Comfest 2006 Articles

[unfrufru]

same rules as last year people,

1. If there is already a thread for that particular comedian, please post the review or article in that thread. DO NOT START ANOTHER ONE! if unsure, use the friggin search function.
2. If there is not a thread for a particular comedian, please post any review or thread here. DO NOT START ANOTHER ONE. it could be that they are listed under something else or are not well known enough to have their own thread
3. Please include either the link to the article or full details of where it came from (both preferably)

shall we begin?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...670207716.html

A funny thing happened to the Comedy Festival

By Daniel Ziffer
February 24, 2006


A PACKED entertainment calendar is troubling funny people in the lead-up to this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

The festival, now in its 20th year, has been pushed back by more than two weeks from its usual opening date to accommodate the Commonwealth Games.

The laughs will only begin in mid-April, after the Games' cultural festival — Festival Melbourne 2006 — the Next Wave Arts Festival, the Grand Prix, Moomba, the Fashion Festival and the Queer Film Festival.

"You hope it won't have a negative impact," festival director Susan Provan said yesterday.

"But you would be mad in show business to ever take the audience for granted."

A record number of acts, more than 220 from Australia and overseas, are booked for the festival.

Top Melbourne comedians Greg Fleet, Judith Lucy and Corrinne Grant were yesterday less concerned about the impact caused by the bustling lead-up to the festival. "The kind of people who go and see clay pigeon shooting aren't the same as those who go to comedy," Grant said, laughing.

"If anything, there's more people hanging about after the Games," added Fleet, who is now considering how to get the clay pigeon crowd to his show Word Up.

The festival runs from April 12 to May 7 in the city and surrounds.

The Age is a festival sponsor.

FESTIVAL MELBOURNE 2006 HIGHLIGHTS

■JIMMY CLIFF The influential Jamaican reggae star, who released The Harder They Come in 1970, performs at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on March 16.
■ALL-STAR PERCUSSION SPECTACULAR Stick-wielding musicians from Canada, Scotland, India, Ghana and elsewhere play at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on March 19.

■PAUL KELLY & THE BOON COMPANIONS Melbourne songwriter Kelly plays in the Alexandra Gardens on March 26, before the official closing ceremony. The ceremony will be televised in the gardens.

■THE LUMINARIUM — LEVITY II A maze of inflatable tunnels on St Kilda's foreshore mixes colour, light and powerful fans from March 16-26.

■BOLLYWOOD AT THE BOWL Indian star Sunidhi Chauhan and a troupe of musicians and dancers will deliver the sound of Bollywood films on March 25, at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by Ziffer

A record number of acts, more than 220 from Australia and overseas, are booked for the festival.

Huh? I'm sure there's been years where there were approx. 300 acts.
There were about 220 last year and I remember thinking how low that was. I could be wrong, someone bust out an old guide and do a count.

[Squirrel]

I think, if memory serves, MICF said last year was a record number of shows and last year was a bit over 200...

[Gutter Monkey]

Strife over Anzac
Ian Royall
01apr06

Link

A COMEDY festival show called Anzac is under fire because its title breaches Federal laws that protect the use of the word.

Festival organisers and Melbourne comedian Richard McKenzie were unaware of the law when scheduling the irreverent show, which opens on April 13.

McKenzie will perform Anzac over 20 nights at Duckboard House - home of the Melbourne RSL - as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

The word Anzac is protected under Australian federal law from inappropriate use, such as for commercial gain, or for entertainment.

Only the Department of Veterans' Affairs or the minister may approve the name's use for commercial purposes.

Such approval has been granted in the past for the sale of Anzac biscuits.

Victorian RSL state chief executive John Deighton said use of the word Anzac was strictly controlled.

"If they haven't got approval, they'll be in more strife than the early settlers."

The Melbourne RSL in Flinders Lane is also believed to have been unaware of the title of McKenzie's show.

