If I were wearing a bowler hat, I would doff it to the comedians I saw perform at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Also to the immensely kind stranger who gave my brother and I free tickets to see Aamer Rahman whose political comedy was as confronting as it was funny.
Thank you to Meld for sending me to the shows and letting me publish my first ever comedy reviews.
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David O’Doherty
He’s funny when he tells jokes standing up, but even funnier when he plays his miniature keyboard and sings wittily written songs with an occasional nonsense lyric – “I’m gonna rock your world in quite a gentle way. Like a delicious cake as opposed to a bag of drugs.” Despite the lacklustre setup including the initials D.O.D masking-taped to the curtain behind the stage, the Irish comedian produced some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. Yes, the song lyrics are sometimes ridiculously long-ended and go off on wild tangents, but you’ve got to appreciate the ingenuity and wit behind musical comedy.
Stephen K Amos
From the outlandishly mocking accents to the bizarre encounters he has with fans, all the stories Amos tells aren’t just chuckle worthy, they’re downright hilarious – even if some of them are borderline offensive. His brutally honest style of comedy pokes fun at drinking, sex and a variety of contemporary issues, not to mention his fondness for picking on members in the front-row. So popular and adored is Amos that at the end of his set, members of the audience shouted out old jokes of his they wanted to hear, which he happily obliged.
Urzila Carlson
South African/New Zealand comedian Urzila Carlson doesn’t ignore the elephant in the room. Rather, she purposely draws attention to it, unashamedly telling stories about the often controversial topics of weight and sexuality. Her show, I’m going to need a second opinion focuses on a past medical drama with a bunch of other personal, humorous experiences thrown in the mix. Having left members of the audience crying with laughter, Carlson is definitely an up-and-coming comedian to keep an eye on.
Kitty Flanagan
Flanagan opened with a bold mockery of burlesque shows and followed through with plenty of tales about her pet hates in the opposite sex and dished out a fair whack of criticism against babies, temperamental teenagers and women’s forward fashion today. Despite the slightly annoying habit of repeating the punch-line several times if it didn’t receive a loud enough response, Flanagan’s show which had a somewhat cynical view on life and its experiences, was definitely enjoyable.
All photos courtesy of MICF .
