Sydney Comedy Festivals Articles (General)

[unfrufru]

Cracker all set to have the first laugh

By Alexa Moses and Lenny Ann Low
February 3, 2005





Passport ready ... Mark Trevorrow getting comedy Downe pat.




What the musician Tim Freedman did for the inner-west music scene, the Enmore Theatre hopes to do for the inner-west comedy scene with the inaugural Cracker Comedy festival, launched in Sydney yesterday.

"I've applied for my passport and visa to get into Newtown every night," says the inner-east Sydney resident Mark Trevorrow, aka comedian Bob Downe, who is presenting i Bob at the festival.

That's because the festival, which features more than 40 acts throughout March, has its heartland at the Enmore Theatre, although other venues include the Comedy Store at Fox Studios, the Vanguard in Newtown, Sidetrack Studio Theatre in Marrickville and the Petersham RSL @Newtown. The line-up includes Akmal Saleh, who has been seen on The Glass House, Julia Morris from Full Frontal, and the Umbilical Brothers, as well as the American satirist Sandra Bernhard, British comedian Ross Noble and the guy who is the brother in Everybody Loves Raymond, Brad Garrett.

Cracker is not the first attempt at a comedy festival in Sydney. The burgeoning Big Laugh Comedy Festival is in its fifth year at the Riverside Theatres in Parramatta, and will run concurrently with Cracker, sharing a handful of the acts. There was talk of joining forces, but the focus and schedules of the organisations didn't gel.

Established in 2001 by the founder of the Melbourne Comedy Festival, John Pinder, the Big Laugh ran over four days with 12 acts. This year, it will run over 18 days with 38 events.
Other attempts haven't managed to take root. A Sydney Comedy Festival at the now-defunct Harold Park Hotel in Glebe was founded in 1998, but it folded a year later.

Cracker's director, Elia Eliades, who runs the Enmore Theatre with his family, spent seven years concocting the festival.

"You've really got to get it right that first year, otherwise you've cut off your nose to spite your face because there is no momentum," he says. "There have been occasions previously where we could have a run for it, but we weren't 100 per cent comfortable with the talent line-up."

Eliades's cautious approach is understandable, and there's also the hackneyed argument of Sydney-versus-Melbourne comedy to contend with. The southern city has developed the prestigious Melbourne International Comedy Festival, one of the three largest such festivals in the world.

Trevorrow believes the difference between Sydney and Melbourne comedy is mostly about marketing. "I think it's in people's heads that there's some huge difference between Sydney and Melbourne," he says.

"Melbourne has really successfully marketed their comedy festival. It's all about marketing. That's the age we live in."

As for styles, Trevorrow sees no difference in approach by Sydney and Melbourne artists: "I think we all have a similar kinetic, high-energy, iconoclastic approach to comedy. I think that's why Australia bats out of our league as far as creative contributions go internationally, because the comedy interchange has always been very profound between the cities in terms of talent and management."

[Mythor]

Originally Posted by teh article wot unfy posted

and the guy who is the brother in Everybody Loves Raymond, Brad Garrett

That made me laugh rather a lot.

Attendance figures should be interesting for the two festivals. Getting them both into the SMH should help prod people along I hope.