Late yesterday, after the Herald Sun alerted the festival to the gaffe, the department was asked to let the show use the word.

McKenzie expected the show's subject to spark controversy but said the content was more about his family's military connections rather than an attack on Australia's involvement in war.

McKenzies have served with distinction in two world wars, Vietnam and Korea.

But Richard McKenzie's brothers are a drummer, an actor and another comedian.

Protection of the word Anzac was established in 1921 under the War Precautions Act Repeal Act 1920.

[Renee_Turner]

Think we'll have another one of the "The Angels Brought me Here"-type renames?

[Gutter Monkey]

Originally Posted by Renee_Turner

Think we'll have another one of the "The Angels Brought me Here"-type renames?

Maybe.

I wonder how much of a fine / jail time you get for breaking a federal law such as this?

[unfrufru]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/w...e#contentSwap1

Who's laughing now?

April 5, 2006

As the Comedy Festival gets bigger, the number of working comedy venues dwindles. Greg Burchall reports.

IT'S a quiet Tuesday night at Fitzroy's Evelyn Hotel and Kiwi comic Cal Wilson is trying to pep up the room.

"You all sound like you're at the golf," she scolds, and picks a victim in the front row for some good-natured torment. It turns out he's one of the "young hopefuls", here to try out his comic skills.

"I'm up on stage heckling someone in the audience who's waiting to go on stage," Wilson considers. "How postmodern is that?"

Nothing surprises at this, the 13th and final heat of Raw Comedy 2006. Not the bloke with the (hopefully pretend) nerves-inflicted wet pants; not the trio who sing the praises of procrastination; not the girl dressed as a flannel-shirt-wearing, back-block bloke called Bo Heartbreaker.

These wide-eyed gag-makers know they have only five minutes before the long arm of the lighting technician stretches across to hit them with the not-so-gentle "time's up" red warning light. Five minutes to impress and bemuse the judges, to shine above the 240 others in Victoria — 700 nationally — who all anticipate brilliant careers on stage, screen and radio will spring fully-formed from this spot.

But perhaps the comedy bubble has burst in once laugh-riddled Melbourne. The success of the annual Comedy Festival — now in its 20th year and one of the world's Big Three — has become the starting point for most aspiring comics rather than the objective it once was for those who had spent years proving material and building confidence in rough-and-tumble rooms that ran year-round. Has Melbourne lost its reputation for funny bones?

"Stage time is always scarce, especially quality stage time," says Raw producer Toby Sullivan. "There aren't a lot of rooms out there, very few places to try out or get regular experience."

It's part of what makes his job so pleasurable: "taking comedy's temperature" and providing a stage for those who just want to try this thing called stand-up and who "seem to really enjoy it — even if they're terrible."

"Raw attracts a broad range of aspiring comedians because it has the weight of the festival and Triple-J behind it and also because about 95 per cent of working comedians came through it."

But not Dave Hughes.

"I went in two separate heats and still couldn't get through the first round," he recalls. "I'd already been doing all right around the stand-up scene in Melbourne yet all these absolute first-timers were getting through. I was incensed."


Hughes says that 10 years ago his only real goal was to make a living from comedy, which he now does tolerably on radio and telly and by filling large theatres. But he spent a few frustrating years "being a pest" — getting all the stage time he could.

It's true that there were a lot more rooms back then — such as the Prince Pat, Star and Garter, the Armadale, Dick Whittington and the Espy. The majority of today's hopefuls will go straight to packaging 50 minutes of fun and offer it up among the festival's 200-plus shows rather than work steadily all year in such rooms. Then there are aspiring career comics such as Joanne Brookfield who have run their own rooms — not out of ego, certainly not to make their fortune, but to give themselves as much stage time as they can.

"Running a room is like doing a festival show every week. You have to worry about getting the flyers out, getting the audience in. But what I wanted to achieve at the time was getting as much stage time as I could and there just (weren't) enough rooms around in Melbourne," she says.

