Comedy & Movie Reviews 2010-1

Woof-o-meter :-
0-Die Bastard : 1-Crap : 2-Rubbish(watchable) : 3-OK : 3.5-Nice : 4-Good : 4.5-Very Good : 5-WOW

27.02.10 : Dollshay : Waterworks Hotel Botany - music
2 girls playing covers. They did their songs for an oldish crowd so it didn't suit me, Their modern stuff is better. 2

26.02.10 : Scriptless Dangerous! : Roxbury Hotel - impro
I find the up and coming players not enough of a buzz these days but there is something about the dangerous format that makes it OK, the added difficulty of the games holds you attention better. Even though you could see the experienced players were better than the rest they didn't stand out as much this time, which is not a problem as more players came up with the laughs. We had a back-wards scene that didn't use the usual easy love story scene which was very good. We had another radio play in the dark that was great. Also there was the difficult sing one word at a time song. We also had a new game where the 4 players stood two at the front and two standing behind forming a sort of a square. When slide left was called by the host the square would rotate left and next two players would be at the front, like spinning a box with another side of the box facing you. Each face had a different prompt for a story so as it spun you got 4 different scenes. It is also harder for the players as each had to remember two scenes as they were the corner of the box so they were common to two faces. It was an alright night. 3

27.02.10 : 2000 total views of this blog today since it started

24.02.10 : Storytelling at Performance Space's ClubHouse : CarriageWorks
I initially liked the first storytelling that I went to, it had Tommy Dean who told an amazing story of his life. Unfortunately there was also a story from a guy about a plane flight that went wrong, that was really entertaining on the night, but when I found out it was just a rehashed urban myth I went sour on the whole storytelling idea. I did go to some of the Project 52 storytelling nights and the stories sounded honest so I liked them and have come back to the idea. Tonight's show was free and there was going to be 3 celebrates so I though it would be OK. I feel more trusting of celebrities that their stories are true. Our first storyteller was DeAnne Smith. She did her run over cat story from Mexico but with more detail. The story was good, bad and sad. Good, in that it was a good story. Bad, in that it was bad for the cat, and sad that after meaning well all the help they gave that cat just made things worst. I really came to see our second storyteller Virginia Gay, who popped up 6 months ago at impro shows after All Saints was cancelled. I was probably being nosy trying to get some behind the scenes gossip of what happened, but she told another story. She auditioned for a panel type game show pilot that never went to air but with the handicap of not sleeping for 24 hours. She has insomnia because she has one of those brains that races all the time with a voice that talks to her constantly. So to take the edge off she takes sleeping pills, which she got addicted to. The pills would shut down the voice and just leave white noise but one of the side effects was she would lose the voice that was her conscience, and it also makes her forget what she did under their influence. After moving house she had to help her friend move house also, and then fly to Melbourne for the show. After the taping she got amorous toward a barista while under the influence of the pills. Her and the female executive producer, who liked the other barista, hooked up with the two guys after all popping her sleeping pills. The pills mellowed you out more than made you sleep. It was a good story and it sounded raw like she was recalling it on the spot. Third was Amelia Jane Hunter, who I had booked tickets for her last years show at the Cracker festival but she cancelled, and her story may explain why. Last year she signed up for a reality survivor show that didn't make it to air. She felt she was being manipulated so she stole the production manual to get an edge. The book was full of dirty tricks to get the contestants to lose their cool and revert to savages with fighting, bickering, tantrums, etc. All these tricks, like telling players when the are talking to the private camera that other players are saying bad things about them behind their backs, are all cut out so it looks like the player is the one going crazy and makes them look bad. She got her team to take the moral high ground and be nice throughout and won but in the end after seeing the DVDs of the show it made the show uninteresting and her own team members didn't like her because she bossed them around. This left her mentally unstable which took time to over come. Lastly was Marc Carra who told about when he was a life model posing in the nude for life drawings when he got double booked with a beautiful girl that gave him an erection while posing on the stage with her. I'm still uneasy at the last story, as he wasn't a celebrity and the story might not be true, but it did sound believable. Cody Dillon did songs between stories, which wasn't my style but at least they were comical. I'm still working over my need for the stories to be true but it was still a good night. 4

23.02.10 : From Paris with Love - movie
Action, Crime, Thriller : A clever PA for the head of the embassy has a second job doing minor clandestine jobs but is given a promotion if he completes a big job helping and American agent. The trailer touted this as a lame comedy buddy movie, thankfully it wasn't, but it wasn't much better either. Typical serious French style police action movie that never gets close to the American stuff. The scene where he glues a bug to a table with chewing gum is as lame as they come, get some tape for gods sake. There was a twist in the middle but on the whole average. 2

21.02.10 : Comedy on the Edge - Jory, Bloustien, Townes & Lodge! : Hotel William
The show was mainly a trial for some comics doing shows at the Adelaide Fringe and Melb Int Comedy Festival, but they did throw in some new comics for variety. The room is sort of like the Raval, in that it has lounges everywhere and is nice. The show was on a Sunday, during the day, with the windows uncovered so you could see the world pass by behind the comics. It was odd but not a problem. Justin Lodge was the MC and he was better this time with more material. After some new comics we had Daniel Townes: So far so What!. He came to the conclusion before he started that the crowd would not be a good judge if the material is good or not so he didn't make much of an effort. Next was Dave Bloustien: A complete history of Western Philosophy. His set was very busy and it got too heavy in the middle and lost the crowd, and with the clever puns his voice inflected down so it was hard to hear them. That's what a trial is like you stuff everything in it you can think off, which produces too much material, to see what parts to keep and what to cut. It's not going to be a problem as Dave gets it right in his shows. Lastly was Dave Jory: Men are from Mars and Women have no Penis. Dave trialled some of this about 6 months ago at the Laugh Garage and it was funny then and it was even funnier today. Dave's show was very good but it did feel darker, edgy, and more sarcastic today, I think it was because he just skulled a jug. I found it OK. 3

