0-Die Bastard : 1-Crap : 2-Rubbish(watchable) : 3-OK : 3.5-Nice : 4-Good : 4.5-Very Good : 5-WOW
30.06.11 : Transformers-Dark of the Moon - movie
Sci-Fi | Action : An old crashed Transformer spaceship is found on the moon : I don't really remember the previous movies in this franchise - because they all meld together in my head -, but I do remember the last one was a bit below the others. This on the other hand, I recon is the best in the series. This one actually had an interesting story, that incorporated the history of the moon landings. Also the CGI was heaps better, because in the other movies it was all close-ups at full speed, but this one used longer shots that gave you an overall view, so you could actually see what was happening, and they slowed down the critical parts so the action looked more graphic. The biggest hook to this franchise is the CGI action, and this one fills that department in spades, because last hour is a solid block of GCI action, and good action at that. There is actually some very funny comedic bits - watch out for the Asian guy from The Hangover, he's brilliant. There is also one funny bit in the credits, so stay for that. 4.25
29.06.11 : Fiona Scott Norman- Disco : The Final Solution : The Basement
Yesterdays show was so good, that I couldn't not go to this one. This show was different from last night and wasn't as funny - but then again the other set high standards -, because this one had a lot more dialogue, and less little skits to mix things up. There was also heaps of problems, like this is not a theatre venue so the sound guy didn't really know what he was doing, and missed a lot of his cues. The mic kept cutting out until it was replaced. There was also a ton of dialogue that is hard to remember, so Fiona got lost in a couple of places, and at one point the information got a bit rambling. Overall I remember there was about about 3 very funny spots, with most of it being listening, and this made the room quieter, and lessened the ambiance. But even with all of those problems, I still liked it, and it was always interesting and never got boring. If I had to sum it up, I would say it's interesting good.
This show basically tries to solve the problems of the world with music and dance, by saying that the more aggressive music and dance of today is more prone to fighting and binge drinking in under 25 year olds, because they are subjected to it in clubs. She proved this point by playing songs and asking the audience how it made them feel - to show the effects that music has on us -. Like Beethoven's Für Elise conjured up the feeling of sleepiness. Fiona went through the effects that different music genre produce. Like electronic music removes the human element, so it makes you less social and you dance alone. She explained that the U.S. military used to torture prisoners with music like Christina Aguilera's Dirty. And as you would expect, Fiona knowledge of the worst found something even more torturous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovEASuIqVbY&feature=related
She did the history of Australia in interpretive tap dancing. She explained that close and gentle dancing in the past produced gentle people, where as now aggressive music breeds aggressive people. She cited that excessive Christians separating close dancing couples, like in Footloose, separated people into individuals that only thinking of themselves. And that old music of the past had words in it like moon, but now it's all ho and bitch. It finished with her swing dancing, to extol the virtues of partner dancing. It's not a bad show, but I'm glad I saw the good one first, because this one felt like a milder continuation of that one - even though it is totally different -. Taking out all the problems of the night, it's a good show, and though I only heard chuckles through most of it, it still got good applause at the end. PS, Andrew Denton and Jennifer Byrne were in the audience. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4
28.06.11 : Fiona Scott-Norman : The Basement
After trawling the net for the whole day I came across this in the comedy section, and when I researched it, there was a mention of cabaret - you may recall I don't fancy cabaret - so I wasn't that interested. But as I read on, it said she won awards at comedy festivals, and looking further I didn't really see how there could be that much cabaret, when it sounded more like a history of bad music, and thankfully there wasn't. Not really knowing what to expect I can happily to report that the show was brilliant, and it's something you should really make an effort to see, because it's so astonishing, that you will be gasping, shaking your head, and WTF-ing, all through it. It's hard to do this show justice just in words, because it's such an audio visual show, but hopefully this will translate some of the amazement factor. Fiona introduced the show as a tour through the top 10 worst records ever released in the history of the world, but that might be a bit misleading, because it was mainly a tour through the top 10 MOST INAPPROPRIATE records ever released in the history of the world. She started by telling us about her cred, stating that she has been a DJ for 20 years, and then her basic life story about moving from England, to Hong Kong, to Australia, all while playing her copy of a Cantonese, Staying Alive. The main crux to the show is that it is delivered like an awards night, with worst song categories, and then an overall worst at the end. Unfortunately the biggest surprise of the night was that Australians are leaders in the world for politically incorrect music, and the biggest prick being the one with the gold microphone. Categories :-
Australia : Which had Bert Newton trying to sing in French, and preposterous album covers from Tony Barber, Ugly Dave Grey, John Laws, etc. And you haven't lived until you have heard an AFL footballer, that has never had a singing lesson, or even knows what a song is, trying to sing, because it sounded like he was talking the song, not singing it.
Christian Music : Or white American Christian music, which gives you an idea where this is headed. The Lundstroms have to be one of the big perpetrators of non PC music, like with their song Heaven Won't Be Complete Without You, that basically insults every other religion on the plant - I don't get offended often, but this was so unbelievably outrageous that it had me swearing throughout, and that was only number 5. She also found a Christian music book called, From Rock to Rock: The Music of Darkness Exposed!, that had a test that would rate the evil in rock songs, which somehow rated, Sheena Easton's - My baby takes the morning train, as the evilest.
Men with stuff : Or men making themselves look more masculine, which was a smörgåsbord of bad taste album covers. As you would expect, the Hoff was in there, and again that distastefully John Laws, complete with girl hovering near his crotch on her knees. People were gagging.
I'm Not a Racist, But : Had things like the 1957 version of Rolf Harris's Tie Me Kangaroo Down, that had a verse that went "Let Me Abbo's Go Loose, Lou". But the Pièce de résistance was the 2, 14 year old Neo Nazis girls, called Prussian Blue. pictured here http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/8750236.html
That called themselves Prussian Blue, because of the colour left behind by the crystals that killed the Jews in the gas chambers - which was a bit ironic, since they don't acknowledge that the holocaust even happened. I remember Eddie Ifft had a offensive gag about them, and it was "They will stop being racists, when they get their first black cock". And that wasn't even the worst in this category.
Sexism : Dean Martin's - Open Up the Dog House, had lyrics applauding wife beating. And again our Aussie legend was in this category.
Exploitation of Children : With the biggest source of them coming from Johnny Young's Young Talent time, we all know about Debra Byrne publicly exercising her demons about it. There was also a Quiz for the audience to guess the singers of songs being played, and that's when we discovered the perverted theme.
Vanity, Thy Name is Russell Crow : Which was total unknowns, with no talent, releasing albums. Like Noeline from Sylvania Waters, releasing a dance album for the UK market. This section also had more than one star from the original Star Trek series.
Music Your Parents had Sex To : Had disturbing album covers, and black exploitation soundtrack songs like, Come in My Mouth, from the 1974 sexual musical, Let My People Come. There was also an Australian connection with Number 96's Abigail singing the French Je t'aime, but in English - it was horrid -.
Worst of All Time : Will remain a mystery until you see the show, but it was a 1960 all girl Christian garage band, that sounded like a group of people tuning up their instruments, not that they were in tune during the song anyway.
The show is very well thought out and very entertaining, and is not a just a repetitive list of songs, but more like little individual gags, because each one was delivered in a different way. It kind of has that feel of astonishment, and disbelief throughout, kind of like in Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure, but with Dave's being nice astonishment, where as Fiona's is more shock astonishment. Excellent
Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.5
27.06.11 : GNW - New Sketch Show : Fox Studios
Upon walking in I noticed large prefabricated boxed stage sets waiting in the wings, like a lounge room set, etc. Also the main stage was different, because it was just a one seat news reader desk in the middle. And it was this that gave us a hint what the show was going to be like. The show is basically a comedy news report show, like a Jon Stewart Daily Show/Colbert Report/Not Necessarily the News, but not exactly, but more of a conglomeration of many shows - Imagine the old panel show, but with the panel part removed, so it's all the written material -. Tonight the cast was Paul McDermott, Mikey Robins, Claire Hooper, Cal Wilson, Akmal Saleh, and Sammy J & Randy, and all were playing set characters. The recording started with Paul at the desk(see above) dishing out comedic news stories, by himself - a bit like the old show's pre-written comedic summations at the end of each game - but this one had lots in a row - I think they recorded 2 or 3 blocks of this during the night -. Other scenes had Paul crossing to comedians playing a famous person, or an expert, in an interview situation - he did about 4 interviews with 4 different comedians, and out of the 4, only Akmal playing Gaddafi was funny. In about 3 scenes Paul crossed to comedians doing fake news reports in the field. And peppered throughout, was very elaborate sketches with the aforementioned sets that were waiting in the wings - maybe 4 or 5 of them -. I don't know if this is for the show or to amuse the audience, but they showed video send-ups of 2 TV commercials, but with about 10 different versions of each - they were played 5 at a time at different points through the night. I can't tell you if the show is going to be good, because of the way it was recorded, but it looked ok, just not super funny - probably 3.5 with a couple of 4 spots -. What I can tell you about, was what it was like being in this recording. This recording isn't as much fun as being in the old panel show recording - but that's just the nature of a sketch show recording. The old show had maybe 6 games, and because it was a panel show the set-up time between them was very short, like sweep the floor and put down a yellow spot, or some other one item paraphernalia, so it's 6 games with 5 minute set-ups, totalling about 30 minutes. This one has about 20 skits to set-up, and half of them are very elaborate, so it's 10 sketches with 10 minute set-ups, totalling about 100 minutes of set-up time. So you can imagine how much dead time there is, and also why we were there for over 4 hours from 7:00pm to past 11:30pm. Paul is usually good enough to fill in between the set-ups for the old show - he also had help from Mikey, and to a lesser extent, the panel -, but because everyone else was in wardrobe for make-up, he was all by himself, and he just couldn't fill in the massive amount of dead time to keep us amused, and keep the audience hyper in the second half - actually Randy did a little spot to keep us entertained, but that was only 5 minutes -. And that is the dilemma for the entertainment value of watching the recording of this show. I don't know if they really need to do this with a live audience, because they could just laugh track it, but the live audience does tell them what is funny. I seams that they selected the audience to get a favourable crowd that wouldn't mind the somewhat arduous task of this recording, and it kind of worked, because they were pretty good throughout. And even when they got tired at the end, they stilled laughed if something was funny, even though they were pretty quiet if it wasn't. 3.5
25.06.11 : Club Central Comedy : Club Central Hurstville
I know it's hard for comedians to keep the energy up with small crowds, but Seamus McAlery(MC) kept it lower than usual - I notice this a lot, and at nearly every venue -. Whether it's small crowds, or repeats, a lot of comics turn off, and kind of cruise - the Store is probably the only place that nearly every comic steps up, and it's probably due to the larger crowds -. It would probably be better if all comics turned on, like actors, every time, regardless of circumstances, but what can you do. Kathryn Bendall is in the nice area, material wise, but she knows how to pick up a room, and that's exactly what she did, because overall she was pretty good. The last time I saw Sam McCool he wasn't too bad, but now he is even better. Sam also kept the energy up, by being very animated. His main hook is these great stereotypes character impressions, complete with accents - that are so good, that he would fit right in on a improv show. His set material might be a bit limited, but he has the gift of the gab, and can ad-lib with crowds quite easily. Some stereotypes he did tonight was an Indian, an Italian, a Greek, a Lebanese, and a New Zealander, that was so good, that he fooled a few people at the start. The second half started with Seamus, and he picked it up somewhat, but it was Bruce Griffith's lateral pun jokes that hit the mark with the rooms middle aged demographic, so he did very well. This unfortunately was the last show here, and it was a show that suited me pretty well, because it was a no brainier that was close to me, and a good fill in for the late night motor racing crap that I watch for some unknown reason. 3.75
24.06.11 : LadyNerd: A Prototype : Roxbury Hotel
I've seen Keira Daley around for probably 5 years, and that goes back to before cabaret, before Blank the Musical, before Twisted Mellon, before whatever else, to Scared Scriptless, but the Keira Daley that was on tonight, was one I haven't seen before - it's was like a totally different person -. I thought I would be a couple of generations too far away to get this show, and the cabaret part isn't really my cup of tea, but I was wrong, because I did get hooked, and that was because it's just plain funny - even though I'm not a fan of cabaret, so long as it's funny, the delivery system seams inconsequential -. This is a science/history based comedy show, so it probably should be called LadyGeek - I have always assumed geeks know a lot of stuff, that is useful, but that nerds know a lot of stuff, that isn't useful, like the history of Zelda. Actually nerd can go either way depending of the tone of delivery -.
Keria delivered the show in a very excitable, fast talking, fast paced, energetic style, and it kind of reminded me of Felicity Ward, because she is very animated, excitable, and fast talking. But the difference with Felicity is that she kind of spins her wheels, so it's more show that go, but with Keria it has more traction, because the material is well thought out and has substance. Right from the start the jokes came thick and fast with the opening song, that was a confession of her true identity, called I am Nerd. Next there was an audience vote on the perception of what a nerd is, that resulted in a complicated, but funny Venn diagram joke. She followed that with her definition of a nerd, which culminated in a monologue story with singing choruses that portrays the odd behaviours of a nerd, called The Lady is a Nerd. Next we got a funny history lesson about the life of Marie Currie, that was very interesting and well constructed, and with heaps of puns - can't beat a radioactive pun. The song Nothing Can Be Done, was the scientific courtship of Marie and Pierre Currie, which had even more puns. Next Keria divulged her pet nerd hates of wrongly positioned apostrophes. And then continued the historical facet with a carefully constructed comedic story of the life of Bette Nesmith Graham, a high school drop-out that was more that just the mother of a famous band member in the The Monkees, but more importantly an inventor. This one was also capped off with a funny song. We next had the pretty, and funny, laptop love song, followed by glimpse of Keria's exploits in the computer field with a ode to console games, and programming computers. More history followed with Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, from the mid 1800's, who was so forward thinking that she figured out a use for the first computer. And this was followed with a poignant and sad song about her tragic life. Florence Nightingale life was summed up in a movie trailer type delivery, followed by Hedy Lamarr contribution to mobile phones, and finally Amelia Earhart.
I don't really know much about Fringe shows, but comparing it to the ones I have seen, the first 40 minutes of this show is way too good for a Fringe - because it is actually funny. The last 20 minutes changed to less jokes, and more conventional songs, and there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that the first 40 minutes was so good I wished it continued, but really, 40 minutes of solid fun was still great. Keria voice is always technically accurate, so no dud notes in that department, and I think the show covers all age groups, because of the technology and history based themes combined. I don't get excited often, but this show excited me, and even though it had a lot of pun humour, and some were corny, it just fit perfectly with the nerd theme. Great, Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.5
24.06.11 : Jo & Brydie Play Doctor : Roxbury Hotel
It not as funny as the brilliant Princess Cabaret, but it did have charm. I don't usually pay any attention to show titles - luckily for me - because we were told that this risqué title was used only as a promotional ruse, because sex sells. Actually the title did have a bearing on the theme of the show, because it was about Jo & Brydie Playing Doctor with each other, but not in that way, but more like playing doctor for each other's problems - maybe not exactly problems, but more annoyances that they couldn't see in themselves. The story goes that Jo and Brydie are best friends, but unfortunately they spend so much time together they end up knowing each other too well, and that includes the annoying little things about each other. These faults are then delivered on large cards, in like a lecture type presentation, to each other. These major points then alternate between the two, and separate the show into illogical segments. Each segment is constructed by disclosing the major point, like "Jo can't do accents", where they then discus it until Jo can prove it's wrong, or she does an on the spot demonstration to prove it's wrong, and that's when the person making the accusation decides if it deserves tick for success, or a cross for failure. Other examples of points were, Brydie has too many feelings, Jo's has a fear of commitment, Jo only eats junk food, etc. The funniest part was when Brydie got some schmuck to shout out something inappropriate, and that made him look like a complete tool. Other good jokes was the Octopussy joke, and the coughing joke. I also liked it when Brydie used her acting skills and treated every feeling and emotion as a character, like when she was showing affection to Jo, she would do it in Oscar winning moment style(an over the top acting performance), by flickering her eyelashes, lilting her head, and coyly swinging her hips while lightly twisting her foot on an imaginary cigarette, etc. There was dancing to a medley of songs where they acted out each of the spliced together lines from the songs, like Sting's - Don't Stand So Close to Me. Also Brydie got someone from the audience to demonstrate her social flirting techniques, and as you can imagine, they weren't well received by him. There was a point where she mentioned that she couldn't tell us her horror relationship stories, because they were too graphic, but if Lou Sanz can tell us about the dancer she dated, that would suck his own c**k because she wasn't good enough to do it for him, I don't think it can go too far. I probably a bit too old, because I couldn't hear Jo's tiny voice all the time, and I couldn't see all the cute pictures they drew on the cards in their list of grievous - hopefully they will get bigger for the poorly sighted - but it was still more than nice. Mainly chuckles, but still very charming. The laugh value was about a 3.5, but the charm value was a 4, so overall 3.75
22.06.11 : Story Club: Stories Our Parents Just Told Us : Hermann's Bar
Finally the parents get their comeuppance for all those years of embarrassing us in front of other people, when their dirty little secrets - secrets so embarrassing that their very parentage comes into question - are aired for all to see. You can tell how long my attention span is when I notice a dead bit in the middle of a short story, but tonight none of the stories had even a hint of a slow section, and in fact the stories were so equally good, it's hard to pick if any were better than the others.