"There are a lot of people who perhaps misunderstand the nature of live stand-up and they think you only have to do a handful of gigs and you'll be ready to put on a show or they should be put on radio or TV. They don't get the fact that it does take time to build up your skills and material.

"If you have the rooms, you can build up your stuff for 12 months so that when festival time comes around, theoretically you've got a really great hour's worth of stuff, tried and tested."

Things go in cycles, of course. Ten years ago, it was a big deal to do a solo show, but the return of the multi-bill night that features the well-known, the mid-level and the trembling tyro could be just around the corner. And while Sydney currently boasts more working comedy rooms, not all the players in Melbourne's current short-film bar craze will last.

Live comedy, like a kind of encrypted jolly virus in this town's bloodstream, will break out all over the place again to be sure. The festival began, after all, as the funny love child of former South Australian premier Don Dunstan, who was running Tourism Victoria, and a posse of local producers and owners of venues such as the legendary Last Laugh. Its central venue is now the multi-roomed Melbourne Town Hall, with many other buildings in the immediate area converted for the duration.

Year-round rooms are still out there. The Last Laugh lives on in name at the Comedy Club at the Athenaeum. North Melbourne's Comic's Lounge runs try-out Tuesdays. There's the Local in St Kilda, the Laughing Lion in Toorak, Collingwood's Comedy Express and Monday nights at Young and Jackson's. Former Sydney stand-up Marty Lappin has been running Kaos Comedy at St Kilda's Greyhound since last winter and has felt the chill of quiet nights and desperate talent.


"It's certainly not what it was like when it was at its peak," he says. "But Melbourne audiences are very loyal, they've always been the most receptive. They know what you're trying to do."

It's not so clear what some of the aspiring wits back at the Evelyn are trying to do. Producer Sullivan takes the number of jokes about Sierra Leone athletes to be an indication of when some of the performers began writing their material. Only one contestant gets the nod to move into the final — Selena Jenkins' Bo Heartbreaker, with his catchy anthem I Won't Clean the Toilet.

Hughes believes that wannabe comics need to make their own opportunities.

"Only do it if you're passionate and prepared to be persistent," he says. "I did everything — the Growling Dog in Ringwood, a hang-out for bikies and skinheads, was scary — but it's the same as doing the Athenaeum or Town Hall. It's me on stage with a mic and there's an audience and I'm trying to get a laugh."

The Victorian semi finals for Raw Comedy, at the Evelyn Hotel, Fitzroy conclude today from 7.30pm. The State Final is at the Spanish Club, Fitzroy, tomorrow, from 7.30pm. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs from April 12-May 7.

[JD3000]

As the Comedy Festival gets bigger, the number of working comedy venues dwindles.

Am I living in the same Melbourne? It seems like there are plenty of rooms going at the moment. Something for us Comedy Junkies every night of the week!

Year-round rooms are still out there. The Last Laugh lives on in name at the Comedy Club at the Athenaeum. North Melbourne's Comic's Lounge runs try-out Tuesdays. There's the Local in St Kilda, the Laughing Lion in Toorak, Collingwood's Comedy Express and Monday nights at Young and Jackson's. Former Sydney stand-up Marty Lappin has been running Kaos Comedy at St Kilda's Greyhound since last winter and has felt the chill of quiet nights and desperate talent.

As well as "Comedy C'Mon Down", The Vault, Comedoke @ The Exford, "Stand & Deliver", Temple Bar, "Gags & Drags" @ Muse & several others I can't think of right now!

btw has any MOSHer been to "Laughing Lion''? Never heard of it myself.

The age old problem is that most of the general public unfortunately think that comedy only exists in Melbourne for 3 and half weeks in March, April or May.
Sad, but true.

[sharleen]

Originally Posted by JD3000

btw has any MOSHer been to "Laughing Lion''? Never heard of it myself.

I have actually.
The only reason I knew it existed is because I walked past the pub every day on my way home (I lived around the corner - there was never any publicity, bar the flyers inside the pub and on their door).