19.02.10 : The Ronnie Johns Half Hour Goodtimes Campfire Jamboree Half Hour - Now On Tour : Riverside Theatre
When I watched the TV show there was some killer stuff but really I only laughed at about 1/3 of the material, so I reasoned if they only do the good stuff it should be OK. The strange thing was the stuff I found funny on TV was funny live but the stuff I didn't find funny on TV was actually funny live also. The whole show is so tight that the sketches come thick and fast so there is no time for boring bits, it's relentless so you are always entertained. I had to check my watch afterwards, as their was so much material, because I was wondering how they fit it all into only 1½ hours. There was the familiar sketches, but because they were live it was like they were new again and they gave even more laughs. It wasn't just old material, they could of taken the easy way out and just re used familiar material, but they added a lot of new stuff which was funny and surprising as it was fresh. The one thing I didn't like about the TV show was that some characters had a weak joke and every week the same character would do basically the same joke and it got tiresome. Tonight there was only enough time to do one sketch from each character, only one 1 sketch had a repeat character(Paulie's Gnocchi one). After tonight's show you realise just how many characters they invented and they still missed some, the one that springs to mind was the very funny was the Poofta Bogan. Even the characters with the weak jokes were funny because they surprised you, as you weren't expecting it, and they didn't repeat. Some of the classic sketches they did that were killers were the, Professor's Fellatious Period dinosaurs, the government's substitution of the word dick head, Poppy's very inappropriate picture book, Chopper doing his old style jokes(I like the old stuff rather than his new show), the food fight, the office executives snorting speed in Coke Mergers, Ronnie Johns on the Good Time Pony, the dark Sigfried love story, Jordan's material joke, Serge Haminov's KFC Kentucky Frucken Chicken, Underground Bands, construction workers insulting women passing by, Koala drug video, interview with a Castrati. Other sketches were the, Kageti NYPD, Robbo caught cheating with wife, Bill the bear gets fired, Superman at the dinner party eating Kryptonite, Jesus nailed to the cross trying to answer his mobile phone. There was just too many sketches to remember them all. They even had to play some Mlak Mlak audio just to give themselves enough time for all the costume changes. Some characters have a lot of staying power like in the Comedy Company, and Ronnie Johns has some killers too and all the best were in this show, they could easily do another show with the best characters doing different sketches and have a another hit. Excellent, I am definitely going again if they play Sydney again. 5

17.02.10 : Stewart Francis (Canada) : Laugh Garage
They say that the shortest distance between 2 laughs is a one-liner and that still holds true for me. Even though the trend these days is toward stories Stewart goes back to the traditional style of one-liners but the difference is they are modern one-liners. You can tell the difference between old style one-liners, as you laugh instantaneously, but with modern ones there is a delay between the end of the joke and the laugh and that's because they are so clever and it takes time for the audience to absorb it and work it out, Stewart is a master in that style. The problem with one-liners is that you can fit a lot in an hour so they come at such a fast rate that it's hard to remember many, but at least you never stop laughing. A couple that I remember, to give you an example were, "There is 2 things I hate, racists and the Dutch", this uses the contradiction joke where the second part of the joke contradicts the first, which is very clever but it takes time to work it out so there was a pause from the crowd before the laughs. Another trick is the 2 meanings of a word like " Is it possible for bald men to get hair-line fractures", citing that the lack of hair coupled with the word hair-line. Another trick is using an inappropriate word but using it as a ruse by correcting the less obvious word like, "Should you hold the elevator door open for spastics" and the correcting it, " Sorry that was inappropriate, in this country I should say LIFT", which corrects the less obvious word. One-liners are a lot harder than story jokes in that you can fit a lot more jokes in a time period so you have to do a lot of work to write them, stories can meander and not be funny all the time, and they sort of write themselves so it's a lot less work for a comic, that's why I respect this disappearing art. Stewart is super clever and if I could get cheap tickets, funds are currently low, I would definitely go again just to try and absorb more jokes as they fly past so fast. Very Good. 4

16.02.10 : The Wolfman - movie
Drama, Fantasy, Horror : A missing man's wife summons the man's brother to help search for him but is too late as he is found dead on his arrival. The brother tries to find the murder but there is another attack so a Scotland Yard detective is also sent to search for the killer. I though they would come up with a new take on the standard done to death werewolf story but alas they didn't. The first half is predictable and only after 1 hour did things pick up somewhat. Seen it before but will give it an extra half point for the special effects. 2.5.

14.02.10 : Adam Hills : Comedy store
Adam started with the usual audience banter, which I was expecting as he is doing that at every show now. In the big shows I thought he does it because of the late comers to stall for time but each successive show the banter has got longer and longer, but tonight it was nearly all banter only the last third was routine and even that was just stories of his travels. Banter seems like a bit of a cheat as you don't have to do that much work because you don't have to write jokes but then again some comics make a career out of just banter. It was initially annoying after 10 minutes but it did turn out good enough to entertain. I actually only laughed 3 times throughout the show and 2 were when the Danish guy serving drinks cracked jokes. There was also some chuckles when the audience cracked jokes while talking to Adam. At least most of the audiences stories were interesting and Adam handled them to make them funny. Even though I didn't laugh much the audience were quite vocal. One of Adams usual tricks is to ask why audience members arrive late. He was talking to a guy who was the only person on a valentines day date when 4 people walked in 6 minutes late. When question for a reason they said they travelled 3 hours to get here. Adam asked where did they come from and what happened. The 3 girls came form the Blue Mountains by train and they got on the wrong train and it went the wrong way. When they got to Central some derro hassled them and then boy picked them up and drove them to the show. Because they were late and they got bad seats and Adam thought they gave a good enough reason so he got them the best seats in the house. He made them carry their chairs and made them sit on the stage. The a guy in the front row raised his hand and Adam said do you want to ask a question. He was actually waving for drinks and not getting any service so Adam got a waiter to come over, he was Danish. The waiter took the order and was about to leave when Adam asked the 4 on stage if they wanted drinks. They wanted Malibus with pineapple but were very young, so the waiter asked for ID(this made me laugh), so Adam had to check their ID and cracked more jokes. Finally we got back to the Valentine day date, she was from Manchester and he was from Dubbo. He then questioned another group as to why they were late and they said Sydney cabs, implying they always get lost. The show went on for over 1 hour when a couple walked in 10 minutes from the end. Adam stopped the show and asked if they were late, not believing someone would be that late or even bother coming that late, they said Yes they were late. He asked where they came from and as a joke they said the country of their origin. It was Manchester, the crowd erupted as it was the same as the Valentine couple, the late couple were wondering why they got such a big laugh as it wasn't that funny. Adam then asked why they were late and they said Sydney cabs, again the crowd erupted with even more laughter and they didn't know why. Adam explained that everyone will be getting a free taping of the show if you put your email on the sheet, and they would find out what was so funny. The last section was where Adam told stories about performing for the Queen and meeting her, but meeting the queen was over shadowed by him meeting Lady GaGa at the same time. He embellished the stories well, which made it funnier than the first 2/3 of the show for me, so it ended on a high even though the stories wrote themselves. His last story about ordering a pizza for his wedding party was the best part for me, as it was the only thing I found truly funny, but it was mainly because the guy running the pizza shop used the scientific approach to something that you would think was simple, like making a pizza. Adams blog will be here http://www.adamhills.com.au/blog/. Still a nice show. 4