Molly Lewis : Molly was very trusting of people at a young age, and always saw the innocent side of things, especially if it came from her parents. So when they explained her supposed crack addiction at the age of 3 as just an accident, she didn't question it. That is, until she had to research this story for tonight. So with Stealers Wheel-Stuck in the Middle playing in the background, and a couple sawn off ears on the floor, they spilled the beans about the truth. She was evidently told, that when she was a toddler, she accidentally found an Ecstasy tablet on the floor of a shopping centre, and had mistakenly popped it in her mouth to satisfy her incessant Gore-grind dancing fetish. And it was only when her addiction had got so out of control that she started dribbling, speaking incoherently, and soiling herself, that her parents discovered her penchant for riding the white horse, and dutifully took her to her weekly drug rehabilitation session at the hospital. Unfortunately this fabrication became evident after a de-wingnutifing session, forcing the real truth out that the story had been distorted to protect the guilty, themselves. The story unfolded that she was only 1½, and it didn't happen in a shopping centre, but somewhere more private, like someone's orange shag pile carpet. And it was only after 3 resuscitations due to convulsing and turning blue, that their lack of 'duty of care' came into question. Shame shame you irresponsible adults. You can tell when the audience collectively gasps, that the story has a profound effect. Good
Monica Connors : Monica's stand on immigration took a step backward when her gorgeous Brazilian cousin Adriana moved to Sydney. Things escalated when her love life started taking a turn for the worst, because she would take all the hotties when they went to night clubs, leaving her only with pensioners. So killing two birds with one stone she pushed Adriana into applying for a job in her natural habitat, as some hottie working in The Establishment - I hate Justin Hemmes. Unfortunately things didn't go to plan when her lack of English, and not her looks, let her down. Figuring out that the only place that would overlook this handicap, she applied for a job with sex starved nerds at a prestigious comic book store. Soon her swivel-hips attracted too much attention when a creepy customer got so infatuated that he would come in everyday and stay for the full 8 hours of her shift. Adriana had the buffer of the language barrier, and was able to keep him at bay, until he hypothesized that the language of love is in diorama, and made her a model - of which was displayed on the night -. This freaked her out so much that she took the next day off, and went for an early mourning run to exhaust her fears. Unfortunately while jogging across the sands, she tripped over the remains of a dead woman's body hacked by a machete. The police needed her to file a report back at the station, but underestimated the shock she had suffered when they put her in the back of the car with the police dog. The shock took it's toll and she promptly did a fire-hose impression, by vomiting over the dog and the cops in the front. This one also had that shocking WTF moment, that had numerous jaws dropping off. Good
communitychannel - Joggers and Dead Bodies theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnahALAp5vc £10, Zoe nearly killing her sister - a story already covered -, a Chanel 7 anchorman's wife pissing on the set, her mums dress catching fire, helping a woman with a seamen phobia, the alcoholic 'Cliffy the Homo', that they would dupe by pretending they would touch his knob for $10, but instead run away with the money, etc. Finally in the recesses of her father mind, he recalled his Uncle Kenny. Kenny was diver, that took off to make his riches on a Saudi Arabian oil rig. While there, he made some powerful connections, and when he returned to Wales he started working for them, and got quite rich in the process. Unfortunately when Uncle Bernard, a customs officer, made a big bust one night, it was Uncle Kenny that was placing bricks of heroin under the water off-shore. And it was this, that resulted in him being locked up in Glenmorgan prison for 4 years. Good. Overall for the night Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4.25
Ciaran Magee : Ciaran used the rained out Emu Plains 'Shakespeare in the Park' festival to entice everyone back to his grandmother's house, and intoxicate them with coffee and tea. He tipped them over the precipice with copious caffeine and antioxidants, and slap the truth out of them about the World War 11 - Mikey Robbins WWII joke - butter shortage in Northern Ireland. Espionage was afoot when Mata Granny made a rendezvous with Margret Hide in her house somewhere south of Dublin. Lulling her into a false sense of security with double agent-ness, she played the character of a friend to find the location of the butter. After the secret location, of the kitchen table, had been ascertained, she punched her to the ground during her nap, and made off with the Precious. Making it all the way to the infamous getting caught location, the railway station, a bunch of ruffians shouted 'Show us your butter'. She deftly flashed her goods, complete with ominous stain, right in front of the Irish Gestapo, leaving him none the wiser. Upon returning to her safe house, and with great accolades, she was dubbed, The Kissing Wolf of 1946. It was nicely constructed and delivered. Maybe, better than good.
Vic Araullo-Peters : Vic's father has been estranged 20 years, so they decided to get together recently for coffees, and by coincidence, Vic needed a story for tonight, so he asked him to tell him a bed time story from their family. The story was as cold as ice, snowy even, and was about his sister being lost in the wilderness during a snow storm. Vic's father's father was a cold substance expert, due to being some sort of long lost relative to the Peters ice-cream family, and was very adept at skiing. Wanting to pass this on, he placed his kids in interment camps in Charlotte Pass, and mushed them up and down the cross country slopes of the area. The children had had enough, when one faithful day his sister Cathy tried to make a break to the freedom of Thredbo with a rag tag team of veteran children 'prisoner of war' escapees. Just before setting off, Methuselah warned them to look up - or any other direction away from his hideous face - for wispy clouds, something that would indicated an impending snow storm. Unfortunately being malnourished from lack of Mars bars, they forgot to look up, and were consumed in a total white-out. Just before the visibility faded to zero they spotted a building in the distance, and this just happened to be the long lost city of the Halfway house, one of the biggest white elephants ever constructed, The Snow Titanic - Thredbo to Charlotte Pass Chairlift. Unfortunately the disused restaurant was locked, but thankfully a nearby maintenance shed was open. After 3 hours of huddling for inside for warmth they realised they wouldn't make it through the night, so they started a fire. This unfortunately produced a pronounced problem, sheds don't have chimneys, and they nearly died of asphyxiation. Drawing on memories of Stanley Kubrick's 2001-A Space Odyssey, they discovered a tool to break into the restaurant, and proceeded to wait. Meanwhile back at Charlotte Pass Gulag, the Commandant asked of volunteers for a suicide mission to retrieve their bodies. Just then Radar-O- Methuselah remembered the halfway restaurant, and that it would be their likely location. Just as Bombardier - now BRP, and on Canterbury Rd - makes a Sea-Doo for the sea, they also make a Ski-Doo for the ski, or more importantly the snow, which would provide transport for the rescuers. They hopped aboard and drove to the restaurant, where they found them just as the old man had predicted. Upon returning them to their loving parents, they received a beating they so richly deserved. Vic's information about this ill-conceived chairlift prompted me to look up facts - that and the fact that I have been to Charlotte Pass once. I remember you couldn't actually drive there, but had to be tractor-ed there in a demountable tin building on skis. And I remember it was on day it achieved the lowest recorded temperature in Australia, of -23.0 C (-9.4 F), on the 29th June 1994. Even though it happened that night after we left, I do remember it was fricken cold on the way back in that tin shed. The facts about the nut-so lift are quite interesting reading, and even more so for me because it was made at Transfield, a big construction firm that I have visited on an excursion. Nicely constructed and informative, better than good
https://bygoneaustralia.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/alpine-way-to-charlotte-pass-chairlift-topstation-restaraunt/
Patrick Lenton : Patrick told us about the grandiose accomplishments - or so he was told - of one of his close family's members, in what was to become the story of 'The Myth of Uncle Herc'. The story of how the story was discovered, started with his father's brother. Crazy Uncle Bob used to shoot kids for stealing his marijuana, so when Aunty Beryl died, he had the idea that they should say that they were the only family members on record, whether there was others or not, and this would ensure that they got all the money. This win-fall had them both buying new cars, but unfortunately his father caught glandular fever from his, and was hospitalised. This left his wife very distraught, and is where the legend started. His grandmother Shirley tried to comfort her with the story of their famous Uncle Herc, by telling her he died of glandular fever when he was young. She continued explaining that Herc was a legend in the family, and regaled them with tales of his accomplishments, like being the Mayor of Cobar when he was in his early 20's, and other feats of strength. Unfortunately when the Shirley's supposed gushing stories were researched, everything was the complete opposite. He wasn't closely related, but a distant family member. He wasn't the mayor, but a civil clerk. He didn't die young, but was still alive at 85. And Herc doesn't stand for Hercules, but Hector. In the end it looked like Shirley was the instigator of Chinese Whispers, or at least clinically insane, or maybe just a Timelord. Good
Alex Lee : Alex's family must be closer than some, because amongst the plethora of stories, they were hard pressed to find one that was a secret. So obscured by the new shiny microphone, Alex punched on, and told us a story she already knew about how her parents met, but a part of it that wasn't really known, at least not in this detail. Alex was having a family dinner with her new boyfriend, when the subject of how her parents met came up. Not knowing the exact circumstances, she ask her mum. Unfortunately Alex's mum was a bit too forth-write with the truth, because when she revealed that she went home with her father that night, and never left, it made the whole situation sound less that romantic, and more sordid, because they were having a 36 year long one night stand. The story went that at the age of 26, Alex's mum attended a set-up/blind date party in the Shire. She looked every bit like a Go-Go dancer in short white mini skirt, long straight brown hair, and a failed marriage. She was admiring the red and green olives skewered into oranges with toothpicks, that were on pink plates placed on a purple tablecloth, that was draped over a brown table in a yellow room with a blue carpet - and you wonder why it was called the psychedelic era, when everything looked like Technicolor vomit. Captain Safari Suit hosted the party and was trying to set her up with Malcolm, a wealth lawyer type person, but his cravat wearing signified to her that he should be in a fight club, or more importantly, a punched in the head fight club. Her eyes quickly wandered to a man that had just entered. His hair was long and black, and even silkier than hers. He had style, being shirtless and in a denim jacket with the sleeves ripped off, and way ahead of the trend, because he wasn't wearing any shoes to a party - take that Wil Anderson -. Shaggy Daddy was no hipster dufus, but more a hippie Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, and even had an orange kombi to boot - what's with the colours of that generation -. Next morning her boyfriend knocked on her door, which begs the question, why was she allowing herself to be set-up with another guy, when she already had a boyfriend. But even more importantly, why was there another guy in her bed, when she already had a boyfriend. It all sounded very inappropriate - well not really, because anyone would love to be in the position of being chased by so many. Shaggy Ninja Daddy escaped out the back with the keys to her car, and when she went to pick them up, she never left. Soon they decided this one night stand had gone on too long, so after 3 months they got married, bought a house, started a family, and discovered Radium. At the first family dinner with her in-laws this Gwai Lo(literally means ghost, and is sometimes translated into English as foreign devil), or Gaijin, for the Fast and the Furious Tokyo drift fans, learned Cantonese so they could never make her feel uncomfortable again. Alex's parent were in the audience, and Mrs Alex turned bright red - not that anyone could tell in the darkness - but it was all fair, because she would've made Alex turn red on many occasions. Where as I thought it was better than good, the audience thought it was very good, and gave this one the biggest cheer of the night
Zoe Norton Lodge : It wasn't really evident on the night, but Zoe took a similar approach to Alex, in that she also couldn't get an unknown story from her parents - now I know what that comment to Alex about the 2 girls at the same party wearing the same dress was about. It must be a girl thing, but it seams like girls are closer to their parents, because they know so much about them. This one is harder to explain, because it was a list of crazy stories that weren't told, because they weren't secrets. It included them killing Jackie Weavers budgies, aiding a divorce when the wife fell in love with a 20" dildo, an appendage reclaimer that collects penises when they fall off, travelling from Greece to Wales with £10, Zoe nearly killing her sister - a story already covered -, a Channel 7 anchorman's wife pissing on the set, her mums dress catching fire, helping a woman with a seamen phobia, the alcoholic 'Cliffy the Homo', that they would dupe by pretending they would touch his knob for $10, but instead run away with the money, etc. Finally in the recesses of her father mind, he recalled his Uncle Kenny. Kenny was diver, that took off to make his riches on a Saudi Arabian oil rig. While there, he made some powerful connections, and when he returned to Wales he started working for them, and got quite rich in the process. Unfortunately when Uncle Bernard, a customs officer, made a big bust one night, it was Uncle Kenny that was placing bricks of heroin under the water off-shore. And it was this, that resulted in him being locked up in Glenmorgan prison for 4 years. Good. Overall for the night Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4.25
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17.6.11 : Lou Sanz - Not Suitable for Children : Tap Gallery Sydney
I liked this one better than the last show, Please Don't Use My Flannel For That, which left you anxious and distressed when you felt like something bad could happen at any moment. It wasn't constant intense laughs all the way, but more lull you into a false sense of ease with a nice innocuous story, then punching you in the face with something so inappropriate that it produced violent laughs. The construction of the show was mainly a plethora of short stories of an adult relationship nature, hence the title. And these were separated by a chime in some sort of electronic book fashion, to signify the point when the next story started. All the stories felt like they were about Lou and her relationships, but in a removed way. Like the fairytale of the Prince leaving a breakup letter to Princess, where he explained why he was taking the TV. The first story was called The Girl That Obviously Looks Like A Man. It started with Margarette riding a double decker bus in London, when she gets a tap on the shoulder from her old Australian ex lover Julian, who screams "OMG, I can't believe it's you on this bus half way around the world, have you tried anal sex yet", And that's how the whole show goes, it has that hit and run shock element that catches you by surprise, so you laugh at how inappropriate it is. Following that was Let's Get Wet Together, where you don't want to know what made them wet. I don't know if this was a joke but Lou said she can't have kids, so a psychiatrist suggested she write a letter to her hypothetical adopted child. This was delivered in a picture story book called I Might Not Be Able To Birth You, But I Paid For You, So Your Going To Do What I Say. Next was Annie You'll Never, which may be another disguised self related story - followed by Audrey The Child Bride. Her bloging spread out to writing an advice column, that ended up being unhelpful and openly abusive to the writers. Open Letters To My Sex Life was about man soda, and continued with inappropriate songs boys have chosen to have sex to - which again was probably some life experience she was subjected to -. Next was the not inappropriate Carla The Ethnic, who wasn't ethnic but brown for another reason, and then The Prince's Letter To The Princess. Her Enid Blyton book reading - unknown at the time - has many sexual innuendos that you can read into it now. She finished up by making the audience close their eyes for her last bed time story, which was a distorted The Woman Who Lived In A Shoe, complete with heaps of promiscuity. The show is more a like Story Club, but with more grossed out laughs, so it kind of oscillates between mainly 3.5, punctuated by short sharp 4.5's. I was a bit preoccupied by myself at the start, so it took me time to tune into the show - so much so that I felt I should come back tomorrow because I missed so much - but after I got into the swing of it, I was fine. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4
16.6.11 : Jackie Kashian, Desh @ A Mic in Hand : Friend in Hand Pub
This one met 2 points of my criteria, by having someone I haven't seen before, but more importantly, having someone from overseas, and because overseas comics aren't that common around here, I pretty much have to go. The night was divided into 3 parts, with each part having a different level. The first part averaged at nice, with Scott Abbot(3.5) - doing some clever doctor/euthanasia similarities to footballers/rapists material -, Andrew Carter(3.5), Ash Jattan(3) - wasn't my cup of tea but the crowd seamed to like his dancing -, and Richard Brophy(3.25). The second third picked up with Dave Pollard(3.5) charming the fresh crowd - unfortunately my heavy exposure to him has made me a bit immune to his stuff now -. Next was Rhys Nicholson(4), and what can you say about him, that hasn't said before. Except that his biting comments, mannerisms, and crazy sounds, had some girls cupping their faces in their laps from laughing so hard, and this gave him equal biggest applause of the night. It was strange because Billy Freeman(3.5) is usually better, but I think he used too many corny jokes and not as much solid stuff, so he was a bit off his usual game. I used to like Eric Hutton(3.75) a lot, and then I hated him because of his World Bar gigs. But tonight that got turned around again when he did all material and no improvising, so now I like him again. Not only was Desh the MC, but tonight he was also the second headliner, and thankfully because I haven't seen him in a while, myself and the audience thought he was good at both.