The same team run comedy at Crown Casino.

Not too bad in terms of lineups. I saw Dave Grant, Lawrence Leung, Damian Clark there one night. But it lacked atmosphere.

[Richard McKenzie]

RSL makes stand for Anzac show
Neil Wilson
08apr06

PROMOTERS of a comedy festival show have been forced to change its name from Anzac after RSL advice that some veterans may be offended.

The Richard McKenzie comedy being staged at Melbourne RSL's Duckboard Club will instead be known as Digger , after the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the club reviewed the title and script.
The original title could have breached federal law, which protects the word Anzac from inappropriate use such as commercial gain. The DVA has the right to recommend an exemption.

It referred the title, and a copy of McKenzie's script, supplied by the promoters, to the Melbourne RSL sub-branch.

"We suggested a change to make it less emotive, and we suggested The Diggers McKenzie or Digger," club honorary secretary Merv Williams said.

"We had a meeting of the club executive and we went through the script and poster supplied.

"After deliberations we notified the comedy festival the general content was not disrespectful to the RSL or its principles."

Mr Williams said the script contained "a few average words, swear words" but nothing worse than you would hear in an RSL bar.

It features McKenzie's musings, based around his grandfather's, uncles' and father's service, and the fact that he had not served in the forces.

One invented the atom bomb trigger, another was in the 1917 Light Horse Beersheba charge, and others served in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

McKenzie said he had been unaware of the legal status of Anzac and had been happy to change the title and clear the script with the DVA and RSL.

"It is not a pro or anti-war show," he said.

"It's just about my family, who happened to be in the military, while I do comedy, have tattoos and am not exactly in the Anzac mould.

"It wasn't meant to make anyone angry.

"I'm actually quite relieved they said it was fine, though no one said it was hilariously funny. Maybe I'll change some jokes.

"This is the first time I've ever showed anyone my script.

"It was a bit weird, but not a big problem."

[lily]

Originally Posted by Ian Royall

The word Anzac is protected under Australian federal law from inappropriate use, such as for commercial gain, or for entertainment.

Oh fer fuck's sake. What next?
(looking forward to seeing this show )

[unfrufru]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/nation...e#contentSwap1

Funny money only for jumbo acts

By Gabriella Coslovich
April 9, 2006

Award-winning comedian Sam Simmons is hanging on to his day job at the Melbourne Zoo.
Photo: Craig Sillitoe


THE queues that snake around the town hall at Melbourne International Comedy Festival time tell only part of the story. The festival is a world divided — a goldmine for some, a money drain for others.

High-profile comedians have been known to make a cool half million in three weeks. At the other end of the spectrum, those with no name to bankroll them might perform to a handful of people over the season, scrape a measly $500 in ticket sales, and end up in debt.

Yet year after year, despite festival director Susan Provan's warnings, young and not-so-young hopefuls hand over their $450 registration fees and apply to be one of the 200 or so shows vying for attention.

"I always ask them, 'Have you got a car to sell, or a wealthy mother to bail you out?' I really try to talk people out of doing it if they haven't sensibly thought about the budget and they haven't got the money to lose," says Provan, now in her 12th year as festival director.

Under Provan's direction, the festival, in terms of ticket sales and audience numbers at least, has gone from strength to strength. Last year, it took a robust $5.8 million at the box office, up from $4.8 million the year before.

The festival starts on Wednesday, but a week before opening had already raked in $1.2 million, mainly for tickets to popular duo Lano and Woodley's farewell show.

Provan predicts the show will be this festival's biggest box-office hit. She says that despite the perception that overseas stars garner the greatest audiences and attention, it's Australians who make the most money.

But for every well-known television and radio comedian who can count on full houses, there are scores of newcomers and some established comics for whom the festival is anything but a cash cow.

"You never make money at the comedy festival the first few times," says Emma Powell, who has ploughed the $10,000 she saved as a star of the hit musical Mamma Mia into her festival show D-Cuppetry, the breast-action answer to Puppetry of the Penis.