13.02.10 : Valentines Day - movie
Comedy, Romance : Multiple stories running simultaneously that overlap with each other all set on valentines day with the theme of love and relationships. This is supposed to be a romantic comedy but it doesn't master either genre. I was hopping for a lot of laughs but it just wasn't that funny, I maybe laughed 2 or 3 times. My partial prosopagnosia made me forget which character was in which story, as some of them looked similar, so I got lost at times. Definitely not close to movies like 500 days of summer. OK. 2.5

12.02.10 : The Axis of Awesome Album Launch and 3 Year Anniversary Sow! : Roxbury
Even though it the Axis again, they always put on quality shows for their anniversary and always gets good supports and a friendly crowd. First cab off the rank was BUCK YOU a collaboration between Amanda Buckley and Susie Youssef. They did a nice little spot with banter and a song at the end using the female equivalent of the cock joke, using shock to get a laugh. Next in the first half was Kitty Flanagan doing a killer set, and again she pulled her sister Penny out of retirement, that's 3 times in 10 years. It is always good to see Penny as I used to constantly see her play for about 10 years from Club Hoy to her solo stuff. They did a brilliantly funny song where they translated a Bob Dylan song to Gen-Y speak, and finished with a very rude song about holes, there that shock value again. After a break for cake the Axis started with their song The Language of Love, which Jordan forgot to set up, but it didn't matter as the audience were quick to cotton on and laughed throughout. Their Songs to Sing Along To song also got great laughs. The theme of the night was a send up of Men at Work-Land Down Under song that is being sued for using rhythms from the Laugh Kookaburra song. Every song they did they stated it was 20% different, to avoid legalities. The Sexual Harassment song was good and they finished on their usual Four Chords song. They said they are sick of this song but it's probably the set up, because the actual song constantly changes so there is some variance. They did an old song for their encore but because it was so old some lyrics were forgotten but Jordan was quick to come up with others. The trouble with releasing a comedy album it's hard to get good laughs from songs the audience knows, looks like they will have to go on a writing spree. Good show. 4

11.02.10 : Mardi Ha : Comedy Store
As the title suggests all the comics tonight are gay. There was some good comics on the bill, that I have seen before, but it's the 2 that I haven't seen that enticed me to go and see the show. Rhys Nicholson was the MC and is usually good but I think because he has done so many gigs lately everyone knows his routine so there was only chuckles. This was brought out by the fact the audience laughed loudly at his new material. Tom Ballard, who was very funny on his appearance on the 7PM Project, was mild, but at least he is better than Josh Thomas. The first half seemed like a bit of a dud and I wished I went on a cheaper day but things did pick up in the second half. After Rhy's small bit with some more new stuff we had Anthony Menchetti, who the crowd liked by giving good applause. Me on the other hand thought he was OK, nothing brilliant. Anthony does some musical comedy on the keyboard and some prop humour. The funniest part was when he produced a radio hammer that his father imports. Lastly was Hannah Gadsby who ripped it up with a great routine. A lot of it is new material and that just makes me laugh more as it's fresh. Mainly because of Hannah I give it a 3

11.02.10 : Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - movie
Adventure, Family, Fantasy : Fantasy based on the Greek gods but set in current times. Zeus’ lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect. Nothing too inspiring or new. Typical quest for magic items, very ho hum in plot. Has enough effects to be tolerable. The only surprise was the identity of the thief. Nothing really to shout about. 2.5

09.02.10 : Double Exposure : Belvoir Theatre
Marty Murphy - Happy & Clean
Marty Murphy takes us on a surreal journey as he reveals how he became a B-grade movie director with three-act tendencies who writes an action thriller set on a turkey farm. This unique comic experience has Murphy playing his own straight man to over twenty-five other characters with lightening speed vocal gymnastics. Marty's bit is more of a rolling story and not that high on laughs so it's not on my favourites list, but was tolerable. 2.5
Flacco - Goes Beyond the Pale
It's been 5 years since I last saw him but Flacco still has it. When he started in his early days I had trouble getting his odd ball humour, I think it was on the Big Gig, but now it's conventional and very funny, and even if he does something that you think is not that funny he has a killer come back to finish on. Like it was planned to be mild so he can get you at the end. He did some add-lib at the start with some young boys that were bored during Marty's show, so they talked during it, that made even them laugh. His smile on a stick was killer funny. He did a send up of Beckett's Waiting for Godot with hold up cardboard pictures that was very cerebral in it's humour. He did star signs on the crystal bald(that's not a typo) and humorous puns reading from a newspaper that were supposed to be lame so he could do some visual gags. Near the end a guy walked on the stage and I was wondering who's this, it took a couple of minutes before I realised it was the Sandman. They did a routine together with some banter at the start with Sandman's SBS(Soccer Before Sex) joke and a very funny part comparing politicians to wines.  Good show. 4