The third part was all Jackie Kashian, and she was good, but good in a different way. Jackie style isn't funny funny, but more interesting funny, so it more chuckles than ROFL, but either way because it's so interesting, it's just as entertaining. She speaks like an old head that has been around, yet she looks young, and then when you find out she is actually older - in her 40's - it still doesn't make sense because she is a geek and talks like a young person. Most of the comics in America accumulate in New York - funny how the Pilgrims came from York, and this place is called New York, lucky they didn't come from South Wales - and the one thing about New York comics is that they are usually fast talking, quick thinking, and have a lot to say. And I don't mean that in a bad way, because what they say is often very interesting, and tonight it was a huge 40 minute interesting - which is a big slot considering she only came to Australia to attend a wedding. Most of the younger comics from NY are more political, but Jackie is more old school funny. She has been to Australia to do a 9 week regional tour of Aust, like Kalgoorlie, which she felt was similar to her recent trip to entertain the troops. Unfortunately the touring comic's d**k jokes seamed inappropriate when she noticed signs posted at every base saying 'Stop Raping Each Other'. She has worked at Kinko's printing, where she felt the place giving off that tense, but silent vibe, and along with the mass abundance of paper and letters, it nearly sent her Postal. She is a computer geek, and this somewhat explains why she was never good with guys and never actually dated, so her accumulated knowledge of men have been nervous one night stands. She wanted to cure this dilemma and thought laterally by combined the 2 and using computer dating, where she found a man that makes video games for a living, collects action figures, and reads comics, and to another geek it felt like home, so she married the only person she ever dated. This lack relationship rules experience nearly bit her in the ass, when her boyfriend suggested a pirate wedding with matching tattoo's, and that's where she learnt to say no. She went on to tell us some stories about her family, starting with her dad. Her dad is a bit of a jackass, because he used to sell wigs to bald men by pretending his full head of hair was a wig. And after being divorced for 6 years still lives in the same house with his ex wife, in Jackie's old room. He also made his own matching denim outfit but cutting the arms off a denim shirt, and then cutting the legs off jeans to make shorts . Her siblings are crazy with one brother being an Evangelist, the other a fornicator with 9 kids, and the third a pothead. She is a bit vocal about LA animal lovers that try to extend the life of animals past their natural life span, like giving a 16 year old cat dialysis at a cost $3000, explaining for that amount of money you could buy 3000 new cats. And this has animal lovers coming up to her after shows accusing her of not liking animals. So she has to explain she doesn't hate animals, just people for being stupid. I might not have laughed all the time but I liked her, and the audience agreed with the biggest applause of the night. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
15.06.11 : Hermann's Heroes: A Series of Excellent Stand Up Comedy Things : Hermann's Bar
Dr : Well Mr Hing, how have you been since our last session?
Hing : Well...... I went to Hurstville, but nobody liked me.
Dr : I'm sure you're mistaken. Those feelings are just in your head.
Hing : I'm sure you're right, except for the fact that MY AUNT WALKED OUT ON ME HALFWAY THROUGH MY SET..... Dr DOUCHEBAG.
I'm exaggerating, because he was pretty good at Hurstville, but you should be able to garner the tack he took tonight. I think due to exams, the crowd was only at half strength, but that didn't matter because the room had that intimate, hanging in a warm lounge-room in winter with friends vibe. Michael Hing continued that feeling by telling us his adventures of the week, and this time it clicked perfectly with this group and was very funny. He started by saying he wasn't going to do much stuff, because he hadn't written anything, but before you know it a solid 20 minute block of funnies have just passed by. Because he is as predictable as picking the actual position of an electron(Quantum Physics gag), I will just glance through a small bit of what was probably an accumulated 35 minutes of total on stage time. Tonight he tried improvising with the crowd - I say improvising, but it's actually more abusing the crowd -. Luckily he wasn't as acidic as usual, and the hapless individuals were pretty good natured, like poor Beardo and Mr Goatee - Is it just me, but isn't using visual differences of physical features just one step away from racial profiling -. Also we had Carlo Ritchie doing an excellent job of adding stuff from the back, and mainly trying to keep Michael in check - something that is essential -. All he needs is some more sounds - like a lone chirping cricket - and he could probably do even more.
Ian Ferrington was first up, and did a very articulate set that was quite good. I liked his Dr Grandfather centrifuging in grave pun, even though the crowd thought otherwise. He chastised himself about not knowing the date of the moon landing, an event his grandfather attended, but what he doesn't know is that the people that actually watched it in July 1969 wouldn't remember the date either, because it was so long ago. David Mierendorff was nice. I think Nick Capper uses this room to work out new material, so he can be a iffy, but his new 'things that make him angry/Alzheimer' bit was still ok. Next we had Harry The Magician, who I think was purposely throwing tricks so they looked lame in something reminiscent of Dr Suaveo(Neil Hamburger's mate). Tom Walker did a bit on a UFC based religious group's motto 'Jesus doesn't Tap', that was ok. In the second half Gen Fricker was nice again, followed by the pro Umit Bali trying his newer stuff. Umit talks fast in places, but I remember when he first started. He was so excitable, and spoke so fast, that you laughed just at the speed he could talk at. Usually Umit is very scripted, unless he senses that the audience knows his set material, and this is where he is less scripted, and mixes it up to sound different. Tonight it was that haphazard delivery, but either way he was still good. Aaron Counter, also a semi pro, gets better every time I see him, and tonight he was better again. Ryan Withers and Shane Matheson did 'Lethal Weapon the Musical', which was not hilarious funny, but more crazy funny. It was really good the first third, died in the middle a bit, and then picked up again in the last third with the pros. Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.75
13.06.11 : Bridesmaids - movie
Comedy : A woman has a dead beat boyfriend, her business has failed, and life is generally not working out for her, when she has to be the bridesmaid for her engaged and moving on best friend. I was so looking forward to this, because the trailer looked so good, so much so that even with the sparse and mild jokes at the start, I still thought it would pick up. But then the storyline just kept beating on this woman, and the more it beat on her, the more I got annoyed, so by 1½ hours of beating on this woman I was thinking about leaving. It started at 3.5, dropped to 1 at ¾ distance, and picked up to 2.5 at the end. Even with the huge cameo cast of Chris O'Dowd(IT Crowd), Matt Lucas, Rebel Wilson, and Franklyn Ajaye(a comic I saw years ago at the SOH), I don't think anyone will truly like this one. It might just be me, so go and see it and decide for yourself. Crowd : 3 - Me : 1
11.06.11 : Club Central Comedy : Club Central Hurstville
On paper this looked good, because it had the 2 strong headliners of Dave Jory and Tahir doing this room for the first time. But even with such an incentive I was still hesitant, mainly because Tahir's doesn't seam to try that hard at pub gigs. So I was going to give this a miss, when I changed my mind at the last minute, and thankfully it worked out because Tahir was in pretty good form. Peter Meisel had the momentous task of making people laugh again after being here only 2 weeks ago. But luckily he only had to host, so he didn't have to do that much material anyway, and even with the repeat handicap there was still quite a few people laughing, so things worked out fine and he did well. First up was Michael Hing, and surprising he choose a very controlled regimented delivery - something I haven't seen before -. Latter on he did return to excitable mode to raise the energy, but it seams either delivery works. Thankfully he only abused one girl tonight - which makes things feel awkward - but overall he did very well, especially with the young people at the back. We finished the first half with Thair, who was good. The second half started with Christina Eakins, and she was nice, followed by the always good Dave Jory. 4
11.06.11 : You people pushed this to #1 outright on the Most Popular Blog chart. And again on the 12.06.11
10.06.11 : The Falling Joys - Oxford Art Factory - music
I think every Falling Joys fan in Sydney turned up, because it was packed, and it was brilliant. It was kind of weird waiting outside, because all those young people back then, are now nearly 40. Outside it had that long lost reunion vibe, because people were recognising their friends years after they lost contact. That reunion vibe continued when I saw Bernie Hayes(Club Hoy) - who still gets a shock when he sees me because of the Stella-One-Eleven years, even though I used to follow Club Hoy heavily years before that -. Other people I recognised from 90's bands was Jodi Phillis and Trish Young from the Clouds. It was even weird when the doors opened, because everyone was so polite that no one rushed the door, and the door-bitch had to actually call everyone in - like I said, it's people from gentler time -.
We the band started playing they busted out with the hauntingly beautiful XYZ, and straight away you realised they sound exactly like they did in the old days - vocalist returning after years of not singing can go off key, just ask Bono when he did the POP tour because he had to get singing lessons, but Suzie was pretty accurate all night, and it was only a few spots were she had to adjust -. Next was the kick ass Parachute, followed by Shot in Europe, then the energetic sweet Jennifer, followed by the powerful poignancy of Incinerator. They made Fiesta come alive on stage, making it's message even more powerful, and followed it with the early You're In A Mess, probably their first hit, and then the subdued Weekend. When I saw the Clouds girls in the crowd I didn't expect that they were going to sing, but they reprised their roles on the album in the beautiful song A Winter's Tale, and then the amazing Lock It, that goes from sweet to a punch in the face, - I can't remember their voices being that beautiful live before, but tonight they were perfect -. Breakaway was followed by the brilliant Black Bandages, complete with it's distorted American national anthem as their big finish. The crowd did get them to return for an encore that started with the riffy Puppy Drink, and finally the very early 1998 Shelter, from their first EP. It was a brilliant night, but I made the mistake of staying at the back on a comfortable seat for most of it. Luckily I moved to my usually spot at the front for the last 4 songs, and it was amazing. 5
The Boxcar(Aerial Mix) of Amen was probably their best known song, it had ½ a year of solid air play on JJJ, but I couldn't find it. I did find Boxcar's Testament Mix, which is still good. - link has been broken
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09.06.11 : Murder & Romance at the Roxbury Festival of Awesome Improv : Roxbury Hotel
Part1 - The Project 52 crew of Bridie Connell, Simon Greiner, Ben Jenkins, Edan Lacey, Patrick Magee and Carlo Ritchie, went to town on this one and blitzed it, in the English murder mystery - Murder at NorthBanger Abbey. The baseline story is going to be a familiar one, being that's it's a murder mystery
Grimly the Butler is searching the attic when he bumps into Mary the Maid, but when Lord Guildasbottom appears, and wants to dismiss her, Grimly reminds him that it was he who made her pregnant with child. Grimly searches on and bumps into Clive the Gardner who is looking for a trout, but this is a rouse because he is secretly tending his poisonous mushrooms. Soon McTavish The Scottish Cook is complaining to Grimly that the Allan key that he uses to keep the constantly disassembling kitchen, assembled, has now disappeared. Grimly continues on to find the Mute Boy Dogsbody, who has the key, so he drops it through the trapdoor and onto the head of the now downstairs McTavish. Grimly then proceeds downstairs to greet the guests, but is confronted by Lord Guildasbottom chastising Clive Gardner for being in the Ballroom. When Clive leaves, Grimly deals with McTavish's menu of fried lamb fingers, tiny pig toothpicks, and his Devil May-care, which is a goat fighting a goose. Grimly then reminds the Lord that Dogsbody must dress him before the guests arrive, because he is naked, but when they go upstairs the Lord rejects Dogsbody's suggestion of pigs feet for shoes, and the notion of wearing pants. The guests start arriving with Captain Sparrowflight from the war, who sails into the landlocked Guildasbottom estate. Grimly then hags up the Captains gun, when the Lord - with his balls swinging in the breeze - enters to meet his old friend. The Mysterious Psychic Lady Baklava interrupts their conversation, but it soon becomes evident that Sparrowflight and her are on less than amicable terms. This aggression is actually Sparrowflight's way of flirting with the bitch, but it doesn't work because she is smitten by Guildasbottom. Field Marshal Kane of Her Majesty's Royal 19th-th Infantry enters the hall after defecating in the Dining room, and proceeds to recount a old joke to break the ice with Lady Baklava. Toodlesquip then arrives in his Humdinger to recite some of his non rhyming unfinished poetry, which infuriates the Lord. Entering from the garden, Captain Sparrowflight has apprehended Professor Poodlepip's lesser known brother, Professor Poodlepip. The man of science intrigues Lady Baklava, but he is less than impressed with her dabbling in the occult. Field Marshal Kane flirts with Lady Baklava by telling her his tale of killing a man with a sparrowfinch, but the Lord interjects and tells him that she is besotted by him, and it's only his death that would change things. Meanwhile Captain Sparrowflight is secretly listen in, but when discovered he side-slips the subject by producing a coin that he found outside. On inspection Professor Poodlepip can't make heads nor tails of it, until he finds a wire and discovers it's a listening bug. The Lord becomes bored with this excruciatingly long 7 minutes of mindless banter and calls Clive, but he appears wearing Kane's jacket with a faulty buckle that doesn't allow him to remove it. This infuriates Guildasbottom, and he insults everyone and storms off to retire for the night. The guests are outraged. Sparrowflight wants to give the Lord a piece of his mind, Kane is in a murderous mood, Professor Poodlepip finds a tiny bomb in Toodlesquip's pocket, Lady Baklava senses danger, McTavish is livid that nobody ate his fighting goat. Then the lights go out, and a woman screams. When the lights return, Kane says it's nothing to worry about because it sounded like a monkey being eaten by a croc-a-deal, but when the Lord is found dead, it is revealed that he screams like a woman. Inspector Daffid Jones of the Cardiff Central Police dutifully arrives, from skulking out in the garden, and interviews the suspects. Lady Baklava is singled out first, and in a flash back is discovered to be a Jilly Jilly Jangles a cockney scrag living in Turkey, who was given a Baklava to eat. Gay Captain Sparrowflight is the next suspect, and he is questioned about his proclivity to playing chess - we are whisked to a mountain top when the Captain meets a yogi who taught him the game, and how to assassinate people. The Inspector calls the Valet Dogsbody because he has just noticed his jacket has been inside-out all along, and while he is correcting the error he questions him in a non verbal mime conversation where it is discovered that he was the freak show boy that couldn't speak in the local circus. Grimly is the next suspect, and he confesses that he was in the war of 1819 under Field Marshal Kane, with the then, Captain Guildasbottom. He goes on to tell that after Kane is partially wounded by Johnny Shrappey, Kane had planed to kill Guildasbottom in the future at 6:19pm, or 18:19 army time, because Guildasbottom had ordered a risky charge over the top. Clive is next to confess that he grows hallucinating mushrooms to sell to children for their gold. Toodlesquip changes his name to Tarquin McGrimlymahmaha, and recounts the 3 men that died doing the Charleston for 36 hours. Professor Poodlepip recounts the time with his domineering brother George, and Mary and McTavish are passed over due to Dogsbody giving the Inspector a key that prompted a hunt for Allen. After the fruitless hunt is over, the Inspector comes to the conclusion it was Kane, who confesses to killing Guildasbottom as a revenge for shooting Kane's Gypsy Girlfriend Henrietta Lovely, when he mistook her for a rabbit.
