also, it was funny. 3 http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/24/nina-conti-3/ @pat: Just saw the brilliant Boy with Tape on his Face - and got dragged up on stage several times. If you can get tickets, do so. http://www.anewleaf.com.au/2009/04/24/boy-with-tape-on-his-face/