07.02.10 : Smack the Panda : Roxbury Hotel - impro
Tonight Panda Smackdown was challenging Puppy Fight. There was a quick rap battle with 3 player from both teams, which was good. Then the 6 player Panda team did 20 minutes followed by the 3 man Puppy team's 20 minutes. The Panda's got the word shoe polish and stood in a line each telling a short story using the word. They broke to the sides of the stage and did more embellished stories based on their monologues but with acting, just like normal scenes. The Puppies did there usual thing with sound prompts from their sound artist Tom Lowndes, which they used as inspiration for their stories. The Puppies did some good scenes like the Star Trek stories, as you could relate to the Sci-Fi characters. We found out Spook was a bit of a slut. Being that there are no winners the Puppies were better. This was show similar in entertainment to when Puppy Fight Social Club started with their trial shows, in that it was disjointed and not that funny. Unfortunately the few bright sparks wasn't enough to overcome the averageness of the rest of the show. 2.5

07.02.10 : Blank the musical : Roxbury Hotel - impro
It's been a while since they've done a Blank, so thing didn't run perfectly, but it didn't matter as the show was good. "Speed" was the theme word for tonight and they came up with the usual 3 scenes, one about speed dating, one Top Gun based (Need for Speed) reference, and one that wasn't great but still OK about a character on a chat site called Speedfreak. Amanda Buckley's internal dialogue spoken out loud was brilliant and funny, as it's spoken so fast and every line contradicts the previous line. Jon Williams was very good as the pilot Maverick. Brydie Lee-Kennedy was a bit low key tonight, not the usual for her, but everything she came up with was gold. Pete Lead, who has been quiet in all of last years shows stepped up and did some main player scenes and was very good. There wasn't as many songs, which is fine by me, but this show was the first one back after an absence. Good show. 3.5

06.02.10 : Good News Week recording : ABC Studio Ultimo
What an absolute cracker of a night. Even though this is a recording for a TV show the jokes came so thick and fast that it was just like a comedy club show. Paul McDermott's opening monologue was was so well written and delivered it had me choking. He absolutely berated the academic that said the national anthem is not relatable and the 3 send ups new Australian anthems were killers. I think just the opening took 20 minutes, shame they will have to cut most of it out. That's what the whole show was like, the recording lasted for 3 hours and there was 2½ hours of good stuff but when it gets put on air it will only be 1½ hours long, losing a lot of good material. Tonight we had on Claire Hooper's team the tiny Fiona O'Lachlan with the very tall Josh Thomas. I thought Josh was tall at 6ft 2" but when Liz Ellis came out she made everyone look small. Josh could nearly see her eye to eye as she is 3" taller than him. Liz was joined by Peter Burner on Mikey Robins's team. They did the "magazines in trash can/things that annoy me" game, which Ted Robinson accidentally cut short before Liz had a go, so they had to go back and restart it again. They had the question challenge game with Fiona and Peter trying to out buzz each other to answer, but with no buzzers. The lack of buzzers just makes it funnier and Peters stupid call out name is for the oldies cartoon fans. The funniest bit was in the last game with a story about German students eating chilli, the killer puns had me light headed with laughter. Paul made a mistake when the questioning meaning of SPAM, being spiced ham, in that he couldn't see where there word ham was in the word Spam. He was belittled when told the AM sounds like ham. They did the usually picking on of Fiona, who is always a good sport about it, but she got them back in places and turned things upside down when she tried to pick up Josh by insinuating he could be her toy boy. A hadn't laughed that much for a while so it ended up a really good night. 4.5

05.02.10 : I ♥ IMPROmance - The Return : Roxbury Hotel - impro
Jon Williams was the host and he is so quick at comments and comedic comebacks it's always fun to watch. It actually started out pretty good with the speed dating round with Jon dinging the bell to switch players. The horror first date round where they got worst date stories from the crowd and reinterpreted them was really good. But the last round where the players could be any character they invented in the previous rounds was horrible. Things just fell apart with players butting in before a scene was established, main players ignoring the others and leaving them standing, people talking over each other. Other players shouldn't really come in unless the scene is dying or they have something that adds effect to the main scene until the scene is established, and then they can add new concepts. And I don't know why the veteran player didn't cut the new players some slack and just acknowledge them and if the idea was no good just forget it during the scene. But even from the little I saw at the start of the last scene it was looking like a dud but the stuff ups did leave a sour taste behind. Still not a fan of long form impro as it's still hit and miss and could go on well past where it should have finished. The actual crowd would have liked it even with the confusion at the end but I'm not that nice. Started at a 3.5 but finished with a 2.

05.02.10 : Scriptless Dangerous! : Roxbury Hotel - impro
I mainly came to see I ♥ IMPROmance to see if things have improved and thought Scriptless has a new format so I would try it while waiting for the next show. I wasn't expecting too much but it ended up a very good show. It was billed as dangerous and I thought they were just going to do the difficult games, but it was much more than that. There was 4 teams of 4 people and they were given 2 cards which they had to play. One card was Endangered Species where they had to do a game that isn't played often, usually because it's difficult, and a Risk card, where they have to do a risky game. One that's easy to fail in or 2 games simultaneously. I first saw the 2 games or challenges in one scene was last year at the big Uni show. The players got bored and started doing ridiculously hard stuff to try to surprise an intellectual audience that wasn't impressed with the usual stuff, so they cranked it up a notch and made it doubly difficult by doing 2 things at once, and boy was that a brilliant move they cut the audience to pieces. Geoff Bartlett was the host and was brilliant, he was quick and clever with the one liners and comebacks. He kept the pace of the show up so it would leave room for the late show on next. This had the benefit of compressing the distance between laughs so you had a more action in a smaller period of time, which is more entertaining. The show started OK but there were points were players with a lot of stage experience got lost, which I didn't like as it's a bit annoying for me as they have been doing this for years and they still have problems, but when the veterans of Jon Williams and Amanda Buckley came up they they knocked the scene out of the ball park and all the scenes after either pros or new players were good, and some exceptional. There are also players that with a lot of stage time that are showing a lot of potential and learning stuff and are getting very good. Some scenes that stand out were the radio play. which was fantastic. With all the lights down so you couldn't see the performers just like radio where you have no vision. They did the voices and sounds just like you were listening to a real radio play. They even squeezed in the usual trick of adding and advertisement in the middle. There was the crazy sing-one-word-at-a-time story, it's hard enough telling a story one word at a time yet alone singing it. They did the crap truth scene but with a difference. The actual rules for the game is if you make the audience laugh you have failed, that explains why the game is boring and not entertaining. The penalty tonight was all the players had to eat a marshmallow if the audience laughed. Soon their mouths were full and they were unable to speak so the audience just laughed harder and the players had to stuff in more marshmallows, very funny. The N-words mixed in the the acting directions was funny and so was the actor switch. Short form impro is still king in my book as it gets the really big laughs that long form has trouble sustaining. Good show. 4

