Comfest Articles 2005

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from chortle

Dan's punch line

Army heckler belts Willis


British comic Dan Willis has been punched by a racist heckler during a Melbourne gig.

The loud-mouthed punter had spent the night jeering at all the comedians on the bill at Young And Jacksons bar.

But, Willis says, his comments took a racist turn when Asian-Australian comic Nick Sun, winner of the So You Think You're Funny? competition at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, took to the stage.

Willis added: "Nick did well, but the guy just wouldn't shut up

"Then I went on, he heckled, I put him down utilising my Shakespearian skill of being 40 times as rude back to him in his face.

"The crowd cheered, he shut up and the gig went great. But as I came off he ushered me over saying, 'Dan I've got a joke for you' - and punched me.

"He was drunk, I was sober so I ducked most of it, but got a bit of a clobber on the ear and chee. He grabbed my chest, threatened to rip my heart out, then, luckily, his mates dragged him off me.

"It turned out he was an Army sergeant out with his unit. His squaddies told me none of them could say anything to him because he makes their lives hell, so they thought it was great that I was putting him down so heavily."

The man was then thrown out of the venue.

Willis added: "I'm only slightly bruised but have got five minutes of material out of it."

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The belly laughs, guffaws, giggles and snickers are over for another successful year, writes Jo Roberts.

It officially finished last night, but even as you read this, some will be feeling the final, posthumous twitches of the 2005 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Comedians and festival staff will be emerging bleary-eyed from the Hi-Fi Bar on Swanston Street this morning after the closing night party that signalled an end to the festival that takes over the city like no other.

This year's event - the 19th - will be remembered as the year of the Keating! mandate. He may have lost power in 1996, but our former prime minister found himself at the top of the heap again in 2005, albeit comedically, thanks to Melbourne collective the Drowsy Drivers.

On Saturday night, the Drowsies' musical tribute to Paul Keating, Keating!, collected the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Festival Show, as well as The Age Critics Award for Best Australian Act and the Golden Gibbo, presented by friends and peers of Melbourne comedian Lynda Gibson, who died last year.

In an unprecedented awards sweep, Keating! became the first show in the festival's history to take out three awards in one year.

It was just the second Comedy Festival show for the Drowsy Drivers, the group - led by the outrageously talented Casey Bennetto - having won the festival's Best Newcomer award with their 2002 debut, Northcote Country Soul.

Word had spread quickly about Keating! from this festival's first week and the season had sold out by the second week.

Chris Addison used precious minutes of his own Barry-nominated show, Civilization, to spruik Keating!, declaring it "the best show I've seen at this festival in five years".

Other award winners on Saturday were Christina Adams, who snared the Best Newcomer gong for her one-woman show about her first year of teaching, To Miss, With Love, and Canadian stand-up Tony Law, who received the Piece of Wood award for being other comedians' favourite performer and all-round good guy. The prodigious talent of Melbourne comedian-musician Tim Minchin and his show Dark Side was also recognised with an inaugural Director's Choice award, presented by MICF director Susan Provan.

While festival highlights were many, the ones that will endure in my memory are those that truly surprised and challenged the form. While the big-name stand-ups continued to do well - Ross Noble, Rich Hall, Mike Wilmot, Daniel Kitson, Danny Bhoy, Demetri Martin, Wil Anderson and Dave Hughes, to name a few - it was shows such as Keating!, Jackson's Way, Wild Duck (a popular show among fellow comedians), Freedumb and The Angels Brought Me Here that found favour among those keen to see comedy taken in weird and wonderful new directions. But still, Ross Noble, the 2002 Barry winner, remains in a league of his own. While essentially a stand-up comedian, his out-there observations and intense charisma make him one of a kind. What other act at MICF could sell out a season at the Athenaeum, then add an extra show at Hamer Hall?

And would it be a Melbourne comedy festival without Rod Quantock? We think not. Of this year's 200-plus acts in the program, he is the only one to have been in Melbourne's inaugural festival. May he continue to endure.

