Comfest recommendations and reviews

[Alisso]

Okay, so I'm sure everyone in Melbourne is out at all hours having fun at the moment, but that's no excuse for not coming here to post reviews and recommendations and sharing tips for the festival!

Recommendations so far from me:

* Tim Minchin - just as good as last year, if not better.
* Renegades of Folk - I've only seen them at Laugha but they have just improved so much since last year, I'm very impressed. Live Frontier Psychiatrist is brilliant, and the introduction of keyboard into their performance is hilarious (and was even funnier last night when Mr Minchin joined in *G*)
* V.I.P. in Lies, Nonsense and Celebrity Chefs - Definitely a trio to watch. They're good now, and they'll be great in a few years' time if they keep working at it. Go see them so you can say "I saw them before they were big" *G*

I hardly need to recommend people like Ross Noble, Lano and Woodley, that sort of thing, it goes without saying *G*

Anyone else made any interesting discoveries at the festival so far? New acts, old acts with new schtick? Advice for people going to particular shows or venues?

[hails]

i'm not in melbourne but i saw the trial of "Be My (Kent) Valentine" and it was awesome. a sweet premise with some really filthy moments. very funny stuff and Kent's a lovely dude as well, so go up and tell him how cool he is after the show.

[awaywithfairies]

I enjoyed Adam McKenzie in "I Know You Are, But What Am I?" *. His show's about trying to track the kids in his kindergarten/prep class. Three of his classmates actually turned up to the show on the night I went. I think two of them were expected but the third seemed to be a total surprise!

*I may have the "You" and "I" in the wrong order!

[Cherryish]

Most of these I'm guessing you'll probably know, but so far this is what has stood out:

Sam Simmons is awesome if you like your comedy slightly absurd and with subliminal cats.

Justin Hamilton, as usual, awesome, and he finishes with The Polyphonic Spree, which I love.

Damian Callinan - in both his shows (Spaznuts and Babysitting) is fantastic. Only go to the babysitting show if you don't mind kids around you.

Spymonkey's Cooped is awesome. If you don't mind nudity, get along to see that. (I'm not sure if there is anyone on Mosh that does mind nudity??)

Tanya Losanno is really quite good, and steers well clear of the usual female-comedian routine, which is nice.

That's all I can think of in the 10 minutes I have to spend online... I'm sure as soon as I disconnect I'll be going "Oh, I missed that person..."
Oh well

[louie]

Originally Posted by hails

i'm not in melbourne but i saw the trial of "Be My (Kent) Valentine" and it was awesome. a sweet premise with some really filthy moments. very funny stuff and Kent's a lovely dude as well, so go up and tell him how cool he is after the show.

i support kent at his preview in sydney. it was mad. he show is gonig really well in sydney.

[lily]

Greg Fleet - awesome as ever. Left me feeling like I had serious internal damage from laughing so hard.

Beautiful Losers - such a degree of barely restrained violence makes for riveting veiwing.

Men of Steel - there is no way I could desrcibe this adequately but GO AND SEE IT. Just don't sit in the front row.

[JD3000]

"The Sunshine Factory 2" is insanely bizzare and brilliant.

Sammy J has put together one awesome storyline around his usual sets of zany songs.

"Love Triangle" contains Bicey's video piece about being a female comic. It's gold!

"The Wrong Night" always delivers the goods in questionable taste.

[sharleen]

Danny Alder's 'Get Behind Me Elephant. For anyone who loves music and a man with style.

Birdmannifesto. Birdmann is quite clearly insane, and most of the time I didn't know whether I should feel awkward or I should laugh. But I loved it.

[Danshep]

Here's a quick summary of what I've seen so far:

Dylan Moran - enjoyable but not as good as I expected. Delivery was good, but the material was a bit 'standard'.

David O'Doherty - Great. Loads of fun.

Justin Kennedy - Really well done, but not the best I've seen Justin do.