Powell's savings paid for the registration fee, venue hire, props, posters, publicity, printing and the salary of her co-star, bosom buddy Louise Steele.

"I probably should have put that into the education fund for my daughter if I was a good mother," she says. "But then, it is an investment in my craft."

To break even, Powell will need to bring in $497 a night during her 21-day season, not easy when ticket prices are $22 tops. But Powell's not complaining.


"I could have done it on my own but doing it under the festival banner has given it the credibility that comes with an event like this," she says.

Sam Simmons, who has just won the best comedy award for an emerging artist at the Adelaide Fringe, agrees. He has invested about $6000 in his show, Tales From the Erotic Cat.

"The festival is a great thing, I don't have a problem having to pay," Simmons says. His beef is with those who come to the festival only to see the radio and TV celebrities they're already familiar with, or big overseas stars.

Simmons sometimes doubts the wisdom of returning to the festival year after year, waiting for his big break. He subsidises his comedy with a much-loved day job at the Melbourne Zoo.

"After three festivals you start thinking, 'What am I doing?' Financially, it's hard. Every year I'm reinvesting this money into what can feel like a lost cause."

But aspiring comics ignore the festival at their peril. It reigns supreme in the comedy calendar. Television and radio producers are known to trawl it for new talent.

Some blame the festival's success for the erosion of a once-vibrant comedy pub scene.

"The downside is that Melbourne as a 52-week-a-year comedy capital has suffered, and Sydney would be in a better position to claim that place," says veteran comic and activist Rod Quantock.

Janet McLeod, who runs a regular comedy evening at St Kilda bar the Local agrees: "There is a general public perception that comedy happens once a year."

Another common gripe among local comedians is that while they must wear the financial risk of their shows, each year the festival presents high-profile overseas comedians, such as Britain's Daniel Kitson, the US's Rich Hall and Canada's Mike Wilmot, at its own cost.

"Who knows how much money they spend bringing those people over?" asked one established Melbourne comic, who did not want to be named.

Provan defends the practice.

"We don't subsidise the overseas artists, the overseas artists subsidise the whole comedy festival program," she says. "That's how we pay for Raw Comedy, Class Clowns, Jeeze Louise, Victorian regional and national tours, forums, workshops, all the programs that go into developing local comedians."

Provan says the cost of presenting an overseas comic may range from $15,000 to $150,000.

"One of the things that really annoys me is young comedians coming and complaining about high-profile comics getting the biggest audiences, and you have to say, 'Listen, if Ross Noble wasn't here they still would not be coming to see you. The likes of Ross Noble is what generates the buzz."

Last year, the festival posted a surplus of almost $1 million, a slim margin for an event with a turnover of $5.8 million, and with government funding of $750,000 — $500,000 from Arts Victoria and $250,000 from the City of Melbourne.

"We go into the festival having to take an enormous risk," Provan says.

Many local comedians know exactly how that feels.

[unfrufru]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/f...e#contentSwap1

Game for a laugh? Meg Mundell offers a preview of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Laughter is a strange sound - universal to all humans, but unique to each person who lets it fly. And whether your own laugh is a chortle, snicker, giggle or guffaw, no organ is better tuned to its nuances than the ear of a comedian.

"It can be a real blessing to have someone in the crowd who's got a weird laugh," says British comic and author Mark Watson, a guest at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival. "Onstage you're so attuned to getting those laughs, you notice an unusual one, especially if it's particularly loud or infectious - or they laugh at the wrong time, when it's not even funny."

The affable Welsh-born comic's new show is titled 50 Years Before Death and the Awful Prospect of Eternity. "It's based on the idea that I have 50 years left to live," Watson says cheerfully. "I'm just really morbid. Thinking about death is a habit of mine."