Like any festival of such duration, there was plenty of action away from the stages. The gorgeous bogan duo of Cliffy and Dave issued an effusive apology and changed the name of their show Hells Angels Brought Me Here to The Angels Brought Me Here, after Melbourne chapter members of the Hells Angels attended this show and deemed its name a trademark infringement. Canadian Phil Nichol was forced to cancel about a week of performances of his show Freedumb (in which he starred with Janice Phayre) after suffering a debilitating back injury, but was back on deck in time for the festival's final week. British comic Stephen K Amos also had a brief health scare, missing one of his Best of the Edinburgh Fest performances after being rushed to hospital with chest pains. Tests showed a viral infection of the sac surrounding the heart, an easily treatable ailment. He was back on stage the following night.

The recurrent themes were no surprise, with George Dubya at the top of the list. Americans generally came in for a caning, even from their own. Rich Hall noted that the majority of Bush voters, denoted by the "red" inland states, might be swayed if they actually managed a glimpse of ocean.

So it's all over for another year. Sales figures will take a couple of weeks to finalise, but if the congestion of queues outside venues such as the Town Hall and Hi-Fi Bar were anything to go by, it looks to have been another bumper year for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

If you do see any shabby-looking folk emerging from the Hi-Fi this morning, be nice to them. They've had a hard two-and-half weeks. I know how they feel.

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Fun over for part-timers

For big-name British comedian Ross Noble, the end of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival simply means it is time to move his stand-up routine to another town.

Noble will entertain two more Melbourne audiences before he travels to the Gold Coast, Canberra and Adelaide on the whirlwind professional comedy circuit.

But for many local up-and-comers at the festival, today signals the end of a month-long brush with success on the stage - and a return to the ordinary day jobs that pay the bills.

Simon Pampena, aka the Angry Mathematician, will head back to the rat race in his role as a wine sales forecaster for the Foster's Group.

"For a sensitive, artistic type like me, it can be a pretty aggressive, cut-throat sort of environment," he says.

Pampena was inspired to take time off work and enter the festival to spread his love of mathematics to the masses.

Amazingly, he sold out all 10 of his shows.

"Basically it was about getting the audience to confront their maths demons," he says. "I'd ask people to call out the names of all the terrible teachers they'd had and then we would all yell and curse together."

Pampena says the first few shows fell a bit flat, "but then I realised the show had attracted quite a few maths teachers".

Sam Simmons, one half of comedy act the Sunshine Factory, returns to the Melbourne Zoo, where he works part-time as a guide.

While his job doesn't quite compare with the "addictive" lure of the stage, Simmons nevertheless feels lucky.

"It's a pretty amazing environment to work in," he says. "Each day I come in and say hello to the elephants. After a while they actually start to respond to your voice."

Christina Adams is heading back to another kind of animal house: for the Oakleigh South Secondary College teacher, today is also the last day of school holidays.

Her festival solo debut, To Miss with Love, sold out for the past two weeks. Adams credits life in the classroom for her success, and not just because her show is subtitled Tales of a First Year Teacher.

"The risks are similar in both jobs," she says. "If the audience or kids respond well, it is the most amazing buzz - you feel invincible.

"But if things go badly, it is the worst thing in the world."

Adams says some of her students saw her show, "so, along with a huge stack of assignments to mark on Monday, I am expecting a full report on my performance".

Festival director Susan Provan says To Miss with Love was one of the surprise hits of a festival in which local and international acts had fared equally well. She says ticket sales were slightly up on last year.

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It was a mandate the show's namesake would have envied. Keating! The Opera took three titles, including the crowning jewel of the Barry, in the 19th Melbourne International Comedy Festival awards, presented early this morning at HiFi Bar.

Keating! snared the prestigious Barry Award - a trophy and $4000 - for Most Outstanding Show, The Age Critics' Award for Best Australian Show and the Golden Gibbo, awarded by friends and peers of the late comedian Lynda Gibson.