Demetri Martin - My pick of the fest so far. Cute and funny and incredibly clever. He's dreamy.

Rich Hall + Mike Wilmot - Rich was really good, but Mike did a lot of the material that he did last year (which is GREAT material, but I'd seen it before).

Tim Minchin - I don't think it was quite as good as his Dark Side show, but he's still great.

Charlie Pickering - Had some really great bits when he was doing more personal material and did some great character work, but at times he tried a bit too much to be jokey and it brought the tone down a bit.

Kung Fu Du Pu - Shit - Full review at The Groggy Squirrel.

Sunshine Factory Part 2 - I LOVE Sam Simmons. Remembering parts from last year's The Sunshine Factory still makes me laugh. Incredible when re-done as a radio show. See It.

Adam McKenzie - Had lots of technical problems with power going out three times during his show, but had a lot of fun with it. The show could be a bit tighter, but it was quite good.

Glenn Wool - Great - Full review at The Groggy Squirrel.

Bird Mannifesto - Great - Full review at The Groggy Squirrel.

Daniel Kitson - Brilliant as always. I love him so.

Fiona O'Loughlin - Enjoyable - Full review at The Groggy Squirrel.

Rod Quantock - Enjoyable - Full review at The Groggy Squirrel.

[brunswickfi]

Cal Wilson - Great - but you have to love footy

Dan Willis - crap - referencing music that's meaningful to him - tunes ain't that popular here - therefore not meaningful to an Aussie audience. Also had an ex in the audience and kept chatting to her - not interesting to anyone else.

Wil Anderson - good to see Wil having a political opinion again. Not that much new stuff - but then I see Wil a lot. Not for anyone who is a John Howard supporter.

Freestyle Love Supreme - innocent fun. Need to leave your normal dose of cynacism at the door. Child friendly.

Charlie Pickering - interesting stories - just not that funny.

[sara]

I definitely recommend Cliffy is Relaxed and Comfortable. I wasn't going to see it because I thought it was going to be typical 'bogan Aussie' character comedy without any point or purpose. But as we walked out of Sam Bowring's show (another good one, that I'd recommend seeing. Not the best show of the festival, but still a very good one. He also definitely has a lot of potential) we were given comps and figured why not. The show is actually an intelligent look at modern Australian life. It's set in a rioting suburb (with references to current events such as Cronulla) and is basically a discussion between Cliffy and his wife with a few songs thrown in for good measure. It's characters are engaging and there's a naivity and natural intelligence about Cliffy that makes everything he says very logical. Despite one extended fart gag the show was actually the biggest surprise I've had in any festival so far.

I'd say that Cliffy's main failing has been in the promotion of the show not giving an acurate idea of what it's actually like. It definitely deserves a much bigger audience.

The other shows I'd definitely see:
Andy McClelland: The show was so good I'm currently trying to remember the songs he included on his mixed tape so that I can get them for my own. I'd probably say this one is better than last years. He's so energetic and enthusiastic that you can't help but love him. I really enjoyed the serious moments too...he's either very good at making his eyes well up like he's about to cry or that song means a lot to him.
Lawrence Leung: a nice narrative type show that has its hilarious moments but is entertaining for the rest too. Plus the man's a genius with a rubics cube.
Adam McKenzie: he's just so damn enthusiastic about the whole concept that you can't help but get excited with him. I genuinely wanted to know what had happened to the people in his primary school and was excited everytime he revealed a photo of another one. It's not the most polished show, but there's plenty of jokes that made me absolutely lose control. Probably one of my favourites of the festival.
Kent Valentine: It's been said in other posts before, Kent's show was really, really good...plus all the work he's been doing with flyering has been paying off and he seems to be getting good audiences. He deserves them.
I heart Racism: A bit like sitting in an Arts tutorial, but its still a very well written play. I enjoyed every minute (plus badges...yay!)

Also on Saturday nights I'd suggest seeing Eddie at Trades and then running over to Martin Martini at festival club. The combination made it the best night of my festival. Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra are absolutely amazing, espeically the violinist.