It was 6 people doing 17 characters with 15 different English accents, that was very funny and a lot of fun, and for me the best part of the night, excellent.
Part 2 was A Romance, which entailed 2 improvisers and a violinist doing a 35 minute scene about a romance. For my first 8 years of Improv, Improv was synonymous with laughing, so when scenes don't have laughter - more common with long form improv - it doesn't grab my attention, and that's what happen with me tonight. Most of this I was drifting in and out, and it was only the amazing Derek Flores that would snap me back with these incredibly exaggerated - but not over done - emotive characters that he portrayed. It wasn't for me but the crowd seamed to like it a lot.
Part 3 was The Conversation, and thank heavens they fixed this mess. There was people talking over each other, people interrupting, it just felt like a confusing mess, - The same thing happened with Andrew O'Keeffe TV show - but tonight Cale controlled it very well. He had a small calm interview, and then prompted the improvisers when it was time for them to do their thing, which separated each part so that you could follow exactly what was happening. Tonight we had Kimberley Cooper(Home and Away), who I knew nothing about - the only thing I know about Australian soap stars is that they used to hang out down the road at the Excelsior with Wes Carr -. The problem was even after the interview, we still didn't know anything about her - The problem when the host knows the guest is that they already know all their stories, so they can forget to make them repeat them for the audience and instead just continue the last conversation they had with them, so by the end we don't really find out anything about them -. It was a slight oversight, but not a big problem, because it went well anyway.
The crowd was pretty equal all night, but might have been a touch louder on the first part. Crowd : 4.75,4.25,4.25 - Me : 4.5,3.5,3.75
09.06.11 : Super 8 - movie
Drama | Mystery | Thriller : In 1979 a group of school friends are making a home movie when they witness a train derailment. Then when the military come to investigate, strange things happen. This reminded be of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in that there is a mystery happening while people go through their everyday lives, and then there is a big mysterious finish. This movie is for a younger audience, because they won't be put off by the over direction - it was like every scene in the first half was an Oscar winning moment. The first half was all emotional drama before the second half changed to interesting action. I think most people will say 4, but it was annoying in places, so it's a 3.5 for me.
08.06.11 : Make Way For Ducklings - A Goose, a Gander and a Goose : Hermann's Bar
I didn't mind tonight's show, in fact I thought it was alright and quite enjoyable. It's hard to pick which skit was better, because they were all around the 3.5 - 3.75, except for the best one involving 2 guys spiking each other drinks - it had that 'It's so obvious it's happening, but we will continue with the fake ignorance for comedic effect' vibe. Bridie's birthday party started slow but finished well with a human sacrifice. I liked the Bondage mistress being afraid to hurt her customer - but that was probably due to the time I went to the Hellfire club and the biggest most dangerous dude in the place was tied to the rack, but cried so much they had to untie him because nobody made a lash small enough just for him. Other skit mentions were, The pizza thief being sung a new version of Carly Simon's Your So Vain, The OCD person without OCD changing gloves all the time, The doctors trying to out-do each other, and The Thespian making Shakespeare announcements. The other mention was the cast made the scenes come alive, like Carlo Richie's Bob Katter. Cyrus B doing a great film director that was un-subtly firing his star actor, and his dying man allocating his possessions in a Will to his family. And Jack Gow who did nothing half arsed with every character being at full throttle, like the Son that was Coming out that he was Brie cheese in the lactose intolerant family, the Great Wall Mongol shopper, the improvising actors class with a gay son not being accepted by his mum, and the friend that was forgotten by the other friend. 3.75
07.06.11 : X-Men: First Class - movie
Action | Drama : It answers all the questions as to how the X-Men started, even why Xavier is bald(lol). Never been a big fan of the X-Men series because it has always pushed Wolverine - my least favourite character - but this one is alright. All the 'Begins' movies have an advantage over the others in the franchises because they have so much more story, unlike the others that are usually just stop the bad guy stuff. Like Batman Begins is the best in the Batman series for me, this has been the best in the X-Men series for me. It was nice that they used the little known fact that the placement of U.S. missiles near Russian borders, was what really started the Cuban Missile Crisis - it disrupted the delicate balance of power. 4.25
05.06.11 : No Laughing Matter Comedy Gala : Enmore Theatre
For someone stuck in the repeat blues the best thing about tonight was all the new stuff. There was people I hadn't seen before, and the people I had seen before, I haven't seen that often, so the whole night seamed fresh and new. Mikey Robbins was the host, but because hosting punctuates the comics material it's easy to lose momentum, but overall he was still good. The biggest surprise of the night was the first up Dave O'Neil. Dave is pretty funny on TV, but his stand-up is really strong and super funny - after seeing that routine I would definitely go out of my way to see him if he ever plays in Sydney. Dan Illic excels with big crowds, and tonight was no exception. I have seen Greg Fleet a couple of times - and a couple of times he has pissed me off when he didn't turn up for a booked gig - but every time he has turned up, he has been great, as he was tonight. Claire Hooper was very animated when she did The Sideshow with Paul McDermott, but on Good News Week she has been a bit subdued. Tonight she continued with that subdued style of delivery, but even though her on stage demure was low key, the material wasn't, so she ended up being pretty good. Myself and probably the entire audience did know who Tommy Little was - so the entrance applause was a little weak - but that didn't matter because once he started the audience came around. Even though he is only 25, his confidence and delivery is that of a more experienced comedian, and since he is the same age as most of the audience, his material had an instant rapport with the crowd, so he did very well. Dave Thornton blitzed it, and had me and the crowd seeing spots. Tom Ballard started the second half and can be a bit hit and miss with me - even though lately he is more hit than miss - but tonight was another hit. Josh Thomas isn't as confronting and dynamic as Tom, but he was still charming and good. The last time I saw Corinne Grant her show was a bit mild, but still charming. Tonight she was very dynamic and energetic in her delivery and material, so was good, and got great applause to prove it. I knew Simon Palomares was going to be good, but for some reason the audience didn't give him much entrance applause - maybe they didn't know who he was, or are sick of his Wog's Out of Work shows, or maybe he just looked too old to relate to this young audience -, either way that soon changed. His appearance may be a bit deceptive, but his material suits all ages because it goes from his grandparents to his EMO kids, and it's that broad subject matter makes him instantly relatable. So by the end of his set, the whole crowd turned and gave him a huge cheer, probably the biggest of the night. I have followed Fiona O'Loughlin for years, so I am familiar with her material, but she had some new stuff tonight. I remember when she first did the Sydney Opera House, and I was standing outside when she came up to me and asked me if she could smoke here, and straight away I thought she shouldn't be smoking because I don't want talented people dying young. So tonight that has come full circle, because her new routine is all about her doctor telling her she has to quit smoking. She also did her relative new Oprah routine, that went down a treat tonight. All the comics were a 4 or higher, so I loved the whole night, and all the new material was so refreshing. Crowd : 5 - Me : 5
03.06.11 : Magic Comedy Night : Tap Gallery
The last time I was here was about 8 months ago, and it was a nice night, with quite a few people. Tonight unfortunately not that many people turned up, the late arriving gallery cat was suspiciously absent so maybe she forgot to bring people, either way the 30 people were treated to an intimate night. I don't know what the brief is here, but all the comics are female - except for that boring guy last time - and tonight we had 7. Vanessa Ballard(host) was good, Natali was nice, Alice Fraser was the funniest, Jenny Campbell teamed up with Alice for a short set, Ana Key strangely showed no anarchy when she sang her Spanish song, Genevieve Fricker unfortunately didn't use a mic but just plugged her guitar in to the amp, so I couldn't hear the words that well - people like me with hearing damage I can't hear the words when there is a background noise - but she was still good, and Alex Lee talked very fast and was nice. The odd thing was that some of the names weren't familiar to me, so I thought there should be some new stuff, but when they ran through their routines, I realised that I had seen everyone before. You probably know I'm not fond of Magicians - I probably think too analytically because of my Engineering background, so I'm always analysing how the tricks are done rather than accepting them - but that wasn't a problem because they were all quite entertaining. The problem was I didn't stop to think that there are so few magicians around, because the 2 magicians on the night, were magicians that I had seen before - I might be exaggerating the problem somewhat, because they were still enjoyable. Our magicians tonight was Adrian Saw, who was good, and PiP the Comic Illusionist, who was also good. Laugh level was about 3.5, but the enjoyment level was 3.75
02.06.11 : The Roxbury Festival of Awesome Improv : Roxbury Hotel
Overall the show was better than usual, and all of it was fine, but it still doesn't have that exceptional quality for me - which is rare these days anyhow -. It was entertaining enough, but overall it just doesn't feel like it has the meatiness of shows from a bygone era, and that's no reflection on this particular show, it's just how they do things these days - In actual fact that feeling is only going to be evident to people who have seen both, which isn't this young crowd, so it's a mute point anyhow -. And from the sound of the crowd, it didn't seam like a problem anyway.
Fourwords : Art Show - The Project 52 crew did a format we have seen before at Hermann's. It entailed the crowd suggesting a list of famous art works, before the show, and then these pictures are projected on a screen during the show one at a time, so that the players can take inspiration from them. Unfortunately there were little bugs in the show, like they should have got someone to change the pictures on cue, rather then stopping the show while someone ran over to change it. Also everybody had to come out on stage to see the pictures when they changed, before each scene. But overall it was nice.
Petri dish : was more like truth scene, so it wasn't that funny. It was like Cindy Tonkin driving the scene, but with no one really doing anything with it. ok
James Brown - HIT ME : Cale Bain and Bek De Unamuno did a number of scenes using suggestions that 'James Brown - Hit Me', conjured in the audiences heads. It was nice.
The Conversation : Had 3 people having a conversation, based on ideas from the audience, and then the improv troupe used those conversations as prompts for little scenes. The problem was that is was very ram-shackled. The 3 people having the conversation had interesting stories, but they talked over, and interrupted, each other. Also they didn't leave much time for the Improv, so the improv crew had to interrupt the conversation to do their scenes, and then before the scene got any momentum, the people having the conversation interrupted them back. It was very discombobulated. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 3.75
I had to leave this to after the festival, in case this rant effects sales, because after all, they are nice people.
After last year, I think Improv has finally beaten the enthusiasm out of me, because I have kind of lost interest. In the old days there was 16 shows a year, with 8 of them being brilliant. Last year I saw 52 shows, and only 2 were brilliant. It's just not great value for spending $1000. I have been pretty passionate about Improv, and that's because it was my favourite thing to do - even more than straight out comedy -. And what I liked about Improv was that I laughed louder, and harder at these shows. Also you could repeatedly watch the same basic show, that was different each time, and all were as constantly as funny as each other. But now I kind of realise I'm wasting my time, because it has just changed and gone in a direction that I don't really want to go. - Basically my biggest qualm is that it's not as funny -. It kind of started with Twisted Mellon doing Long Form shows, that were novel at the time, but not hilarious. Then FBCNLT started, and it was a bit better, but by that time, I was already losing interest in Long Form - I hope I never have to see another 2 person Long Form scene again. I think 2 teams of 3 would have been better -, and that's why I only went to 6 of these a year. But last year I made a big push, and it just didn't seam worth it.
Warning, rant approaching. The whole Improv scene seams to be caught in a Catch 22 situation, it's like the public wants Short Form, but the players only want Long Form, so attendances are down, and it's killing Improv. And on the rare occasions you push players to do Short Form, it's so half hearted, or lacking skill, that it's technically worst than Long Form. Cranstons used to be 50% brilliant 50% average, but now it's 90% average, and if you don't believe me, just look at how many 5's you see these days. I reckon last year's whole Cranston Cup series, produced as many 5's as one night in the old days. And that has made the crowd levels diminish, at the same rate as the skill level of players. You can see that the lack of Short Form practice has lowered the skill level so low, that the only way to make it sale-able to the public is patch up. Like when a Cranston team performs a scene, they need other players coming in from other teams to creating so much activity, that it becomes acceptable entertainment for audiences. Take the big Manning Bar shows, 2 years ago they were doing 2 games, or restrictions, at the same time in one scene, but now they are only doing one per scene, and it's not that technically proficiently. It's like, No practice, No good. Back in the old days the Uni squads of Garber, Greiner, etc, used to be so clever, that they went over the heads of the audience - and they only did Short Form back then. It just feels like the Gen X solution of cutting corners, like why go to all the trouble of learning hard Short Form, when you can do Long Form without a lot of effort. It's like when Boogie boards became popular. Gen X said, why take days to learn to stand-up on a surfboard, when you can ride waves on a boogie board in one minute, and with no experience. Short form is more taxing, because you have to come up ideas AND make them fit within a restriction, so you have to think twice, and very fast. And because it difficult, you get better faster, and become clever. I have seen quite a few player from their beginnings, like Amanda Buckley when she did Scared Scriptless. At the start she didn't stand out at all, but suddenly after 4 months of doing Short Form every week, you could see the change, and she got very good. Some take longer, like Keria Daley took about 8 months, but after that period she was just as good. The point is, you can see people getting better, but if you look at Junior tennis, I see most players being quite alright, but not getting better. I think you will get better, and do it faster, if you do Short Form, mainly because it's harder, and you have to actually think and work things out, and do it very fast. I remember when I did Engineering, we were doing tons of repetitive problems that were all basically the same, but altered so that you had to solve the same problem in a different way. I was sitting there wondering, why are they making it so difficult by changing the method each time, to solve basically the same problem. And that's when I realised that school is not just there to learn stuff, but to force you to think, so you are not just passively absorbing stuff, but training your brain to work - like exercising your brain muscle. I remember Jordan Raskopoulos playing with his younger brother Steen. Steen was trying to out wit him, he couldn't, but you could see how hard he had to work just to get close, and that pushed his performance to a higher level - it's actually the only time I have found him really interesting, and that was because he was being pushed. If you always do what you know, you never get better, but if you're pushed to your limits, you get better. I remember about a year ago when some students picked on one person, and would physically push him on the stage by himself. Now I thought that this was a bit cruel, and psychologically not good, but he was so quick and clever, that he easily turned the tables on them with regular monotony, and make them look like fools. - the guy was actually brilliant back then.
From the above, you may think it's a Long Form V's Short Form problem, but actually Long Form is not a new thing, it has always been in Theatresports, but it was called an Open Scene. At the end of every Cranston show, nearly every team did an 5 minute Open Scene. You can say that's very short, because a Long Form show can run continuously for 45 minutes. But if you break it down, a 45 minutes Long Form show can easily have 20 scenes in it - or heaps more for Uni teams - which works out to only 2.25 minutes a scene. And that makes one 5 minute continuous Open Scene long compared to those. You can say that there have been continuous scenes longer than 5 minutes. Well there are, but you will find that most have dead spots of no laughing, so they are less effective, and this kind of makes 5 minutes the limit to keep an audience amused. So what's wrong with Long Form, and why isn't the laughs as intense. Well Long Form is Imagination improv, and it easier to do because you can just mash 2 words together, like a verb and a noun, and come up with anything, like "flying", and "cats", and then work that into, "The cats were patrolling the area in hot air balloons", and this results in the audience not being taxed mentally - which was the best part of Improv - so they just sit there and absorb it. Where as in Short Form, or Clever improv as I call it, is harder and more relatable, but more importantly, the audience has to use their brain and get involved. Basically the audience has to get the information, remember the restriction while the scene is going on, and work out how it is effecting what's happening on stage. And it's this that has the audience thinking all the time, which makes them feel involved and in tune with the smart people on stage, so they feel like part of the show because we're all thinking alike. Just take a look at a backward scene. Your brain is working so hard to process the current line, while remembering the last line, and then slotting it into the story if it was running forward, just to understand what is going on. And it's the getting of the complex idea, that makes good Improv - I can actually feel my brain get hot processing it -. Comparing Imagination Improv to Clever Improv is like comparing Futurama to the The Simpsons. Futurama has no limits, except peoples imagination, where as the Simpsons is restricted by reality, so it has to be clever to get around these limitations. And judging by the ratings, this has proven to be more popular with audiences.