Why is Sidney anonymous ?
Sidney is a couple dollars short of a Asperger's clinic, ie, not a people person. This is one case where "it's not you it's me" being true, sorry if it annoys. If Sidney wasn't anonymous this wouldn't exist and the reason why is in the Why blog.

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04.02.10 : Smart Casual - Same Mother Different Fathers : Roxbury Hotel
This was the preview show for Smart Casual's upcoming festival tour, so instead of doing their usual stand up show the boys got together with Heath Franklin to make a show that linked together like a story. The premise is that they are half brothers with an over protective mother that has left tape recordings of what to do in their show while waiting for their fathers to arrive. Most of the material in this show is all their usual songs plus about 50% more content, and it's all mainly in the banter. They added some physical gags with the tomato scene, that was quite funny, but it did leave a strong smell of tomato's afterwards. The seagull song with new props was very good, and the dance number was nice. During the show there was frequent changing of tapes with comments from their mother and lots of wine sipping. Their delivery is very laid back and paced, which is their usual style so don't expect high speed comedy, but it does leave constant pauses for effect which is funny in it's own right. Even though I didn't laugh much, because I know most of their material, it was nice. It seemed the packed out crowd was in the same boat as the majority of the audience was fairly quiet or lightly chuckling, all that aside there were still pockets of good laughing throughout, probably by the first timers. That's the problem with having fans in comedy the regulars are fairly quiet. It still was a good show that filled out the hour nicely and if I hadn't known most of the material I would have given it more.. First timers will love it. 3

04.02.10 : Felicity Ward Reads from the Book of Moron : Roxbury Hotel
I don't know why this is a preview show, as she has done it elsewhere, but maybe she is still adding stuff. We are greeted by Felicity in dapper attire with smoking jacket and pipe, while holding a large book explaining that she will read stories in a story-time fashion. Even though the title of the show bears some resemblance to a religious group she assures us it doesn't what so ever, and boy was she right. She sets herself down on her story-time chair in front of a raging fire, even if it's a cardboard one, and complies with OH&S standards with the usual precautions. She summoned her faithful dog with her slippers and James Pender, her guitar playing hound, appears with slippers in hand and lays them at her feet and has a short nap in front of the fire. She started with her first story, with soft guitar from James, and told about the embarrassing purchase of the Big Issue magazine from a disabled man. The next story was about a strange massage and then one about doing a comedy show for an inappropriate audience. She rounded up the night with a killer story about her Irritable Bowel Syndrome which was cringe worthy just as much as it was funny. I enjoyed this show more than her last one, it just had a better vibe. Her other show has a lot of content and I think this show had the same stories, or maybe something similar, but it was delivered so differently I had trouble figuring out if I had heard them before, be it in a different style, so it ended up feeling fresh to me. One thing is she talks very fast, most story-time shows pauses for effect or little comments or sub stories, but that's Felicity's style. I think the fast delivery made the show feel like it flew past and ended too soon but it was still delightful. 3.5

04.02.10 : Edge of Darkness - movie
Crime, Drama, Mystery : A senior detective is the target of a drive by shooting but his daughter is killed instead, or so it seems. Just like Law Abiding Citizen simple revenge movies are too lame these days so they have to add a twist, and in this one they used a conspiracy. Mel Gibson's acting range these days shows as much emotion as a fence post but there is enough intrigue to make it OK. 3.5

02.02.10 : Invictus - movie
Biography, Drama, History : Nelson Mandela tries to unite South Africa by getting the whole country to support their rugby team the Springboks. Even though the white people love their Springboks the blacks hate them, because to them they stand for everything that is white South Africa. Nelson Mandela had a noble idea in trying to get people to forget the past and bring blacks and whites together, but in practice it was a lot harder than the simple idea. The movie is more a feel good drama with nothing really confrontational so things don't get heavy on the viewer. The cinema had quite a few girls in the audience, probably to see Matt Damon, so it was good for people that probably don't have any interest in rugby. Good movie. 3.5

31.01.10 : Law Abiding Citizen - movie
Crime, Drama, Thriller : A man's family is needlessly brutally murdered and he is left for dead. His lawyer takes the easy way out to get a conviction and keep his good conviction record intact. 10 years later he gets his revenge. The opening is a bit brutal and disturbing as the act is pointless and just for the murders kicks. I think they were trying to make something  like The Inside Man, in that it was very clever and technical in it's execution, but this one had holes in the technical ideas so wasn't as clever. Some of the technical points in the plot at the trial were BS but I suppose it wouldn't work otherwise, I wish they gave a better reason why it went that way. OK. 3

29.01.10 : Comicide - Funny at the Time : Zenith Theatre - sketch
I though Comicide - Bisketchtenary was pretty good so I was looking forward to this show. I was sitting there and not really laughing and thought it was because I was tired from last night, but even the crowd was only lightly laughing. There were some high points like the office job scene, medal for rape scene, the in touch with children scene, the handshake scene, and the Arnold Schwarzenegger acting scene. Which was so funny it woke me up, but because they were sporadic I kind of semi drifted again. I felt better in the second half because it had most of the good skits, which afterward I remembered from last time. But there wasn't as much magic with the rest, only slight chuckles. I don't know if it was because of the venue or they picked the wrong skits to do or what but it wasn't as funny. At the end the crowd said they liked it but the clapping wasn't really enthusiastic, but that could be the type of crowd, damned reserved Sydney crowds. Even though it started off as nothing special by the end it was sort of OK. Just scrapes on to a 3

