The Definitive Guide to Comedy
****1/2 (out of 5) Are you ready? Are you steady? Because Irish comedian David O’Doherty is about to perform perhaps his greatest trick yet, a quite personal show that’s heartfelt whether or not you get to his parents witness it for themselves. This is an hour in which O’Doherty reflects …
***1/2 (out of 5) This felt very much like a work still in progress, so take these stars with a pinch of salt and whatever vinegar you feel appropriate. But Fern Brady’s audience is coming to see her to talk about anything, really. She jokes that her biggest fan demographics …
**** (out of 5) Lizzy Hoo has burst onto the Australian comedy scene, and scored an Amazon Original stand-up special last year, Hoo Cares!? My review of that special had left me wanting to hear more. As I wrote then: “But this hour is a snapshot of a comedian finding herself …
****1/2 (out of 5) When a couple of punters arrived late to Rhys Nicholson’s show, the comedian quickly caught them up with a quip: “Hopefully I’m gay. Otherwise this is a very homophobic character.” Nicholson won the top prize for their 2022 Melbourne show, and they’ve returned with the news …
***** (out of 5) In an alternate reality, the role of Liza Minnelli or someone like her was lived by Tabitha Booth, a star of stage and screen who starred in a version of the musical Cats that only lasted three nights on Broadway. After disappearing from the scene and …
****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 …