The young players may think Short Form is too restrictive, and repetitive, and boring, but really it's only as restrictive as your imagination. I remember Jordan was part of Twisted Mellon's first shows at Newtown RSL - in the early days of the Cracker Comedy Festival - and the group had to do a shared story one sentence at a time. The players were asking the audience for ideas, and Jordan asked a girl something like, "What animal do you like........(pause)..... maybe cats!", and she said "No.......... um", and as she was um-ing, Jordan said ok, I'll take that. Now we didn't know what he meant, but when he did his sentence as part of the story, he removed the M's(No..um, became No M) so all the words in the sentence with M's, he pronounced without the M's. Like "The mother scolded the naughty boy" became "The other scolded the naughty boy", - I can't do it justice because I can't remember what he actually said - but the sentence was funny on it's own, and again it was funny because you had to fill in the missing M's in your head to work out what it was. And if you don't think that's clever, try it yourself. Come up with a story idea, decide what the sentence is going to be, then remove the all M's, and deliver the modified sentence smoothly without pausing. The restrictions are as restrictive as you imagination. So how is Long Form getting around this problem, well the Uni students know how to keep an audience amused, even if there is no substance, by doing very short scenes inside the Long Form, and that keeps the audience entertained, because there is always fast action. Unfortunately when I see these short scenes, I wonder if the players are learning that much, because no one is on the stage long enough to get any serious practice. It's like people quickly come in to continuously rescue a scene with new ideas, when it there is a hint of it losing energy. I don't really know what the solution is, I'm just putting it out how I see it, and it's got to the stage that it's different now, so get used to it. But when I see it heading in a direction that is less successful, that just means it's not going to be as profitable, and because it's not profitable, no one can make a living out of it, so no one can choose it as was a viable career path, and that is no incentive for good player to stay with it.
01.06.11 : Full Body Contact No Love Junior Tennis : Hermann's Bar
All the stories were good because they were entertaining, but I'm kind of looking for the next level. - Excuse me if names are wrong -
Michael Hing, Ariel Fisher, Matt McLaren, Maddie Parker
Recidivist(repeat offender) : The head criminal and her lackeys go to visit a doctor to stop her regressing back to crime. But when the doctor says she needs a hug, she sends her henchmen to put him in a headlock. He quickly reassess her condition and tells her that she needs to join a band. After joining a band as the lead singer, she discovers she can't sing and conceals the fact by asking for more dancers. Unfortunately the therapy doesn't go to plan and she eventually reveals that she would rather murder. A girl and a gay man, who doesn't know who James Joyce is, are leaving the gig when he reveals that he hates Radiohead. His disdain is so vehement that he expresses it with annoyed sounds. The head criminal contemplates changing the sound of her band to a Radiohead vibe, and this makes the gay punter again show his disdain with boos, so she sends her henchmen to rough up his glasses and eyes. A stranger meets the criminal and tries to sway her back to a life of crime when a strawberry salesman selling his wares appears. She can't resist and short changes him $1. On a pirate ship the captain is abusing his first boy, when the boy asks, 'what does a first boy do'. They spot a saucy wench approaching in a small boat, but it's the criminal who wants to learn how to become a pirate. She is given permission to board and scuttles over the manly handrail on a ladder made of her own hair. Back at the lair the lackeys are unhappy because the head criminal disrespects them, so they go to see the Concept of Music, and tell him that they have been mistreated by being kept in cages and fed Kellogg's to stop their masturbation - a liberal interpretation of the story on my part, and a little know fact about Kellogg's intended purpose. She is torn between right and wrong when Crime and Justice appear, tempting her toward their individual sides. This gets her thinking that maybe she can have both, like being able to f**k things up, and then fixing them. So she decides to do justice by day, and crime by night. Crime and Justice decide they can share, so they approve. She then robs a millionaire and converts his money to US dollars and returns it, but at half it's original value. She finds a person on the street but the voice of Crime in her head is telling her to 'kill her', but Justice then counters by telling her to 'hug her'. This dilemma makes her go back to the doctor for help, but the voice of the devil in her head tells her to shoot the doctor.
This one felt a little disjointed on the night, but when you write it down it seams very logical. The biggest thing I miss from old style Improv is the thinking aspect, like when Crime was talking to the head criminal he blurts out the seemingly unrelated line, "He's blind", and that makes you wonder why Crime would say something that didn't make sense. Then you suddenly remember Justice is beside him, and you put two and two together realising that he meant Justice is blind. And that's the clever stuff that is missing these days, because it's more just passive abstract storytelling now. It was entertaining so it was still good.
Rob Johnson, James Colley, Sam Jenkins, Matt Watson, Gen Fricker
Key : The smoking Major General calls Capt Johnny into his office, and informs him it's 1914 and some Germans are coming so he must find an army to dig, dig, dig, fire, fire, fire. Meanwhile a dentist is looking at Billy's' x-rays, and he doesn't like what he sees. Instead of finding an engraved metal plate he finds the bad type of plaque, drawing him to the conclusion that he has been eating the devils chocolate, the Crunchie bar. In a field a farmer complains to Capt Johnny because he keeps dumping his dirt on his land. The Captain explains that the farmers dirt is dirty, and that he needs he needs the Captain's new dirt. That's when the framer reveals that he has been growing Germans for an army, and promptly displays one of his dancing singing Germans. The Capt isn't happy, and is less so when the German's land starts invading his land, but he returns to his diggity-dig-digging just as the Major arrives. The Capt then realises he is going to need a bigger army and plans to raise an army of the dead. The Major is in utter agreement because he doesn't want Germans sleeping with his daughter, because that's his job. The Major's daughter Jeremiah is warned that she could catch German, if she kisses the wrong part, so she strolls the fields when the madly in love Billy the German comes to see her. He wants to kiss her, but she won't, because he tastes of the devils chocolate. The German pleads with her so they can start a 4th Reich, stating that love conquers all, even Britain. The Capt starts chanting to the Necronomicon to raise Cthulhu(another liberal Coon & Friends interpretation) but instead he raises a gay Napoleon, that no one can understand because he only speaks French. Back at the dentist he sees that Billy's teeth is free of plaque, but now he has caught bad teeth from kissing a Briton so he pulls Billy's tooth out to teach him how valuable teeth are. Jeremiah then secretly meets Billy in Berlin at midnight, the least romantic time in this context, when Billy reveals that his tooth had been pulled, and he was in such despair that he ate a whole box of devil Crunchies. All seems lost, until a drunk tooth-fairy appears. The Major's diggity-dig-dig finally catch his first German, unfortunately it's Billy, and that's when the Major notices Billy's breath smells like he has been kissing kidnapped dogs. The tooth-fairy appears again and Expelliarmus an army of the undead, thereby defeating the Germans, and then Expelliarmus's Billy tooth back in, until another German walks past and starts WWII. This one had more clever stuff, by referencing the war, and finally had someone that was able sing a song, and make it rhyme. Good
Nick Fischer, Edan Lacey, Harry Milas, Michael Richardson, Vic Araullo-Peters
Talk back to mum : Cale is fighting with his mum when she reveals that they were displaced to Canada not knowing where they came from, telling him they were cut off from their roots like their great grandfathers Ishmael's golden testicles. His Jewish mum is very upset because it's tax time, and the dead line is approaching. The balls of Ishmael Bain are kept in gelatine with a joint, in a kind of a genitalia motif, and are sold to the black-market in Canada. A ball-less Ishmael meets Johnny, the drug high fisherman, and Ishmael complains he has never caught a fish with a shoestring. On the dock a couple of seedy characters are doing a drug, and testicle deal, with a man in an overcoat. Back at the Bain residence his mother is trying to load E-Tax when she realises, if they had her grandfather's golden testicles all their troubles would be over. The golden testicles are found to still produced seamen, because of Ishmael's diet of heavy minerals when he lived in Russia. Soon it's revealed to Cale that his father was from Chernobyl, explaining his mood swings, and this infuriates Cale so much that he puts his foot right through a box, causing him to fall off the stage with box-foot. Cale's anger grows so much that the box-foot ends up turning into box-head, forcing his mother to take cube-head-Cale to the doctor. The doctor offers Cale a vasectomy, of which he accepts the offer, but his mother pleads with him to not cut his balls off, because he should always protect his golden endowments. The seedy man from the dock bumps into Ishmael and tells him of the back-market balls he just bought. Unfortunately Ishmael recognises them, but it's too late because the high fisherman takes them. Cale's mother is at the shop buying Gefilte fish with coupons when some balls pass-by out of her reach. A Russian spy finally catches the high fisherman and takes the golden balls for a death ray, bidding him peace, or not. None of the stories had great execution but this one had good relatable abstract thinking. Good.
FourWords : Steen Raskopoulos, Carlo Ritchie, Susie Youssef, Tom Walker, Bridie Connell Dan Cordeaux, Cale Bain
Disco-ball : After a night of non committal sex, a 2011 couple wake up to hear a news report that tells them that Gough Whitlam is still Prime Minister, and yet to be dismissed, and that's when they suddenly realise they have gone back in time to 1973. They question an old drunk janitor with their problem, but he informs them, that if they were in a disco last night, and they danced to the song Time Warp, they are caught in a Boogie Time Warp. They ask him how to get back to 2011, but he says they can't, because they are stuck in a Murder Mystery. A cool sexist from the 70's informs us, "women are too stupid to think for themselves", when a ditzy naked woman appears looking for her boyfriend. She tells us that her boyfriend hits her, but the 70's sexist says "he not hitting her, he's teaching her a lesson". The 2011 boy then reads a letter - that is delivered in a narrated voice-over - that informs him that his French father didn't die in a donkey cart accident. The ditzy girl then asks a police officer to find her boyfriend, who must be missing because he hadn't hit her this morning, when the officer points to a body on the floor. The girl is very surprised by the body, and says "all my peripherals must be out of whack" because she hadn't seen the body that was right in front of her. At Rick's Rollerama the 70's sexist is talking to the girl from 2011, and wonders why she still has cloths on, but she's not interested, and only wants to know if he has seen any dead bodies lying around so she can solve her Murder Mystery and get back to 2011. In a school the Principle informs the students that the formal has been cancelled, because the disco-ball has been stolen. The students then become outraged, and reply by throwing shoes. Lucy the stalker is discovered by her ex-boyfriend in his room, dressed as a magnet. She comes clean and tells him that she has made them costumes for the formal, but he is reluctant to go with her because she killed 3 people and wore their faces as masks. Her parents, on the other hand, take a shine to her, with the father saying that he should see past her faults, like he did when he sees his wife's beard. The Police officer is taking notes, when the ditzy girl asks him what has he done about her dead boyfriend, but they become distracted by a Post-it note. The guy from 2011 comes in with skinny jeans, and is given the advice that he should buy jeans that allow his ankles to breathe, like pants with flares. The 2011 couple find a body, and are inspecting it, when an Inspector from 1821 appears, also stuck in the Boogie Time Warp. He says he has just come form Chin-ee, or China as it is now pronounced, when Mr Joan of Ark appears. Things are further complicated when Socrates appears, and is taken by 2 guys in an 1989 phone-box TARDIS. The student body confronts the principle, and makes a formal protest about the formal with their shoes. The ditzy girl bumps into the janitor, who reveals that he kill her boyfriend with his bucket of acid because he was in the way of his mopping. She again doesn't see the acid because her peripherals are off, but is quickly informed that her tits aren't, by the 70"s sexist. The bearded mother wants stalker Lucy in the family, and sends her to the formal with instructions 'to do all the thing to her son, that laws prevent her from doing to him'. At Rick's Rollerama the formal is in full swing, but everyone in the room goes high when the janitor left his bucket of acid on the floor. Lucy eventually finds the son there, but kills him and takes his face. And that's when the 2011 girl reveals that she was Lucy the stalker when she was younger. After the acid trip clears the 2011 couple awake back in 2011, when the boys French father appears.
This story had experienced players, so was slightly better than the first 3, but it still had that busy feel like the other 3, because people were talking over the top of each other in places. Overall it was the older players that made it good, because they referenced things from the past, which triggers memories, which ultimately makes your brain work, and that is what every Improv show should do.