28.01.10 : Rock N Lol : Comedy Store
As the title suggested tonight was musical comedy acts. Our MC was The Bedroom Philosopher who knocked everyone's socks off with his opening songs. His clap along song was very funny, as everyone got lost trying to clap along when he changed the tempo, and his drunken Aussie love song also killed. I think his name was Steve Cashman but he did a short set with one song that was very good. Steve Hughes was next and as he said he was probably the only person there that had been in a band but didn't do a musical comedy act. Last time I saw him I though he was too political but tonight most of his routine wasn't that extreme hard edged stuff, and the stuff that was strong was made funny by a witty punchline. Actually the first 7/8 of his routine was so good I was choking with laughter. Just the small section right at the end was not funny. I don't know if he uses such statements like "all soldiers in Iraq are child killers" as a build up to a punchline but the build up is not funny and the punchline isn't worth it. Except for the last bit he was super funny. Luke & Wyatt was next and wasn't as good as last time but was still OK. The crowd didn't help when they didn't join in that much on their funny 45 song, maybe they get fatigued like I do in the second half. They finished on a high with their Cranberries-Zombie send up called Taters(send up Irish pronunciation of potatoes). The big finish was the Axis of Awesome, which is always a quality act. Poor Benny got picked on all night but I have to admit the banter between songs was very funny. I don't usually get surprised anymore because I know most of their songs but their sing along fake CD advertisement where they sing small sample cover songs where the original artist were unintelligible, so in actual fact you can't sing along, was so funny it had me choking. I wonder if James Reyne would fit in there, but then again it would only work in Australia. It sounds like accent gibberish but it's singing artist gibberish. Because I know most of their songs for me they are sounding more like a proficient band with good vocal stylings but that's just me. Benny voice is always pitch perfect and he has a very high range and Jordan's voice is very interesting and powerful at times, those two sound good together. Lee had a sexy new guitar and chucks in the funny banter. They got a huge cheer and brought the house down and with their usual last song the 4 chords song, which sounds more beautiful than funny to me now, but because they always change it I still laugh at times. It has a lot of Australian songs in it and I wonder if they have another version that is country dependent when they go to Edinburgh, or other countries, as they might not know some of our songs. Good show. 4

26.01.10 : Full Body Contact No Love Tennis : Roxbury Hotel - impro
I wasn't planning on seeing this show but since Julia Zemiro was going to be there I though I would make the effort to see her again. I find it strange that the shows I don't really want to go to are good and the ones that I look forward too are usually a bit so and so. That was the case here as the show turned out to be a good. A big cast of 8 players turned up with 7 pros and 1 relative new player, as well as the host and the sound guy. They finally got rid of that 19 minute restriction and let the players do 5 to 10 minute scenes which were cut on a high so it left a good impression with the audience. In the first section the players were given one word to do with what they liked, being Australia day they used an Australian theme. The characters they made up were reprised and intermingled in the second part, and in the third they tried to bring all the characters together. Unfortunately there was so many players, they usually only have 6 or less on the stage at once at the end, that it seemed a bit messy but was still OK. With so many pro players you expect a good show but that doesn't always work out but tonight they had an extra spark and really came up with goods so much so that there were no dud scenes and no dud players, I think everyone was pumped to have a celebrity there. The funniest player for me was the one with the least experience and that was Carlo Ritchie. He killed with his off stage father earth voice over and that crazy rambling character when he was paired with Julia was so funny, I'm still cracking up over it while just typing this, looks like he doesn't need Steen to be funny. Jon Williams was also excellent, he was put up against Julia's cantankerous old woman character and he was always able to have a comeback for her vitriolic attack. The bit where she attacked his accent as he drifted between Swedish to Borat to Italian was very funny but it didn't phase him. Julia was very skilled and was good also. Dave Bloustein was good with his whaler character that fell in love with the whale. Rebecca De Unamuno got the biggest cheer and Josie O'Reilly, Marko Mustac were good. And yes Julia was stylish and pretty in real life. Good show. 3.5

26.01.10 : The Rocks Australia Day : Circular Quay - music
Dallas Frasca, One Blood Hidden Image, Max Sharam, Super Massive
Went to see Max Sharam after all these years but she was disappointing. Super Massive's front woman Malina looked stunning in that red dress unfortunately the band didn't have that spark to be really good. Overall. 2

24.01.10 : Six Characters in Search of an Author : Seymour Centre - play
There wasn't that much information in the brochure about Six Characters so I came to the conclusion it was a conventional drama, which I wouldn't like, but I was bored so I got the cheap tickets offered and said to myself I would endure it. Boy was I wrong, it wasn't a straight story and yet it kind of was. It played like a roller-coaster with your emotions, sad, funny, tragic, hilarious, it was very clever, even brilliant in it's ideas to make an unconventional story even more entertaining by fooling you into thinking you have it figured out even though you don't, until the end. There are clues all the way through right in front of your face but because you are never sure about the play you tend to forget them or even ignore them and when all is revealed it becomes so obvious. I can't give you the total run down about the story as it would spoil the inventiveness of the delivery and story, if you are going to see it, but I will give you a abbreviated run down as an idea so the lack of information doesn't put you off going to see it. The show starts with a video of a boy and when you realise what he is about to do your heart just sinks in despair but we are quickly transported to the production room of some documentary makers which quickly goes to funny mode at the tricks they use in film making. Next there is a knock on the door and 6 characters enter and they say they are looking for a author. They then tell the stories of their lives with each character more tragic than the last, these people are real broken merchandise. The story gets full on and is a bit confronting in the middle when they play out the actual shocking scene, so much so that you are taken aback. Just when you think the worst is over there is a big shock with tragedy in the family. When the truth is revealed it's quite funny but it does leave you wondering. I found the show quite riveting as you got entangled in the plot even though your brain leads you astray. The acting was amazing with all the drama executed so well it just amplified the emotions. A real stand out, and so very different. 4.5

