The Definitive Guide to Comedy
****1/2 (out of 5) Dan Rath describes himself as having “enough different flavours of brain fog to start a vape store.” Rath also is the reigning holder of the Piece of Wood Award, given to him last year in Melbourne by previous winners and other comedians who wanted to single …
****1/2 (out of 5) Zoë Coombs Marr received the top prize in Melbourne in 2016 for “Trigger Warning,” the show that presented her in character as a misogynist male stand-up named “Dave” to lampoon the disparate standards for men in comedy. Her 2018 show presented Marr as herself while still …
**** (out of 5) Trained in clowning at the École Philippe Gaulier, Tom Walker won Best Newcomer in Melbourne in 2016, received a best show nomination the following year, and filmed his 2019 special Very Very as an Amazon Original playing with mime and sound effects. And yet, this might be …
***1/2 (out of 5) You might know Mish Wittrup from her work on camera with sketch group Aunty Donna, or from her best newcomer-nominated show in Melbourne two years ago. In between then and now, however, she fell upon hard times economically and found herself looking for any sort of …
***1/2 (out of 5) Smooth criminal references aside, Annie Boyle does not seem OK. At least not at the start. Boyle presents her tale of mourning and yearning to us in deadpan narration. The referenced review accompanying her show listing compares it to Fleabag, which feels apt, although Boyle’s approach …
**** 1/2 (out of 5) Arj Barker is big in Australia. How big? He’s starring in a new feature film, The Nut Farm, just released in this nation’s movie theaters, where he plays a Bay Area crypto dud who inherits a farm full of nuts in Australia. Did Barker become …
**** (out of 5) Grogan sounds like a word describing a real tough guy; Down Under, more like tough shit. Luke Heggie‘s new hour finds him in dreaded territory as a dad. His kids are now old enough rebel against him. He’s no longer a hero. And as a middle-aged …
**** 1/2 (out of 5) Easter weekend and Ramadan coinciding with the start of the Melbourne festival felt fortuitous for visiting American stand-ups Joel Kim Booster and Zainab Johnson, who are co-headlining a run for the first half of the fest. It also helps that Booster and Johnson have both …
**** (out of 5) Based in Mumbai, Urooj Ashfaq‘s show has taken on new meaning since winning Best Newcomer at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe. Before, you might think “Oh No!” at how open she is about her religion, her childhood growing up with divorced parents in India, or her mental …
**** (out of 5) A late-night showcase at a festival tends to find its most success when it has a strong grip on its premise while maintaining the loosest flexibility to go with the flow, even when and especially if the flow turns into a spill requiring the hosts to …
