C is for ...
Comedy Festival! I've finally had some time to reflect on this incredible four week festival, which came to a close on Sunday. It is almost three times longer than our Grahamstown Arts Festival, and is dedicated purely to comedy in all its forms: stand-up, cabaret, clowning, improv and anything else that can produce comedic content, including a funny/ scary tour through the Old Melbourne Jail and a walking tour of the city...
Town Hall (above) is the epicentre of the Festival, holding many venues of all sizes, showcasing big names and not so big names, and then also showing off a huge chalkboard containing all the shows in the area by time slot, so it's a good place to pop by if you're not sure what to watch next. It means that you also run the risk of being relentlessly flyered by artists trying to get bums on seats. Ah, the desperation of festival artists! It really is the same everywhere in the world, which should be comforting. Although if you consider that there were almost 550 shows on offer, it's easy to imagine how hard it was to get people to all of them!
The Festival curates a few of the big venues, including Trades Hall (above) but there are plenty of other little bars, restaurants and hotels that offer their spaces up for hire to anyone with a show and a dream. One show I saw was on a tiny stage, not more than 2m x 2m and it felt like we were sitting in a closed-in fire escape it was so small and so hard to get to! DocCoffee and I managed to see 26 shows together, and I saw a few that he was in, plus 2 extra, so I saw over 30 in the four weeks of festival. It gave me a really great idea of the standard of comedy over here, as well as a taste of the differences between South African audiences and Aussie audiences. The main one (to my genuine surprise) was how eager and comfortable the audiences here are with being brought up onto stage and being part of the show. One of the shows I absolutely loved, Steen Raskopoulos' "Character Assassin" had audience members involved in almost every sketch he did. And by the end, through a gorgeous set-up at the beginning and then gentle support throughout the show, he literally had three full rows of audience members eating out of his hands, as if they were ducks he was feeding at a park. It may sound weird, but it was one of the most moving and brilliant moments of the festival for me.
Another show I loved to bits, and was so glad to see she got nominated for an award for it, was Clara Cupcakes' "Merchant of Whimsy". Silly, charming, and completely off the wall, this show was the epitome of a strong creative vision, serious commitment and an authentic voice. And she also got the whole audience involved. DocCoffee was roped in to stand on a small piece of astroturf and play musical instruments with other male members of the audience while she sang Kelis' "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" on her cupcake ukulele. Classic! And I put a plaster on her sore finger, and had to kiss it better before she continued with the show, and also caught the bouquet from a monkey's wedding. Sound crazy? It was! And it was an absolute delight!
Other shows I loved were Michael Workman's "We Have Fun Don't We?", an ode to a lost love that was equal parts sad and funny. A poetic, moving, beautiful extended metaphor of life as the inevitable journey of a snow globe from object of magic and wonder to mundane paper weight. I've never seen anything like it, and I left completely undone and yet so grateful for the experience. Impromptunes' improvised musical was fun and funny, Gillian Cosgriff's cabaret "Whelmed" was hilarious and brilliant, Sparrow Folk's cabaret "Subirdia" was wonderfully crass and raunchy and Nina Conti's improvised ventriloquism using audience members as her puppets was awesome. I also was totally surprised by the crazy Dr. Professor Neal Portenza and his show "Catchy Show Title" which was chaotic and weird and actually total genius.
I managed to score a festival pass from an improvisor who had a spare, and in exchange had to perform in two of her improv shows during the festival. Let's just say it was a fair swap as I certainly had to work for it, but it did mean I got to attend the final night party, exclusive to passholders. It was at a club called The Hi-Fi, and the theme was Eurovision. First they had a fabulous, mainly female band singing swing/ seventies disco-type tunes which rocked with layered harmonies and a kick-ass beat. Then a troupe of lycra-clad aerobics dancers complete with crazy wigs and g-string leotards did an interpretive dance to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart", followed by a brilliant Conchita Wurst impersonator, singing the song he/she got famous for at Eurovision (last year?). It was fantastic! Finally the dj took over and we danced til later than I've been out in a very long time. It was awesome! I look forward to next year's festival, where hopefully I'll get to take part myself, and go through all the highs and lows first hand instead of happily observing from the sidelines! Yay Comedy Festival!