The one thing that you may not notice is that the audience is a big part of the show, because their laugh track is so infectious that it makes the night so much better, and their support by just attending, helps the show. So when they out did themselves by voting Project 52 to Time Out's Sydney best comedy night 2011, the Project 52 crew rewarded them with free drinks from the bar for all their support and their hidden laugh help. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4
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31.05.11 : The Hangover Part 2 - movie
Comedy : The same formula as the last one, people get drunk, they wake up next morning and can't remember what happened, and they have to work it out to solve their problem. I liked the original a lot, but this one doesn't have that unpredictable aspect so it loses it's charm, and ultimately it's not as funny. I didn't mind it but it's probably more a time filler. On the other hand the cinema full of teens laughed a lot, so it does suit some demographics. 3.25
28.05.11 : Club Central Comedy : Club Central Hurstville
I was going to stay away from Club Central Comedy, because it can be a bit iffy for me, so I planed to see a band in the same area, but half way there, I figured it's just another cover band, and there was the incentive of Gary Eck being at the other venue, so I turned left and ended up here again. I missed Chris Radburn's opening, but based on his past efforts I would say he would have been good again. Peter Meisel had the problem of doing 2 gigs here in the same month, to regulars, but there was a table of young people at the back that hadn't see him before that were laughing all the way, so he turned out good - hell even I laughed -. I like Gary Eck's improvising at the start of his regular material, but tonight he went too hard at a poor geek-type-person that had an interest in space travel and astronomy, without apologising - apologising during the ribbing is the fundamental rule to keep it a comedy, and not a vitriolic attack -, other than that, he was good again. Surprising alright 3.75
27.05.11 : Julia Morris - Live : Mounties
I have seen Julia 3 times, with the first one being in Fivedock - I can't remember exactly when it was (where's Peter Meisel when you need him) so I'm guessing somewhere in the 90's. One of the regular comics at the Bridge Hotel comedy night(the remnants of the Harold Park comedy night) started a comedy night at the Illinois Hotel in Fivedock. The first show had the big name of Wil Anderson, who was very good, but the second show advertised was the unknown to me, Julia Morris. She was touted as a big name that had wowed them in England, so figured it should be ok, and she was - even though I wasn't entirely sold on her. I do remember it was mainly about her running amok, partying, getting drunk, and sleeping around stories from England - I don't remember any married or baby stuff so it must have been pretty early on. The second time was at Revesby Workers on the 19.07.08. I went there the week before to see Steady Eddy, who was good, and thought I would kill some time by taking a risk for the second time. The other plus was the venue was close so the dreaded travelling wouldn't be as bad. This second show blew me away, because she was so funny. Jackie Loeb was also supporting, and she was good, but Julia was outstanding. This third show, also with Jackie Loeb, was the reverse, because I laughed more at Jackie than Julia. Julia was well into her 1 hour set when I started wondering why I wasn't laughing as hard as I did at the Revesby show, and then it struck me that some of the small bits of the stories sounded vaguely familiar. And that's when I realised I must have heard them last time, but I didn't retain them in my memory that well. It not that I didn't laugh, because I did, but it was more chuckles for me, and that's no reflection on Julia because most of the crowd were dying from laughing, it was just me that was different. From what I gather about 66% of this show was from the last show, with the rest being new baby and married stuff. At the end she did a repeat of her famous armless girl story, that everyone loved. The one thing that I hadn't noticed before was how fast Julia talks, but I think the biggest surprise of the night was Jackie who really impressed the crowd and sold quite a few CD's. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.25
26.05.11 : The Best in Live Comedy featuring Jason John Whitehead(Canada) and Tom Rhodes(USA) : Comedy Store
You know when something pisses you off and you forget about it. Then you end up at the place that pissed you off, stuck in a horrible cattle yard queue waiting to get in. And your so bored that you start thinking, and suddenly remember what pissed you off. And this puts you in a bad mood for the rest of the night so you can't enjoy yourself. Well that's what happened. You may ask why I bothered turning up, well it had 2 overseas acts promoted - which on paper sounded decent -, but alas, it seamed too hard for this venue to comply with it's own advertising. This place is touted as "Australia's premier comedy club", but it should be promoted as "Australia's premier unprofessional comedy club". I just can't fathom why they don't know their own line-up for acts that they booked months ahead. Out of the 8 acts advertised, only 3 turned up, it's just something NO OTHER CLUB EVER DOES. Imagine if you bought tickets for U2 and got Brown Corduroy, you wouldn't be happy. You would think with all their clout as the premier venue, someone would be professional enough to post accurate advertising. To be fair they do say they rotate their line-up, which is fine for the supports, but main headlines that have been advertised, that's too much. Back to the facts, all clubs have the repeat problem, but tonight it felt worst, so much so that it felt like a CD on repeat. The discount nights are the worst because all the regulars know there will be repeats no matter what night, so they turn up on cheap nights to make repeats tolerable - less money invested, less expected -. The problem is with the high number of regulars watching repeats all the time, there is less laughing, and that kills it for everyone. The biggest victim of the night was Rhys Nicholson, who everyone loves, but has the unfortunate problem of doing the same venue, every week, to regular audiences, and this had him thinking he was bombing because there was no audience reaction, at all. That's another problem with the discount night, they get too many the cheap comics - which are usually the young ones - that can't mix it up or improvise at all, and it makes the night more repetitive. You may say, 'It's a cheap night, what do you expect', well, doing things half arsed slowly burns sales - even this venue cut down to 3 days a week when these showcases are on -. Back to the show, the only headliner that turned up was JJ Whitehead, who was sort of ok. The problem I had was that I did tuned out in the first half of his set, because it wasn't that interesting - especially when he started talking about banks -, but I did tune back in latter when he started talking about hitting children. Overall I would say around 3.5-ish. The rest of the line up was Dave Jory, Liz Stevens, Nick Cody, Rhys Nicholson, and Luke Heggie - which was mainly yada, yada, except for Nick Cody, who brought an new routine and did very well - the crowd also agreed when they gave him the biggest applause of the night -. The other notable mention was the 5 minutes Dave Jory improvised with the audience, but other than that it was nothing special. You may think it's just me, but the audience must have felt similar because they initially gave decent applause, but by half way it got very weak - to give you an idea what the second half was like, when Dave asked the audience to give the comics a second round of applause, NO one applauded. Well actually I lied, maybe 3 people applauded -. All I can say, Thank God I didn't pay $30 for that, and, I wish the place was professionally run, instead of using false advertising to trick people into getting sales. Crowd : 3.5 maybe 3.75 - Me : 3
21.05.11 : The Beatels : Oatley RSL - music
There is a review here somewhere else, so I will be brief. The first half is their old stuff and they wear the suits of the Fab Four from that era, and the second half is the latter songs and they wear their Sgt Pepper's costumes. Never noticed it before but all of Ringo's songs sound juvenile. The venue was packed, but because it was at a RSL the older crowd made it less fun than a pub gig, but either way it was still very nice. 3.75
20.05.11 : Darren Sanders : Laugh Garage Syd
Logistics are such a pain but when the train stops at the venue's front door, like this one, things are so much better. I won't put too many details in because I would just be repeating myself, but the first half of James Rochford, Dane Hiser, and Paul Warnes were all nice, but it was the second half that really took off. Darren started off with a relaxed style but that soon changed to constant laughing that you couldn't escape. Even after repeat viewings he is still funny, and the 1½ hours again seamed to pass very quickly. 3.75,3.5,3.75,4.5 so 4
19.05.11 : Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - movie
Action | Adventure | Fantasy : Capt Jack doesn't know it but he is out looking for more stuff - everyone's going to see this film so there is no need for me to spoil it -. The biggest draw card for this franchise is the dominating, over the top, comedic, Captain Jack Sparrow character, but in this one he wasn't that dominating, nor that comedic. Also missing is the over the top comedy action scenes. More a story film than an action film, so this is probably the least exciting out of all of them, but I haven't found one that I didn't like. 3.5
18.05.11 : Story Club: Who Said Anything About Fair? : Hermann's Bar
Ben Jenkins hosted, and then didn't, when he introduced everyone as this being their first time at Story Club. Luckily Carlo Richie on sound quickly made with the levity.
Alistair Magee : If nonchalant is to be cool, then Alister's usage of chalant must be the opposite, and being uncool is how this story ended. Alister started by telling us the trials and tribulations of being the runt of the litter and always the smallest, until 2002 when he hit the hairy armpits age and grew 304.8mm(1ft). During this process he went on a school trip to Japan for 2 weeks and stayed in the province of Toyotas with a family, to learn the ways of the ancient oriental art of Disneyland. He soon noticed differences in their culture, like their obsession for cleaning excreta with their toilets resembling a 10 step car-wash for the anus, and their lovely tasty foods. Nearing the end of the trip, he and his friend were taken by their host to a traditional Japanese public bath house to experience the soothing hot waters. Initially it wasn't very soothing, because he was naked in front of other men, but also because there was a lot of pre-scrubbing in the first stage. He next rested in the soaking pool when he saw a huge and ominous Sumo in hot pursuit, be it one stage behind in this 10 stage car-wash for the body. Unfortunately being at this hyper sensitive age, and the lack of public nudity training in the West conflicting with the East's propensity for the dangle parade, a chain reaction ensued in the area that is so sensitive at that age that even a deep breath can set it off. It was bad enough it happened in a room full of men, but worst still was the credo amongst mates to never look at a friends donger was broken. Good
Alice Fraser : I like the stories where you learn something new, and tonight we learned that as late as the 17th century the word "apple" was used as a generic term for all (foreign) fruit other than berries, and that even included nuts. This may somewhat explain the reason why apples keep popping up in history, and could explain why Snow White went into a coma after eating an apple, if the apple was a peanut. We were told that the old word for potatoes was "earth-apples", and oranges were called "golden apples", and golden apples was the example of equitable wealth sharing when Lucy and Ben's father explained compromise. Lucy and Ben would share everything equally, but their dad tried to explain that with compromise you can get what you really want. Unfortunately he used the bad example of sharing an orange, stating that if one party wanted the rind, and the other wanted the flesh, with compromise they could split it that way. Lucy wasn't convinced because it didn't make sense that anyone would want the worthless sour skin, but the father insisted, and pushed it even further by promptly making the sourest cake that they had ever tasted. Years latter Lucy understood compromise when she made a mistake in a legal document and was corrected. Because she had to compromise her fist making contact with the correctee's face, by actually correcting the document· Good
Cyrus Bezyan : Jimmy was the manager of a small time circus, and looked somewhat like a German shepherd with Ray Liotta face. Bonkers the clown had been kicked out of the Insane Clown Posse because he was too insane, so he joined Jimmy's circus but not as a clown, but more a insane drug lord gangster clown. Bonkers had the second agenda of a shipping of frozen peanuts, or ICE amphetamines, and needed someone to drive a shipment disguised as peanuts to the warehouse. So he got his faithful dog Jimmy to do it, or else. The next morning 2 peanut trucks arrived, and before he could find out which was which, he was called out to sort an urgent tampon problem with the bearded lady. When he returned both trucks were gone, and only the magician was standing in their place. Jimmy was frantic and asked him where the trucks were, and he replied that he had made them disappear. But when Jimmy's hands were around his throat, he confessed that the elephant trainer took one, and the other he hid around the corner. Seeing that the elephants were fine he drove the other truck to Bonkers, but when he only found peanuts inside, he shot him. Good
Sertan Saral : Everyone has that TV series that they would watch diligently for some unknown reason or another, that they actually didn't like - mine was Deep Space 9 that I watched because I liked The Next Generation, but it ended up being a waste of 6 years of my life - Smallville became Sertan's foible. In 1992 Ray Martin on A Current Affair, light heartedly reported the deathly serious news of the death of Superman. This devastated Sertan until the news of Smallville arrived, because in his mind this continued the Superman story - and hence the reason to watch it - even though it was from an earlier time line. Sertan became obsessed to the point of writing a HSC essay on Smallville, because he thought it was real - hey everybody does it, even I forgot that The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy wasn't real -. This love turned to hate as the series progressed, and thankfully for him it all ended on the 13th May 2011 when they canned the series. Sertan had realised that the show was dumb, and was annoyed that stupid human nature compelled him to keep watching it because of the deep down built in human response to collect things in their entirety. The stick the broke Sertan's back was the constant interference of Superman's dead father's ghost, who constantly put him through such tragic choices that it was illogical that this ghost was a trusted family relative, but more the most evil person in the universe. One of those choices based on what Jor-El had told him resulted in Superman killing his own brother, and then latter killing his adopted father Jonathan Kent. And even after all this abuse, stupid Superman would always return to this heinous man, as would Sertan return to this terrible illogical depressing mess of a series, that would ultimately take 10 years of his life. Good.
Rachel Corbett : Rachel was tested with what she thought was fair, when she only received certificates of participation, for equal work, rather than the accolades that the brown nosed well-to-do girls got. These girls from financially better-off families would turn up on Mufti day looking like they came out of a trendy teen mag, where as she would look like some sort of a Supré/Go-Low hybrid - to coin a Rhys Nicholson phrase -. These girls further annoyed her with their perfect families that don't get divorced, and their kids that don't have to join drama classes because they weren't given enough attention. Rachel thought her comedic antics during her speech about 'laughter is the best medicine' would win her the praise, but when she walked past 1000 people with her dress tucked into the back of her underpants for comedic effect, the people in charge were less than impressed. She met Christie Ann when she was 5 years old, and she became her best friend and her worst foe, because Christie was perfect, and she was more like the Hedra "Hedy" Carlson character in Single White Female. Christie was older, but more importantly excelled at everything she did, and got everything she wanted, which always kept the unfortunate Rachel Rachel one step behind in their journey from Milan to Minsk. Every Xmas she would get some cheap substitute for the doll that Christie would always get. Until one year when she couldn't believe her eyes when she open her Xmas present, because she was confronted with the doll she always wanted. That night she put her treasured doll into her own little bed and slept soundly until the mourning, where she was confronted with a disfigured doll that had half her face turned blue. Logic defied logic, had she dreamed Xmas day, had someone switched her doll, had she actually been given a copy and had not noticed until the faults were exposed, had a smurf face raped her and deposited a blue cum shot to the side of her head. When the truth was discovered she realised that Bizarro Xmas World had finally switched back to it's default setting, putting her behind Christie again. Good story, but I cried. Better than good.
Cait Harris : In sport Cait was all spirit but one rather large head - which was actually normal because her body hadn't caught up to it yet -. But it was this large head that made her father think she had Down Syndrome, to the point of taking her to a handicapped horse riding camp, where oddly enough when she looked into the disadvantaged faces, she saw a family resemblance. She didn't like the resemblance so decided to get a hair cut to change her appearance, and to get the authorities off her track. Unfortunately the hair stylist was an ex Russian military barber that made the requested Pixie Cut into a Crew Cut, making her look like Zachery Ty Bryan, the eldest boy in the show Home Improvement. Her high spirits for sport extended to High school, where she joined the Sophomore volleyball team. Unfortunately the coach was Hitleresque and miss-heard the comment of 'I hope I get number 8' to her best friend Ashley, as some sort of swearing, and chastised her in front of the whole team. Things didn't seam fair when the coach didn't believe her plea's of innocence, but worst still was all her friends were too scared to back her up. Better than good.
Zoe Norton Lodge : Zoe's parents would play, and always win, Survivor Annandale. Survivor Annandale entailed her parents meeting new neighbour, visiting new neighbour, playing bridge with new neighbour, form some sort of friendship with new neighbour, make up feeble excuse to hate neighbour, make up derogatory name for said new neighbour, shun new neighbour, have large loud public fight with new neighbour, and then finally getting new neighbours ejected from the neighbourhood. Zoe's parents felt confident about their control of the street, because they have never lost an episode of Survivor Annandale, until they came up against Lady Macbeth and the Imitation Maori - so named because she was Scottish, and a real bitch, and he was not Maori looking enough -. Initially when they first moved in Zoe's parents thought they were ok, except for one niggling problem where they said they had a ghost in their house. Soon after another couple moved into the house on the other side of the Highlanders that were much more to Zoe's parents liking - as was evident by them not being given offensive names. During a BBQ with the 3 families Lady Macbeth mentioned that she had a ghost in her house, and this prompted Katey and Tod to revealed their fear of ghosts by having their house exorcised before they moved in. Things went on swimmingly until one day when Katey noticed things going missing, like her mail, and then her flowers. Lady Macbeth surmised that it was her ghost, which eased Katey's suspicion. Then one night when she spotted Lady Macbeth doing the crimes, which caused things to turn sour. Upon hearing the news Zoe's parents went on the attack, but only got to the snubbing stage when Katey's dog went missing for 3 days. This broke the camels back for them, and they sold up soon after. Soon crazy Lady Macbeth attacked Zoe's parents by putting a bag of dog poo in their letter box, but when it was physically returned with extras, it Lady Macbeth that had enough, and they moved out. Very good.
Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.25
17.05.11 : Your Highness - movie
Fantasy | Adventure | Comedy : A no-hoper prince is forced to go on a quest. I thought this was going to be a cheaply done average type comedy. But when Natalie Portman's name came up in the opening credits it kind of set the tone. In fact the only part I got wrong was the cheapness, because it is actually quite an elaborate film with special effects that look way too good for a comedy. And that's the dilemma with this film, because it's more a fantasy/adventure than a comedy. Very light on laughs with all gags being unfunny d**k jokes. If you have time to kill and don't expect many laughs it's ok to watch. 3
14.05.11 : Club Central Comedy : Club Central Hurstville
I wasn't expecting Rob McHugh from the SBS Comedy School series to be here, mainly because I have never seen him anywhere else before. Tonight he was on MC duties and was fine, but not exceptional - but then again the room is a bit weird because the crowd doesn't laugh that much -. It's actually weird for the crowd, because the lack of laughing is not conducive to laughing so it's harder to enjoy. And it's weird for the comics, because the lack of laughing may make them think there bombing when there not. Next was Nick Capper, who experienced the quiet crowd but still got good applause. And Liz Stephens followed but with a better reaction from the crowd. You could tell the large crowd came to see Steady Eddy in the second half, because they laughed loudly at all his stuff. He started with some gripes about the iPhone and new technology, and then did his funny Subway routine - due to time limitations this was the only part from his long main routine that he could fit in -. He then finished on more gripes about Americans and aeroplane travel. This was the largest crowd I have seen here, and they weren't disappointed. It hard for me to get in the mood, but Steady is always worth it. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 3.75
14.05.11 : Comedy Store Sux again
I wasn't really interested going out but TheStore advertised ½ price tickets with the codeword COMEDYFEST for this 2 week run. Surprise surprise, when I get there there, no tickets. That just wrote off one night, not to mention the cost of tolls parking and petrol. What ever you do don't trust any of their offers no matter how much they assure you, if it's not on their system. Very professional organisation, NOT.
11.05.11 : Full Body Contact Junior Improv Tennis Academy : Hermann's Bar
Sorry if the names aren't right, I'm just pasting it from the event.
Jim Fishwick, Matt McLaren, Sam Jenkins, Harrison Milas, Michael Richardson
Zeppelin - I can't really explain exactly what happened, because it was lots of little separate skits loosely related, or not related at all, throughout. It was a bit like the movie Reno 911!: Miami, that was separate sketches put together to make a story. It entailed something about people trying to get on a zeppelin - like a check-in at an airport - then a guy in a bag, then a doctor treating someone with a bird in his eye, then a fake zeppelin builder trying to get aboard the flight, etc. Either way it was quite entertaining, so therefore very nice.