[Bob3]

My recomendations:

- A Yank Down Under. Went to see it tonight (Monday) and it sold out. They were turning people away at the door, but luckily I'd booked so I was OK. It was a GREAT show. Dave Wiggins was very funny, and the warm up act was good too. It's their last week I think so get in before you miss out.

- Sammy J. Brilliant show. Really well put together and features some hilarious video segments. His running gags were pretty good too. I love this guy.

- Fox K. I saw the previews for this show and was very impressed. He had this one joke that didn't work cos the guy doing his sound stuffed up the audio cue on the night I was there. The rest of the show was fantastic though, so I think I'll come back later to see this joke done right.

- Love Triangle. Simon Godfrey is a very funny new comedian definately worth checking him out before he's huge.

- Evan Jones. Really nice little show. Well put together.

[Laney]

i was watching the comedy gala on tellie last night, and saw tim minchin perform for the first time. and with all the great reviews everyone keeps giving him, i was looking forward to seeing some good stuff. but i was pretty disappointed. was his gala act his crap material and he's saving all his good stuff for the live shows? cause a song with one pretty boring line (about those calico (or whatever) bags), which is just repeated over and over and over and over again is not funny.

[Alisso]

Originally Posted by Laney

i was watching the comedy gala on tellie last night, and saw tim minchin perform for the first time. and with all the great reviews everyone keeps giving him, i was looking forward to seeing some good stuff. but i was pretty disappointed. was his gala act his crap material and he's saving all his good stuff for the live shows? cause a song with one pretty boring line (about those calico (or whatever) bags), which is just repeated over and over and over and over again is not funny.

That was kinda the rock spectacular version of Canvas Bags, and I think it lost a bit in the translation...he also did part of his Peace Anthem for Palestine but they didn't use it on the televised version, from what I've heard.

I don't know if Canvas Bags would be the one song I'd pick to show people if I wanted to show them a single example of Tim's work - although it does make a good finale number, it makes a better finale after people have had a chance to see some of his other stuff. I'd probably go with Inflatable You...sticks in the mind less than Peace Anthem, but more complex lyrically *G* and his lyrics are inspired.

[op shop girl]

I'll second/third/etc the recomendation for Tim Minchin.
His was the first show I saw last Friday and the only disapointment was that he lifted my expectation to high for the rest of the festival.

Lawrence Leung: wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but I'm a fan of any comedian who interacts with sleazy animated characters.

Nick Sun: You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll beg for a hole to open up and swallow him. Nick takes self deprecation to a whole new level. You have to when four out of the only six people in the room are heckling you. The Wee Room is the perfect venue for his style. Catch him there before he suicides.

Laughapoolooza: The shows was saved by Tim, Eddie and the Renegades of Folk. I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I wasn't freezing my arse off. Lovely seats though. Courtesy of Alisso and co. moving to the front row, leaving the cushy seats empty.

Courtney Hocking: A little average. More of a love story than a comedy show.

Tom Gleeson: I wouldn't know...I bought tickets but forgot to go. Sad but true.

Hard to Swallow: Latex, nudity and lots of smutty jokes. Avoid the front row if talcum powder aggrevates your throat.

Late Night Impro: I'm not a big fan of the format this year. The audience are the directors and we have to vote for each audition. Still, it had it's high points.

Levelland: Much heavier than I expected. Very loud. Few laughs.

Adam Hills: I second the recomendations to see him on a Sunday afternoon. I now know how the sign the word clitoris.

other (non-comedic) recomendations....
$1.10 pizza slices on Swanston St: mmm mexican
restaurant tram: Blue vein cheese and pear paste on fruit loaf
sleeper train from Sydney to Melbourne: ignoring eleven hours of travel sickness, there's complimentary breakfast, toiletries (I'm obsessed with my tiny little toothpaste tube) and the opportunity to moon passing stations.