With the Golden Gibbo presented for just the second time, Keating! has become a festival record-breaker as the first show to win three awards in one year.

A gonzo opera comedy of funk, reggae, rock and pop tunes about former prime minister Paul Keating, Keating! was the second festival appearance by Melbourne's the Drowsy Drivers, who took the Best Newcomer award in 2002 for Northcote Country Soul.

This year's best newcomer award went to Christina Adams' one-woman show, To Miss, With Love: Tales of a First Year Teacher.

For her efforts, Ms Adams will receive a return flight to this Year's Edinburgh Comedy Festival and $2000.

A new award was also presented last night, with the festival's director, Susan Provan, and Karen Koren of the Edinburgh Festival giving a Directors' Choice award to Tim Minchin's show, Dark Side.

The Age critics also highly commended three other shows: Lawrence Leung and Andrew McClelland's Somewhat Secret Secret Society Show, To Miss, With Love and Wild Duck.

Festival

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I swear, it's funny
By Daniel Ziffer
April 15, 2005

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Danny Bhoy
Bad language and comedy have always seemed to be bosom buddies.

Comedy is all about timing.

So is swearing.

It's considered passable if you drop a hammer on your finger, but not when you open the door and your partner's parents are standing there.

But is swearing really necessary to get a laugh? After seeing more than 20 gigs at the Comedy Festival, I'm not sure.

Most comedians use it as a crutch, in attempts to prop up lame gags or broken sequences. It's only stronger performers who drop it like a laugh-bomb, making an effective, shattering point.

Canadian Mike Wilmot, who won the festival's highest award in 2002, is noted for his "blue" material but says that he doesn't set out to offend anyone.

"I think it's ridiculous in this day and age, when Quentin Tarantino gets an Oscar and it's 'f--- this, f--- that,' and still, when you see it live, it's more shocking," he says.

Wilmot is contemptuous of what he terms "ew" people, who proclaim shock during his show.

"They go 'ew' in public because they're hiding things at home that would scare the hell out of everybody," he says. "I think it's mostly hypocrites."

British comic Sean Lock says there's a point when people stop objecting. But there's no need to swear when you get to the park and all the swings are taken. You just look mad, he says, screaming: "I've got a f---ing meeting at 12!"

Swearing needs to be done with charm - and a touch of grace - says Melbourne's Adam McKenzie.

"But a lot of people use swearing when they don't have punchlines," he says. "It's almost like that's how you get 'razor-edge'."

The fairytale-focused show he performs with his brother Richard has a few crudities, but not the "nuclear option". It was considered.

"But we thought, no, no, Pinocchio doesn't need to say ----."

There it is. The word we are forbidden to print. Sorry. Can't.

It's just not for all occasions.

Five minutes into his show, Canadian Tony Law spied a boy of about 12 in the front row.

"Hmmm. I think you're a little young,"' he said, meditatively, "for a show where I've just said ---- eight times in two minutes."

He should have chatted with comedic pin-up Danny Bhoy.

The visiting Scotsman performed at Collingwood Football Club's hall of fame dinner last year.

The ballroom was packed with Magpies; players, officials and kids.

"I wasn't supposed to swear," he recalls in his current act.

"It just came out. The 'c' word"

On a video excerpt, available at www.theage.com.au, Bhoy stands by it:

"It was a clever, well-worded, thought-out joke - I didn't just randomly shout it out."

But club president Eddie McGuire was not as amused. He stormed back on stage after Bhoy's truncated gig and declared that his grandfather had been Scottish, and that he hadn't needed to swear to be funny.

Bhoy, still miked-up, pointed at him as he walked backwards, heading off-stage.

"F--- you, dick-splash."

The crowd went wild. He popped his head out from behind the curtain of his festival show.

"I don't even know what a dick-splash is."

Now that's funny.