Nick Fischer, James Colley, Sertan Saral, Patrick Magee, Ben Jenkins
Commodore 64 - A farmer thinks a Commodore 64 computer is a fire starter, and throws it on the ground expecting heat from it. We switch to an office where a businessman asks his assistant for his business model, but the assistant doesn't speak and only uses exaggerated facial expressions to convey the going ons - Ben came up with a very funny rubbery faced mime character, like Jim Carrey does -. The farmer then seeks a scientist to make him some fire, but he in turn gets his monkey to do it. Ultimately the monkey can't make a fire so he just smokes a bunch of cigarettes. Doctor Man then enters Doctor Scientist's brushed glass laboratory, and tells him he will be shut down because all his monkeys have escaped. Luckily a monkey wrangler is on hand with a life story that resembled the plot of a soft core porn film. Back at the farm the farmer isn't happy because he has a computer in his field and no fire. And when his Jamaican son is of no help he threatens him with the fact that if he didn't like the coloureds so much he wouldn't have been born. Back at the businessman's office Ben is pulling even more faces - to much amusement -. At a gasoline burning art gallery the curator is trying to stop the place going up in flames by stealing the artists matches. But this just forces the artist to focus the sun with his glasses on someone's unsuspecting foot. The farmer still wants fire to cook food, and burn his son, when a fire wrangler that looks like the superhero Sertan Saral passes by. Unfortunately he can't start a fire because he drops his last match. A man at a lumber yard has plenty of wood to burn, but doesn't have a computer, so he makes a swap with the farmer. On the night I liked this one the best, because there was so many characters with funny accents. Good.
Michael Hing, Ariel Fisher, Phil Roser, Edan Lacey
Britney Spears, poncho - A drunk Mexican man with a poncho and beer awakes to find he is being presented with his 7th illegitimate baby. His girlfriend is so upset that he hasn't married her yet that she threatens to take her hoops out. Meanwhile a king is presented with pants when his assistant berates them for being unprofessional and not remembering that they needed a magic poncho. But when they ask him to explain why the poncho is magical in song, he can't. The Mexican man stops at a fish taco stand but doesn't get served, because the faceless owner is worried that pants-less man might put his junk in a taco. The Mexican then challenges owner to show himself but he refuses because he is repulsed by his dolphin shaped dong. The mother still waits with her child when the king's assistants arrive posing as salesmen. While checking out the house for the poncho they mistakenly steal a pile of rags disguised as a baby. The Mexican finally gets his fish taco and is stopped by a half horse half woman, who he rides to the king's palace in hope of finding his pants. The assistants return to the King palace with what they thought was the poncho when the Mexican and horse woman arrive. The kings asks the centaur woman to sit down but she can't sit on a conventional stool. The king offers the Mexican his baby rags for the poncho, but he refuses and they have a Mexican stand-off. Edan stood out in this one, and his girlfriend was also pretty good because they went over the top with their characters. Very close to scene 2
FourWords - featuring Steen Raskopoulos, Carlo Ritchie, Susie Youssef, Tom Walker, Bridie Connell + SPECIAL GUESTS Bec De Unamuno(Talking 'bout your generation, Comedy Inc, World Champion Improviser) + The man who set up FBCNLT Cale Bain!!!
Egg - As you can imagine there is going to be a lot of scenes in 45 minutes, but the general ideas they used were eggs and children's literature -. The phone is not on itself and Mortimer and Horace find 3 drops of blood on the floor, only look up to see bodies stuck to the roof. A father forgets it's Easter and is sent to the shops to buy $30 of Easter eggs for his daughter while she is made to count to 10,000 as a stalling tactic. A Texan chicken farmer is perplexed that her chickens keep dying one by one, but when her son admits to shooting them she is fine. A drunken man is shouting at his EX but mistakenly shouts at the wrong house. When he is told she lives next door he starts crying. Humpty Dumpty sings an egg rap song. A woman angrily bangs the door to a bathroom where a man is waiting the 1½ minutes for his pregnancy test to develop. He is distraught and says he can't be pregnant because he only had one egg left. Unfortunately he has super ovum that is super sensitive so he tells his husband not to f**k him when she enters the bathroom. The test comes up pink line with paisley and reveals he got pregnant when she walked in, thereby causing his water to break. A policeman tells a woman who is baking an omelette that her son is dead, she is quite distraught because she only has 11 left. Mr Jill tries to persuade Miss Jack to go up the hill, but she is suspicious of his inverted commas and the previous dead Jacks so is reluctant. He gets another Jack and Jill to go up the hill, but this Jack is also reluctant because Mr Jill shot a unfortunate bear that walked in front of him while he was aiming his gun at his heart. He finally goes up the hill but Mr Jill stabs him because he is his father. A pail of water is motivated by a fast talking Londoner into being more than he is, but when a beanstalk appears the pail is dumped on the plants roots accelerating it's growth. A man lectures Little Red Riding Hood, who is on her way to deliver some eggs, about the dangers of wolves, when Jacob appears looking for Bella. A bogan Princess is talking to a frog that needs a kiss. A Bavarian man wants some meat, but endures pain for the pleasure when he is told his son is a vegetarian. Next was a Perfect Match game show, but one contestant was a kiddie fiddler, and the other was a murderer with a shiv. - Bec now narrates a story a Typewriter style story while the other play it out -. A woman meets a man in a park that sends her ovaries in to a disco inferno, but the man is a compulsive announcer that used to work on a train platform. She is still infatuated with him and asks the fateful question if he can dance. The man luckily communicates by dance and then dances, which she understands perfectly and they go on to f**k like rabbits. A man keeps imagining a bridge. The man finally gets to the shop to buy $30 worth of chocolate eggs but time running out because his daughter gets to 9980. The Londoner now coaches an egg into sitting on a wall, she is afraid but reluctantly agrees. Another family communicates with eyebrows but their cousin Alopecia Dave can't be understood. After 45 years the dance communicating couple still have the common ground of her tiny vagina. The frightened egg sits on the wall and is mistaken as someone committing suicide by the King's men. She finally summons all her courage and gets the beanstalk to help her but she unfortunately falls. Dr Seuss arrives but can't help because he is Jewish so all the king's men imagine a bridge and sort the pieces out and put her back together again. I thought it was around the level of the 3rd team, but the crowd loved this one the most.
Overall the night feels like it doesn't have that meatiness of shows from a bygone era. This type of show feels like a 'come up with an idea and run with it' rather than 'come up with an idea and be clever'. The substance part of the old days was the cleverness, but now it's more just imagination. It's like comparing an normal story type movie like Lord of the Rings, to the movie Memento. LOTR is good film, but Memento is clever film, because it's actually a good story run backward like a backward scene in Improv, so you have to think all the way through it. That's no reflection on this particular show, it's just how they do things these days, and after all it is still entertaining enough and fun, but I do miss the cleverness. Crowd : ½ -4.25's and ½-4.5 - Me : 3.75,4.25,4,4 so 4
10.05.11 : Something Borrowed - movie
Rom-Com : A love triangle where group of 30 somethings get to that age when they question what they want in life. A very cute and charming little film, that is probably more Rom than Com - so probably more suited for romantics - but it does still have a few chuckles, and everyone is very attractive. I liked it a lot 4
07.05.11 : That One Story : Factory Theatre
It was a shame that I missed yesterdays edition, but Jason Byrne ran way long. And even tonight's show was a stretch, because I had to race over from Kensington, but luckily the show started 10 minutes late so I was able to make it. I think I have been spoiled by Story Club, because it was their cleverly constructed stories that shone out the most.
I'm going to be a bit lazy and cut the original reviews out and put a pre-comment on them.
Mark Sutton story was just as good as last time, if not even more so. Very good
3.11.10 : Mark Sutton's story was a ripping adventure story about his time working in a bottle shop - which ultimately ends up being the place for dispensing the cheap drug of choice for the less fortunate masses that need to escape reality on a regular basis. And this in turn makes some of it's patrons, but more likely criminals, less than ideal -. His last story in the cavalcade of occurrences while working there could have ended quite seriously, because of a knife yielding ICE addict - it was so well written that the hilarity covered the severity of the situation - and when an oblivious patron formed a queue behind the dangerous maniac, it just got funnier. Mark's story was excellent and extremely funny and got the most laughs of the night
Pat Magee I think the young people that had heard this story before weren't as vocal as last time. And you would think the older brains in the audience would have trouble with such abstract concepts, but strangely enough the older brains laughed more in this one, especially Jacques Barrett. Good
4.08.10 : Pat Magee's story was a brilliant fabrication of historical facts. It kind of reminded me of the TV show Fat Pizza, where Paulie did those great episodes where he tells about the accomplishments of his famous ancestors, but distorts history by bring together different time-lines of history into one story. But in Pat's case he went to psychoville with his crazy Salvador Dali-esque extravagance. - Holy hell how do explain this one, all I know is this one is going to sound strange -. Pat's grandfather rode a turtle to an island off Italy, that was so plagued by bees that Archbishop Mussolini, not related to the WWII Italian dictator but to chairman Mao, decreed that all bees are venomous, so the population of the island eradicated them. Somewhere along the way Pat's Grandfather was chased up a hill by an angry mob for whoring himself, where he punched a nun in the face and sent her rolling down the hill to take out 10 members of the mob. He finally got cornered by a guy from the Swiss army in a balloon, who accidentally gets killed, and then he rides the balloon to safety. There was a big cheer for this story and it stole the show.
Bridie Connell was probably more for the younger set, but was still very nice.
16.06.10 : Bridie Connell was about a class of misfits who would gang together to play tricks on their teacher, until one day when everything changed. It was a nice story that was a lot of fun, even though there was a shock in the middle.
This review is a bit sparse so I will add more details - Class 9PA would play practical jokes on their teachers, to the point that the teachers would leave after a short time, and they would accomplish this by working as a collective group. Until one day, when a new teacher was supposedly pushed so far that he punished a boy in the corridor, and then in front of the class, so much so that it scared the other students. But at the end of the lesson he high-5-ed the student for the prank they pulled on the rest of the class, and this took the wind out of the sails of the pranksters for the rest of the year.
Jacques Barrett I remember this story, but it must have been a while ago because it's so vague that I can't remember where or when. This one had a somewhat constructed feel, like the previous ones. The first half was straight story, and didn't have as much the colourful visitations compared to the other stories, but the second half was more closer to the over the top colourful style of the first 3. Good
The story was about Jacques waking one morning hangover and just trying to go to the shop for breakfast, but every time he tried to be nice, it backfired on him.
He woke up one mourning feeling seedy and with a huge rock hard erection. So thinking he need some food to ease his stomach, he decided not to drive, but to walk to the shop, and this in turn should help the environment, and walk off his tent pole. He gets to a set of lights where an old lady is having trouble with her bags, so being a conscientious person he offers to help her. But instead of appreciation she goes off like a bunger, and tells him off for thinking she was incapable of doing the task. He walks further and sees a blind man begging and tries to be nice by giving him some coins, but because he only has $50 he has to walk by. At the shop he orders breakfast, but because he was slowed down by trying to be nice to people, he is 10 minutes late and can't get what he wants. So he buys a coffee and leaves. On his way back he passes the blind man again, and wanting to be a good Samaritan, he puts a $5 bill in his cup. Unfortunately the blind man can't hear the donation, so Jacques picks up a coin and drops it to signify the deed. Unluckily the old woman had seen this, but only the part where he picks up a coin and drops it, so she naturally assumes he is a crook. - Now wired from the coffee he re-runs a fictitious story in his head, but instead of being nice and things going wrong, he would act like a real bastard and every thing would turn out brilliantly -. He leaves his house and a kid accidentally walks into his erect member, and knocks himself over. He then gets in his car a drives to the shop where he mounts the curb, knocking over the old lady and spilling all her coins into the blind man's cup. He gets inside the shop at 9:59 and orders breakfast and hands over a $100 bill, but the shopkeeper gets snotty and won't change it. So he goes outside and takes the money from the blind man, and tells the shopkeeper she made him do it because she didn't want to give him change. He goes back outside and puts the $100 in the blind man's cup, and plays a tape recording of 100 coins dropping into a cup.
Lawrence Leung did a bit from the show that I just saw, and followed it by the story of him and his best friend - who was an expert practical joker -, but every time Lawrence tried to emulate those practicable jokes, they went wrong. I wasn't that fond of this one because of someone got physically hurt, when a practical joke backfired.
He told of the time he thought he was Superman and jumped from the clothesline and got his cape got caught, nearly hanging himself. He met Stuart when he played a prank on him, but hiding in a pile of leaves outside his house and jumping up and scaring him when he walked past. Lawrence later tried to copy that trick in the afternoon, but nearly got run over by a car. Stuart would also do pranks in school, like taping pen lids to the fans so they whistled when they were turned on, and putting chalk in blackboard dusters so they would leave more lines when you tried to erase stuff. Lawrence tried to out do Stuart by covering over a deep sprinkler hole with leaves, but unfortunately a girl fell in it and destroyed her knee.
Crowd : 4 - Me : 4
07.05.11 : Andrew McClelland - Truth Be Told : Parade Theatre
Back in 2005 I saw Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Accurate History Of Pirates in the Big Laugh Comedy Festival brochure. It was cheap, and even if it wasn't funny might have some technical information that would appeal to my history/documentary side. So I went. The show was a bit sparse but adorable. It was different to a normal stand-up show because there was acting, a Q&A about pirates, and these adorable cheap cutout cardboard characters that he manipulated in a kind of Punch & Judy type loose reconstruction of history - one of the tricks to comedy is always use cheap props and you will get more laughs, like 2009 Project 52's Star Wars, in Summary -. So from then on I became a
Andrew McClelland fan. Next was his not so good 2008 Mix Tape show, that was also a bit sparse though not as much as the first show. This show didn't have any charm and was mainly just talking, so it wasn't very appealing. He bounced back with the incredible funny 2009 The Paradoxical Adventures of Lawrence Leung & Andrew McClelland - Time Ninjas. This show went back to the cheap props and cardboard cutouts that were so adorable, and was jam packed, and very clever.
This 2011 effort shows that Andrew has really matured because even though it was delivered in a talking stand-up style, it had so much material that it was quite attention grabbing and entertaining throughout. Strangely this show has something in common with the Mix Tape show, because it has to do with Andrew chasing a girl. But instead of giving her a mix tape as a sign of affection, this one involved him going to Paris to chase a girl - I bet Carlo Richie doesn't feel that stupid now -. He was instantly attracted to a girl who worked in a Museum, so tried to start a conversation. After a few attempts he finally broke through with his going half way around the world to Paris to chase a girl story. Not expecting too much, because he thought he didn't look like her type, he coyly asked her to come to a party latter in the evening. She did look a bit indignant at the time but surprising she did turn up. Andrew then tries to prove that he is boyfriend material - but more like prove that a girl could actually be attracted to him - so he introduces her to his ex girlfriend, which he is still good friends with. Unfortunately even with his story of being in a dance video for a band in the Czech Republic, and ex helping his cause, things didn't go to plan. The show is more engaging than laugh out loud, but it did reinforced my appeal for his comedy. Crowd : 4 - Me : 4.25
Big Laugh Comedy Festival Archive 2005 - link no longer works
07.05.11 : Lawrence Leung - Wants a Jet Pack : Parade Theatre
I don't take must notice of show titles, because they usually have little relevance to the actual show, like Jason Byrne's Cirque Du Byrne had nothing to do with circuses, except for his ringmaster jacket, but this show is exactly what the title suggests, Lawrence actually does want a jet pack - by coincidence I was looking at jet packs earlier in the year, so I had an extra interest. The show is delivered with the help of a slide show and is constructed in that same style that his TV show was, and discloses the story of him trying to get an actual jet pack, or at least fly one. It starts with him telling us he is 31, and that he hasn't really achieved that much. So looking at his closest role model his father - complete with some photos of him in ultra cool black sunglasses -, and how much he achieved, like immigrating to Australia, getting a job, then a wife, buying a house, etc, Lawrence sets his sights to emulate him and achieve something note worthy. So he set his sights high, and plans to be one of the very few people to have actually flown a jet pack - citing that more people have walked on the moon than have flown a jet pack -. He told us a bit about the history and the limitations of jet packs, like they are very dangerous, and have ridiculously short flight time, like 30 seconds. He found 2 people in the US that have built home made ones and have flown them, but unfortunately he couldn't get to fly them, so he decided he would try to make a jet pack. He went local and tried Australian model rocket clubs, but they were too embroiled in a feud to be of any help. So he put a message out on the internet for anyone who could build him one, and a hoarder named Craig with a backyard shed said he could knock something up. Unfortunately this didn't look too promising, because of the armature nature of his backyard status. Then one day when he found a NZ guy that had made, not a jet pack, but a fan pack, that could fly for over 30 minutes - way better than an actually jet pack - so he tried to contact him, but couldn't. He sent Craig the link to the site, and Craig said he would look at it. Months passed, then Craig rang back and said he has built the fan pack and was now ready to test it, and where else to test it, but the 2011 Birdman Rally. And strangely it succeeded, but in a different way.