Mortality might seem a daunting theme for comedy, but Watson thinks big. His aptly titled Overambitious 24-Hour Show, the longest solo comedy gig in history, saw him do a marathon stretch at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. "That was the most fun I've ever had performing," he recalls.

"The audience dragged me through. Most of it was made up on the spot, just mad improvisation." (Towards the end, a delirious Watson proposed to his girlfriend. To his relief, she said yes.)

This year, Melbourne's homegrown comedy festival celebrates 20 years of laughter with a lineup of more than 200 local and international acts. Director Susan Provan says she relies on scouts to recruit a broad cross-section of comic talent. "That's the hard thing - ensuring you present not just the acts you love personally, but also things the broader audience may love, even if they're not your cup of tea."

To celebrate the festival's double-decade mark, there's an endurance event called Comedy Lock-In, a 20-hour show to test the stamina of the most avid comedy nut. Returning favourites include The Great Debate, The Comedy Zone and the late-night Festival Club shows.

The heats of this year's Raw Comedy competition attracted 700 aspiring jokesters from across Australia; in the showdown, finalists will compete for a stand-up slot at the Edinburgh Fringe. High-school comics have their own national contest, Class Clowns — but don't expect tame humour from these juniors. Last year's intake applied their wits to such topics as sexuality, politics and race. "They're pretty sophisticated," says Provan. "These are the kids who don't do the school musicals."


Up Front showcases female comic talent. "With a whole night of female comedians there's a real sense of camaraderie," says Provan. "They won't have to follow some bloke doing tit jokes."

Despite Kath and Kim's success, Provan says female comics remain regrettably rare. She says facing drunk, sexist hecklers in rowdy pubs is the comedian's rite of passage: "That's scary for anyone, but particularly difficult for women. So those who persevere to hold an audience in the palm of their hand are even more impressive."

Free events include the Comedy Channel Short Film Festival, Federation Square's Big Laugh Out, and the kids' Big Laugh Out event at Collingwood Children's Farm. Britain's Phil Kay will also tickle the kids with Gimme Your Left Shoe.

Home-grown favourites include deadpan joker Greg Fleet, cabaret maestro Tim Minchin, zoo-guide-cum-comic Sam Simmons, 2004 Raw Comedy winner Nick Sun, the enigmatic Kransky Sisters, Andrew McClelland, Lano and Woodley, Judith Lucy and Rachel Berger. Imported talent includes Norwegian rubber-man Captain Frodo; Brit Daniel Kitson, Scotland's Danny Bhoy, Demetri Martin (US), David O'Doherty (Ireland) and US hip-hoppers Freestyle Love Supreme.

Stand-up is a mainstay, but cabaret, burlesque, music and theatre are also on offer, including the stage play Levelland, penned by US comedian Rich Hall and directed by Guy Masterton, of 12 Angry Men fame. Starring Hall, Nathaniel Peterson (US), Canada's Mike Wilmot and Melburnian Russell Fletcher, the piece is a darkly surreal thriller set in a post-apocalyptic future where oil is scarce and paranoia rampant.

Humour often gains its frisson by messing with taboos and touchy subjects, and this year's program reveals some uneasy territory being crossed in the name of laughter: death, terrorism, rioting, sedition, racism, war, breast origami, infertility and, of course, Christian porn.

As Provan's mailbox shows, comic tastes vary hugely. "Humour is the most subjective art form. What one person finds funny may totally offend the next person. Every year I get letters from someone outraged by a show, and letters from someone else saying it was marvellous and can we get that (comic) back next year."

Writer, broadcaster and hardcore "comedy nerd" Dom Romeo is running a first for the festival, Comedy Appreciation Course? (Don't) Make Me Laugh, a guided tour through the ins, outs, ethics and gelotology (laughter science) of humour. While it's aimed at comedy aficionados - "Latin for nerd," notes Romeo - the course takes humour seriously. "Comedy is an art form, a branch of clowning. It's not the poor bastard half-brother of drama!" Telling jokes onstage is an underestimated skill, he says.