23.01.10 : Hugh Hughes - In 360 : Seymour Centre
We are greeted by Hugh trying to introduce half the audience to the other half while we are entering, and then he followed that with a bit of drawn out intro. I was wondering what was going on and if this what the show was going to be like, but he had to do it because of the bad etiquette of the audience. In theatre shows you don't turn up late and you don't go to the toilet during the performance. This was a problem for Hugh as he had to contend with both, numerous times, but he soldiered on even though the best bits were spoiled with interruptions. So after the rambling delay waiting for the stragglers the actual show began. Hugh has that nice captivating story telling style that works brilliantly, if it's not interrupted. You sit on the edge of your seat waiting for what happens next, kind of transfixed, as the story goes from funny anecdotes to drama to love story and then a big funny finish. His story started with his childhood and his best friend, and all the fun things they got up to. Hugh's natural demeanour is always light hearted and child like, which is also portrayed in his performance, and is instantly like by all. He moves to the city and his room mate picks on him by saying he should grow up but this gets him depressed. To get his head straight he goes back home to visit his best friend in the hope of getting his spirit back, but things don't turn out right and there is high drama that nearly tears his friendship apart. The show ends on a high when a number of totally ludicrous and unpredictable events happens that ends the show in much hilarity. Bad audience but a very entertaining show. 4

21.01.10 : Tooth Fairy - movie
Comedy, Family, Fantasy : An older ice hockey player loses the ability to dream and bursts the illusion of the tooth fairy to his girlfriends young daughter. His penalty is that he has to become a tooth fairy. I was expecting a lame movie for kids but it was quite nice. Of course most of the humour is for the young ones but it wasn't dumbed down like some movies so it was still OK for non demanding adults. 3

19.01.10 : Comedy : Zoo Bar 
Not much fun for me as there were so many repeats, but at least Nick Capper came up with a totally new routine that was good. Chris North was the host, I haven't seen him before, but he wasn't that funny, at least he was enthusiastic. Gordon Southern did a short set that was OK but nothing fantastic. The crowd liked the show, I didn't. 2

19.01.10 : It's Complicated - movie
Comedy, Drama, Romance : A woman divorces her husband for having an affair and marrying a younger woman. 10 years later she bumps in to her ex, gets drunk and has an affair with him behind the back of his new young wife. A second suitor appears on the scene and makes things complicated when she is torn between the two of them. I got a bad impression from Darren Sanders when he said it wasn't that complicated but in actual fact it was a bit complicated and was quite a nice film. No regrets here. 4

16.01.10 : Isy Suttie - Love Lost in the British Retail Industry : Seymour Centre
Isy Suttie was armed with a guitar and that cutesy nice quirky humour that made it a delightful show. The story goes that Lisa, a checkout girl in boring Matlock England, is taken aback by the hansom new shelve stacker Carl and something unexpected happens on their first date. Every character had a song and there was a song for every situation and they were all nice songs, in funny way. The girls in the audience found the show the funniest as they were the main ones giggling. Isy added an extra song after her love story to finished the show, which was quite funny, where she tried to do accents. Even with the extra song time seemed to fly so it felt the show ended very abruptly, she should of done an encore as the crowd was up for it. Nice show. 3.5

15.01.10 : One Small Step : Seymour Centre
The 1st moon landing holds a lot of memories for me. It was such a big story that it saturated the media at the time, so much so that nearly ¾ of the earth's population saw it. I remember is was so exciting, and very scary, in that something could go wrong, and total optimism that science could now solve all our problems after it was executed faultlessly. It was a real feel good story, unlike the major stories today that are all sad. This show covered the start of the space race between the Soviets and the Americans all the way up to the 1st moon landing. Even though the show is only 1 hour long it had a lot of facts crammed in, and it even reminded me of some of the lesser known facts. Like when the 1st American orbited the earth he passed over Australia first, and at night. It was arranged that everyone in the West of Australia kept their lights off so that all the astronaut could see was black, and then turn every light on as he passed over so he could see the ground before him light up. The show was very up beat and the using of cheap props and a lot of imagination was fun for the adults and the large number of young children in the audience, amusing all the age groups with facts and child like behaviour. They tastefully covered the sad moments in time when astronauts and cosmonauts died. And they added so much drama and excitement at the start of the Apollo 11 sequence that it brought back all the emotions that I felt when I actually saw the real thing. Nice show. 3.5

10.01.10 : MacHomer : Sydney Theatre Company
I have never seen any Shakespeare nor read any books, as it sounds like something I wouldn't like, but I like the Simpson's, so if they read it it may be interesting enough for me to tolerate. The whole show is done by Rick Miller and boy did he do some work running back and forth operating props dancing acting it's a very fast paced show, even faster than Charles Ross One Man Lord of the Rings and much more precise in it's timing. The show opens with Rick doing a voice-over asking how many had read Macbeth recently, a third of the audience answered. He then gave a very brief run down of the story for the ones that hadn't because the more you know the story the funnier it is. There were lots of tricks to keep you interested in what is probably a story that fairly hard going. He had a large screen behind him with cartoon images to set the moods or show the characters so you could relate it to his impressions, not that you needed to be reminded as the impressions were so good you knew who he was doing, but it was good in that you knew which Shakespeare character the Simpson character was playing. He had a podium shaped like a big TV that had a camera in it so he could do faces live and it was shown on the large screen. He utilised this small camera to good effect in the haunting sequence. He had cutouts of Simpsons characters with movable mouths and he would move the cutouts back and forth in front of the camera giving a spooky effect while doing the voices and moving the mouths. It was just like a puppet show where you couldn't see the puppeteer and I found this very funny. Not only did he do Simpson characters but he added more from other shows for even more comic effect like The Family Guy, Muppets, etc. There was a big song and dance number at the end to finish on a high and then as an encore, which I found funniest, he did Bohemian Rhapsody with impressions of about 10 different singers, Bono, Mick Jagger, etc. By the end of the night you have to think to yourself does Rick Miller hold some kind of record for number of impressions. Even though I didn't laugh that much I think it was a good show but I squandered it by not reading the book beforehand. Rick spoke so fast and in old English in places that I got lost fair quickly and I think I have to finally admit that my brain has atrophied so much that I can't follow the super fast clever shows anymore. My only complaint was with Rick's Homer impression, it was the only one that wasn't perfect so I had trouble telling when it was MacHomer speaking and it's even more difficult when he is the main character. What I did notice was the younger audience members and the people that said they had read the book recently laughed the most and upon leaving I over heard 2 young girls in front of me saying it was brilliant. Probably more if I read the book. 3