This was the only show in the festival that brought back that feeling of excitement, something that I haven't felt for probably 6 months, and a feeling that I probably only experience once or twice a year. It was interesting and funny, and appealed to my engineering side, even though you don't really have to know anything about engineering to understand it. Not as good as his Time Ninga with Andrew McClelland, but close enough that this will be in the running for best show for this year. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4.75
06.05.11 : Jason Byrne - Cirque Du Byrne : Enmore Theatre
Things didn't go to plan so I lost my enthusiasm for this one. The problem with this one is you have to get there early in case it you can't find parking, and this results in you having to wait around for a long time. Then the show before this one runs long, and the venue turn around goes from ½ hour to over one hour. And then after all that waiting, people push in front of the early people anyway. And then when the show starts, you look at your watch and realise the tickets for a latter show that you have, are now useless because you will never make the starting time, yet alone the finishing time, so you have just lost your money. And then the show is so long, and so late, that you yawn through most of it because it's close to midnight. And then you realise afterwards, that it was a 5 hour home to home show.
We started with Jason rushing into the audience to pick out 4 guys to join him with some aerobic step moves and some rope skipping, in some loosely choreographed dance to the music. Jason then when into banter with the audience - the show didn't feel like there was that much set material because there was so much ad-lib with the audience, but with the show running for nearly 2 hours it's understandable there is going to be a lot of mucking about, and it's not that the improvising was bad, in fact his confused flustered upset character is so lovable that it's never a detracts from the show -. I don't remember Jason doing this last time, or if this is a regular occurrence with his shows now, but this mucking about seemed to affect the audience, because they too started mucking about back at him. He would ask a question to a person, who would naturally hesitate to answer, so then a friend would quickly jump in and answer it. And this would sent Jason into a tizzy about why they are answering for their friend - This is when the audience went weird and then expanded on that. - So when he asked the next person a question, some stranger in the row in front of them would answer, and this would prompt even more confusion from Jason with questions like do you even know the person he originally asked the question to. But the stranger would just take it further by faking that they knew the person. This then went even further when he asked a question to one guy, AND A GUY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM answered, and this prompted even more confusion from Jason. So not wanting to look a fool, Jason tested the guy and asked him what's the name of the guy on the other side of the room, to which he replied Greg. So Jason quickly ran across the stage to the other side and asked the guy for his real name, and he said Craig. Jason then sensed that they sound pretty similar, so he ran back to the stranger and questioned him further, but the stranger also sensed the similarity and quickly covered by using the Craig/Greg mistake in names because they sound similar. So when Jason pushed the stranger further, he faked it even more BS and said that he met him in the foyer before the show. But the odd thing for me was when Jason got 3 guys from the audience to balance plates on sticks while he played the song Popcorn on their testicles with drumsticks(from a base drum with the big white ball on the end), because when he interviewed the tall blond haired guy that said he was an usher in a cinema, I remembered that he is the usher at my cinema. Imagine if I shouted out that I knew him from the balcony section, it would have melted his mind. There was a section where people can bring in gifts to give to Jason, which they deposit in a box before the show, that he displays to the audience and actually questions the people that brought them in. The weird stuff he got tonight was a door knob, and a rubber-band toy gun, which prompted even more ad-libs. The end was set material mainly about getting a embarrassing massage, married life where his wife treats him like a child, but now gets back at her by telling us about her facial hair when she was pregnant, and her odd nipple hair. The show ended on a big choreographed skipping routine with professional rope skippers doing some great stunts. He was good, even though I only chuckled in places, but I eventually did somewhat came around, so he was still fine for me. The audience on the other hand loved him, and were not affected by any problems or that lateness of the night at all. Crowd : 5 - Me : 3.75
05.05.11 : Deanne Smith - About Freakin' Time : Seymour Centre
Why do I always remember things when it's too late, damn you OCD you useless partner. When I buy tickets it's by feel, rather than thinking back and remembering if the previous shows were any good. And it was only on the day that I thought back and remembered that Deanne's first show was good, not laugh out loud good, but kind of delightful good, but her second show, I didn't like that much. Luckily, this one returned to her cute good show. Deanne has a very strong short stand-up set that has a lot of impact - this show uses the songs from that routine - but because this one more spread out, it doesn't come at you as fast. She started with her time paradox introduction - hence the title - and then her racist ' You say Potato, I say Potarto' song, followed by her 'No Worries' song. She divided the room into 2 sections and scored each side based on how they acted. And was not shy in giving out plenty of negative scores for arrogance, as one guy can attest too when he wanted to say something and she stopped him - she did tell him to save it for latter, and just Shelve it, but more about that latter -. I remember her saying she was some type of nanny/babysitter in her first show, and that was expanded on by saying kids are just like tiny crazy homeless people, and then listed the similarities, like they both defecate in their pants, etc. The kid theme continued with celebrities adopting 3rd world babies as a fashion accessory - she has this thing she does where the lead up to a joke is so cute and sweet, and then she says something so inappropriate it would be offensive if she wasn't so adorable - like celebrities like to look good all the time, so they adopt black kids because so the dirt doesn't show, and they still look good. She did a good bit about her going into a inner monologue when she is talking to someone boring, unfortunately the inner monologue is about her being a good listener, and ultimately not listening. There was a section about time - so thankfully the title had some relevance, unlike Mr Will Anderson's - where she said she would like to live in a time where you don't get diarrhoea every day, like today. We next had a game where she would make a statement, and we had to pick if she was talking about God, or Elton John. There was a '6½ minutes of Bonus Hilarity' section, that was a Q&A where the audience could ask her questions. But this ultimately turned into her asking all the questions, with her quickly going back to the subject of Shelving. She was curious about it because it was a term she didn't know, and wanted to know more - and so did I -. Evidently Shelving is the practice of ingesting drugs via the anus, and it's only when we were told that Stevie Nicks used to get cocaine blown up her ass in the 90's, that I remembered the old rumour. The funny thing during this part was she said "I hope there were no reviewers in the audience", because getting a review about Shelving might not be what she would want - Oops -. She next steered the subject toward lesbians - whether we wanted to or not -, but about the bad bits of being a lesbian. Like the incessant talking, stating that if you think it's bad having one girl talking about her feeling , just imagine two. And this in turn, turns every simple task into an epic conversation, like taking ages trying to decide what flavoured jam to buy. We finished with the 'We(girls) Go Together' song, and the 'Everyone is Different' song.
When Deanne first came here she was a delightful, but a more timid performer, but now she is more like a fast talking, higher energy, confident performer - Like an Elliot Reed(Scrubs) fast talking cute character, but funnier - and like Elliot she also has other names for the vagina, like the va-jim-jam -. More cutesy than riotous. Crowd : 4.25 - Me : 4
05.05.11 : Source Code - movie
Sci-Fi | Thriller : A man on a train has to find out why the train explodes. After 5 minutes I thought that the damn trailer had spoilt the film, but I stuck with it, and at about ⅓ of the way through, it did get interesting. The end was even more interesting, and finished with an unexpected twist. There were some technical points that seemed a bit weird, but Sci-Fi doesn't have to be that logical. More interesting than good, but still good all the same. The public would probably say a 3.75, but I'm bias toward Sci-Fi, so I say 4
04.05.11 : Hermann's Heroes: Rainbows! Ponies! Cherry Pie! Playtime! : Hermann's Bar
The one thing that struck me was how different this was compared to usual stand-up, in material and ideas, it's was just refreshing to hear something different. This was a big turn around from the last show, that had half the audience hospitalised with depression. Everyone was good in this one with 7 at 3.75, 3 at 4, 1 at 4.25, and the big finish of Marcel Lucont - who ripped it up, in a very subdued manner - at a 4.5.
Michael Hing was back to his old form, which really matters because it lifts the show. The only thing I would change was that he was a bit too abusive to the audience. Ben Jenkins was also excellent with conjecturing comments from the back, that really added to the show. There is just something funny about when he reins in Michael's wayward ideas - strange he didn't issue an apprehended violence order on Michael's audience abuse.
Patrick Magee(Notorious Sex Offender) passed himself off with the intro to Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which is his favourite show. He even went to extent of telling us about Kevin Sorbo's new ice cream business.
John Conway(Best Newcomer MICF Nominee 2011) got caught watching a couple making out, don't you hate it when girls open their eyes when they kiss. He also tried to reintroduce the 1980"s habit of sitting backward on chair. And also told us about the differences of dating in Australia compared to France, and then to America.
Antony Faisandier(Excellent Law Revue Gentleman) took the strange angle of using the NSW history syllabus for humour. It was designed for a specific audience, like a Uni crowd, but that didn't matter because even thought it wasn't directed at my demographic, it was so refreshingly different that I found it very interesting.
Laura Hughes(RAW Comedy National Finalist) tried to free inanimate objects taken hostage. It was something fresh and ended up being delightful.
Ben Ellwood(An Angry Gnome of a Man, Bitter About His lot in life) was funny in a different way. The jokes may have not been that funny, but his cover up, and the audience sensing the awkwardness of the jokes, made it funny.
Paul Ayre(RAW Comedy National Finalist) did a review of Hing & Magee's Show Orientalism from the perspective of a racist bogan character called, Doug from the Shire. If only the actual show Orientalism had been as good as this fictitious review. Orientalism was so chaotic that I only had a sense of what was going - like it was some type of ironic take on racism in comedy - but this send-up made more sense of what was going on. It was just so clever, clear and concise, and so well organised, that it summed up the show so completely, that I understood more about the actual show by seeing this review, than by seeing the original. The other difference was, because I could understand what was going on in this one, I found it funnier than the original. This was one of the funniest spots on the night, and got a loud cheer from everyone.
Sam Bowring(Founder of Mic in Hand) was still as good as usual, and dealt with the big issues. Like, cold weather, mossies, computers and their unknown errors, splicing human DNA with animals, child on board signs, and annoying car alarms.
Justine Rogers(Quest For The Best Finalist) was also a set that was different and refreshing. It told of her going on a setup date with a guy. This one was also delightful.
Jacques Barrett(Comedy Zone, Footy Show) connected better with the young people this time, and slipped in some re-pronounced words based on his towsh routine. His last joke was about marriage, and may have have not been relevant to a young group, but overall he was good again, and did get a good cheer.
David Cunningham(RAW Comedy Runner Up) still had that clever lateral thinking thing going on, with his picking on the outer sanctum in lieu of the inner sanctum. But it was his reading of the 1662 Anglican Book of common prayer, that that portrayed a very inappropriate way of thinking in the past, that was really interesting.
Marcel Lucont(France's Only, and therefore Best, Stand Up) was brilliant again. He used these lateral punchlines that you don't expect, and they are just so killer funny. He did some new stuff that I haven't heard before- unfortunately had I known I would have seen this years show - but either way everyone loved him, and cheered to prove it.
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03.05.11 : Ronny Chieng - Is selling Out Fast : Yalumba Wine Bar
I fell for the deceptive title trick - It uses the Twitter effect, where you get so many posts with such little value, that you only glance them for key words, rather than actually assimilating them - and this gave me the impression tickets were selling fast, oh well, that will learn me. I didn't really feel in the mood to go out this night - It's hard to get motivated when it cold, and late, and you have to drive out to see one show that is actually shorter in length than your total travel time, but that's what happens when a festival is spread out. I prefer only going a few days a week and seeing more shows per day, so if you see a bad show there is a good chance that a good one will erase it's memory. This way if you see a bad one on it's lonesome, you notice it more. Either way, Ronny's show was well subscribed and good enough, even though his usual strong short set was stretched so the laughs didn't come as often. He used quite a bit of audience improvised stuff to set up his jokes. And yes he did use the racial joke angle, which I can find tiring if it goes on too long, but Ronny wasn't tiring at all, probably because he hung s**t on every race. The weird thing was that he is Malaysian, but he keep referring to all Asians as Chinese, even when he was talking to the Japanese guy in the front row, I guess that makes him a true Australian. There have been some great show here at the Yalumba in the early days, like the first time I saw Daniel Townes, who did his great South Africa story, and again the first time for Jacques Barrett. Ronny isn't as good as them, probably because he is younger, but overall it was fun, and I don't really have anything to complain about. Crowd : 4 - Me : 3.5, maybe just a 3.75
03.05.11 : Fast and Furious 5 - movie
Action : The F and F crew go to Brazil for a job that turns into trouble, and are chased by a corrupt businessman and the US federal police. It still has that amateur feel in places, but for the most part the big budget bought enough action to cover the holes. It's ok, and maybe just makes a 3.75
02.05.11 : Danny Bhoy(SCO) - Messenger (Please Do Not Shoot) : Enmore theatre
Wow, I thought I had seen Danny recently, but checking the old reviews I couldn't find one, and all there was one entry in the shows for pre 2008. I do remember the show was blistering funny, probably a 5, and because it was so good it must still be vividly stuck in my head, and probably accounts for why I think it was recent.
When I got to the theatre I didn't actually read my seat number until I handed the ticket to the usher, and it was like, "Wholly crap. Not the front row", and then when he ushered me to a seat dead smack in the middle, I thought, "I'm screwed" - next time I should read the tickets before I get there to save the shock -. Danny is like Gina Yashere, and can be a bit abrupt with the audience stuff, but thankfully the 1½ hour show was all material, so there was no time for improvising and we were mainly left alone, except for the lady who wanted to take a photo mid show. Danny's last show was mainly about his Australian experiences, and was super funny. This one randomly switched all over the place, but used the main underlying themes of his British experiences - that included interpretations about their culture, like, stories about the unflustered, stiff upper lip, always apologising, British attitude, complete with excerpts from British history
sprinkled in - and his experiences trying to break into the American market. There was still a large Australian part to this show, but because the stories were short and punctuated all through the rest, there wasn't a solid block of them so you didn't notice how big it was. Just to give you an idea how diverse the subject matter was I will just list some stuff. The Royal wedding, Ticketmaster's hostile on-line store, shoe carrying drunk women going out in Aust, Australian floods, Qatar hosting the World Cup, the British and their tea, the Irish cricket team beating the English team, Goths in sunny W.A., Australian sayings, sending a polite letter to Hitler, misinterpretations of abbreviations in modern txting, delivering messages by horse, Vikings, visiting the place JFK was shot, bottle shop V's bottlo, basic names of things in Australia, buying wine in a Texas pub, the Golden Girls are sluts, differences between English and American culture, American TV shows giving us an insight into American culture, working in a bar in Scotland and giving Americans a Scottish breakfast of fried toast, odd American wording, being on David Letterman and getting a text from Billy Connolly, 24hr mattress shops in New York, being starstruck when Matt Damon burst into his dressing room, uselessness of long division, French class in high school, etc. This one was fun and was a bout a 4 to 4.25 for most of the part, but because it blipped into head spin territory it makes it to 4.5. Crowd : 4.5 - Me : 4 .5
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