"Just because someone is funny at a barbecue doesn't mean they'll be any good as a stand-up. Stand-up requires real stagecraft and timing. It's very concise." While Australia has a healthy comedy scene, Romeo says our population size is a hurdle for a thriving comic culture - our comedians simply can't do enough shows per night to make a decent living. Provan adds that while any Australian comic can join the festival, they do so at their own financial risk. "People just starting out often lose six months' rent on their festival show, and it can take five years to build a big enough audience to break even. Comedians are extremely brave." (They're also entrepreneurial: Michal Grobelny's gig is $15, but "richer people will pay more"; Rod Quantock is offering discounts to ASIO staff).

Romeo warns that comedy can be habit-forming. "The audience gets addicted to the endorphins, the comedian gets addicted to the adrenalin." And while it might not save the world, he says, it could save your life. "As Mel Brooks said, ‘If your enemy is laughing, how can he bludgeon you to death?'"



Details: comedyfestival.com.au

[unfrufru]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/m...521340641.html


Melbourne, the laughs are on you
By Daniel Ziffer
Entertainment Reporter
April 12, 2006

Laughter will ring out, hopefully, as Australia's biggest cultural festival begins today.

Now in its 20th year, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival will tickle the city with 233 shows. It is considered one of the top three such events in the world, behind Edinburgh and Montreal.

The Town Hall is the key venue of the festival and Lord Mayor John So yesterday led dignitaries including Arts Minister Mary Delahunty in welcoming a host of comedians to take it over.

"We're really proud of our festivals (in Melbourne)," he said, "but there's only one that's an absolute joke."

Breakfast radio host Dave Hughes thanked the Lord Mayor for lending the festival his office.

"He should be prime minister in my book … he'd look better in a tracksuit than John Howard," Hughesy said.

Festival chief Susan Provan added a note of caution to the celebration, expressing concern over the box office prospects of the festival. The event brings comedians from around the globe, but was bumped from its usual late March slot by the Commonwealth Games.

Don't worry about the weather; the fun will continue even if it pours. The festival sold more tickets than any other cultural event in the country, Ms Delahunty said, and about 3000 performances were planned.

A performer at every festival since the first in 1987, Rod Quantock yesterday could only muster a small show of hands of those who also had been at the first. Alice Springs comedian Fiona O'Loughlin reminisced about her debut appearance, Irish comic David O'Doherty led a tune and hip-hop improvisational group Freestyle Love Supreme rapped about Mr So, Iceland and Dolly Parton.

The festival runs until May 7. The Age is a sponsor.

[unfrufru]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/editor...521334126.html

Here's to the chortle and the chuckle

April 12, 2006
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The festival opens tonight and, like the chicken (assuming it made it across the road), really has something to cluck about. This is its 20th year of making people laugh. It has grown into one of the three largest comedy festivals in the world - with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, Canada. Last year it generated almost $5.8 million at the box office, $1 million more than the previous year. The Age is a festival co-sponsor.

For almost a month, in venues across the city, laughter will ring out. Local and overseas comedians have honed their gags, sharpened their ripostes and whet their satirical knives in readiness to take to the stage to try to tap into that huge cosmic mystery: the really funny joke.

Oscar Wilde, who probably had as many one-liners as anyone in history, quipped that "if you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you". As any comedian would tell you, death on stage can be sudden, and fatal. The sheer number of gags will overwhelm that possibility.

After the seriousness of competition in both the Commonwealth Games and the Grand Prix, Melburnians now have a chance to let their hair down and laugh - a great, big belly laugh at life, in all its guises. One sadness, however, among this festival will be the final performance of duo Lano and Woodley, who are bowing out after two decades. But we should thank them for making us smile through the years.

To make people laugh is no small thing. Laughter, after all, is the best medicine - even when you are not sick. As to why that chicken crossed the road. Who knows? But it was mirth-while, for the chicken's sake, and ours.