09.01.10 : Optimism : SOH - play
The show was something different for me but still nice. When Frank Woodley was interviewed about a year ago when he started in this show he said it wasn't a comedy in the traditional way but more a drama with funny bits. I concluded it might not be that funny so gave it a miss until the Sydney festival, where they are offering cheap tickets throughout the festival, so I risked it.
Candide(Frank Woodley) is brought up in the privileged house of a baron and is educated by Dr Pangloss(Barry Otto). Dr Pangloss philosophy is that "the world is what it is, and everything happens for a reason so whatever happens good or bad it's for the beat so always be happy". Candide's love for the barons daughter Cunegonde is discovered and he is expelled from the household. A war breaks out and most of the barons household are supposedly killed which sends Candide on a journey around the world to find his love. Along the way his optimism is tested to the limit when he meets people from cripples to kings with tragic and sad stories, so much so that he starts questioning his own optimism.
When the curtains opened everyone was dressed in old fashioned clown costumes and I thought since this was written in 1759 the show would be in that era but then one character started reciting words that I recognised from Devo's song Beautiful World, then he broke out into the actual song. They did about 6 popular songs like The Real Thing-Russel Morris, Shiny Shiny-Haysi Fantayzee and the beautifully sung Wonderful Life-Black. All throughout the night they would mix modern stuff with this old play, even chucking in swine flu and Tiger Woods jokes. It felt like the original play is a bit dry in humour so with this interpretation they added any humour they could. Even though Frank was the main character his part wasn't a dominating one he mainly listened to the other characters stories. In the first half Frank injected the usual Frank funnies, which were very funny but only done a couple of times. The main part of the show was entertaining stories, songs, a couple of dance numbers, and props. Memorable moments was the the big dance number with the stage full of blown bubbles pushed around by the many positioned fans. The audience participation yodelling song, the aeroplane crash, the Candide and Cunegonde in the box wandering hand scene, etc. And the very funny for me in-flight theatre show where that actress complained that the in-flight show she was in wasn't that good as it chopped and changed all over the place, this was an actual send-up of the the total play they were performing as it chopped and changed all over the place. Some things took a while before you realised what they were for like, when they wheeled out 2 pairs of large spinning fans it signified the aeroplane's propellers, or the plastic sheet curtains signifying snow falling, and the big one that you had to keep an eye on was the monitors on the top of the stage as they gave you information which country they were in as they shot all around the world, and a couple times gave useful info to the scene. A lot happened in the 2½ hours and it was entertaining throughout and always had something to watch. 3.5

07.01.10 : Wil Anderson : Laugh Garage Sydney
What an asshole ripping funny night. Darren Sanders hosted and surprised the sold out crowd with the A grade gags, people next to me were dying. I don't get it, I know Darren's routine but I was laughing so hard I started going dizzy. He always mixes it up so it's not regimented, like some, and I don't know where it comes from but he added even more material that I haven't heard before. Of the 3 comics the audience laughed hardest at Darren stuff. Next was Paul Warnes who got good laughs, not the loudest ones, but still got the biggest cheer of the night at the end of his routine. He had to pace his routine to stretch it, but it was only me that noticed. Paul did his full routine and was very good, even for me as I haven't heard his extended material. Lastly was Wil Anderson, he started with his familiar material which is guaranteed to get laughs with a fresh audience, as it's very good. Even though the first half of his routine is repeats for me it's still nice, but what I liked was the second half when he did a poem of new material all about news events from 2009. The format was one line to remind you of the story and one gag line to ridicule it. I think he was testing new material for a another show as this poem lasted for half an hour, and he was noting reactions. Only 2 gags didn't work but he acknowledged them and made it funny by saying they were duds. The crowd laughed strongly throughout his set, as you would expect from a strong performer, and thoroughly enjoyed all the acts. I like this venue when there is a good crowd, and the show is a good length and not drawn out like one venue were the first half is so exhausting that you can't enjoy the second half because you are so fatigued. Super funny night. 5

06.01.10 : Peter Helliar's Dreamboat Tour : SOH
The last time I saw Peter Helliar was in 2007 and it was a nice show and this one was the same. The humour is nice, chuckley humour and entertaining all the way. Even at his age and being a parent Peter seems to be like a big kid and that's were most of his material came from. He talked about his beloved Donkey Kong and things from his youth. He also covered the superfluous day to day funny stuff like women's sanitary products with wings and strings, being married, which seems to be a popular topic for the maturing comic, kids, etc. The story about his kid was funny, the school called Peter and his wife to come to school to talk to the principle. Fearing the worst the principle actually told them they think his son is gifted at the young age of 7. Instead of being amazed they just laughed at the principle so hard that he had to leave the room. Nice show. 3

05.01.10 : Did you hear about the Morgans - movie
Comedy, Drama, Romance : A separating couple witness a murder and are spotted by the killer. The police hide them by putting them in the witness relocation scheme. Not funny, only 2 chuckles, and just watchable. 2

05.01.10 : The Lovely Bones - movie
Drama, Fantasy, Thriller : A young girl is murdered but caught in the space between heaven and earth. She has to decided whether to get revenge or tear her family apart. I absolutely abhor the subject matter and would purposely avoid it because it's so upsetting but the trailer had some fantasy so I thought it would be OK in the end but it wasn't. The hideously disgusting act was portrayed too well in that you could feel all the emotions the actual people would have felt. Even though the actual act was cut the lead up was very disturbing and the conclusion was unsatisfying. I suppose the movie was good but I hated the subject and the fantasy parts didn't soften the blow at all. Because I hated the subject matter. 1

I am going to score shows out of 5 from now on.
0 - Die you bastard
1 - Crap
2 - Rubbish but watchable
3 - OK
4 - Good
5 - Take me to the moon baby. Unmissable

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