Apologies

This week's blog has been postponed til next week (which bothers absolutely no one, because this blog is read solely by me), because of human factors outside of this webspace's control.

Normal transition will resume next week.

Rock Bangin' at the Bella Union

So, as mentioned in my previous blog, Die Roten Punkte played a farewell gig at the Bella Union Bar at the Trades Hall a fortnight ago. The crowd wasn't huge, but the show still raced along in leaps and bounds, with yet another thoroughly solid set from the biggest thing to come from Berlin. There was much laughter, dancing, singing and cheering as Astrid and Otto Rot took us on a magical ride of ROCK. I'd say, if there was a fight-based-rock-out between Tenacious D and Die Roten Punkte, the latter would win hands down.

But don't just take my word for it. They're heading out on tour, hitting Dublin, Edinburgh and more locations to bring their own brand of rock to the world, one gig at a time, so you have no excuse. If you haven't already bought their album, what are you waiting for?

Bedroom Philosophering and Rock Banging

Well guys, last Thursday I headed down to the Toff In Town for The Bedroom Philosopher's album relaunch. Brown And Orange has been out in stores (and on iTunes) for a few months now, but it seemed as good an excuse as any for Justin to fill up a room full of comedy and music appreciators.

The night was not as long as the first time he launched the album (some would say it was less self-indulgent too, but this Mouse is not going to point fingers), and had a similar format; Josh Earl MCed the gig, and there was a warm up act who were very good (but I have temporarily forgotten their names, alas). Then Justin came on to do a solo set, followed by a set with his wonderful Awkwardstra.

Now, I'm not much of a music afficianado, but I don't think there's nearly enough sitar in the world. Thankfully, we have the Awkwardstra to help address this calamity. Their sound is incredible, at times ethreal and other times funky, and the album captures this balance quite well. Despite the accoustics in the Toff being slightly sub-par, it still blew this Mouse's mind, just like it always does.

In other news, this Thursday Die Roten Punkte are farewelling Melbourne before they head overseas for festivals and causing general rock and roll carnage. It's on at the Bella Union bar in the Trades Hall, Carlton, from 9PM. For those who are astute, you'll recognise this as being the setting for the Rock Bang! video clip I featured in my last blog. Come along and enjoy the zaniness before it escapes our borders!

Ross Noble rocks the GPO ABC (atm bbq...)

That's right, I'm just back (well, sort of) from Ross Noble's in-store signing at the ABC shop in the GPO building (Bourke Street) today. Apologies for not posting about it earlier, I only heard about it at late notice.

Ross, despite having a rather nasty sounding cold, was in fine form, chatting and joking away with the relatively small group of fans who turned out for the signing. Of course, the line moved at a snail's pace because of this, but I don't think anyone complained.















Apologies for the quality of the photo - my camera is quite horrid.

This is, of course, all in aid of promoting his upcoming Things tour, an 'arena spectacular', which will play out in the full 360 degrees, so it's surely a show not to be missed. Having seen Ross perform from small venues which seat several dozen to Festival shows for several hundred, I have no doubt that this will be nothing short of hilarious, and that the prop gags will be unlike anything you've ever seen before. So, book now!

Die Roten Punkte - new video!

Ok, so, once again... no reviews. (Life got hectic, but then, who really cares? I don't think I have any readers yet, so technically I'm not letting anyone down...)

However, in their place, how about Die Roten Punkte's new video clip, Rock Bang? Jump onto their youtube channel to catch all their videos, and watch this one in high quality. It's like a Where's Wally of comedian cameos! I particularly like Dave Callan's outfit, raaaaaaawr! (Ich bin nicht ein roboter, Dave?)



Enjoy, as always. Keep chillin', peeps.

Apologies.

Hey all, I know I said I'd post more reviews, but life has the most irritating habit of getting in the way when you least expect it.

Instead, I thought I'd talk to you today about a play by Greg Fleet called Die On Your Feet.

In 2005, MICF audiences were lucky enough to witness one of the best plays I have ever seen. Die On Your Feet, written and directed by Fleet, starred some of Australia's best comedians, and was quite simply about the gruelling experience of getting onstage, "strapping on the happy pants" and trying not to let life get in the way of the performance.

It centred on a group of 5 friends; Doctor Bob (Greg Fleet), Brian (Adam Hills), Sophie (Corrine Grant), James James (Steven Gates, "Gatesy" from Tripod) and Other James (Alan Brough). The play spanned the lead up to and aftermath of the MICF, then jumped to post-Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and featured both dialogue and monologue performances by each member of the cast.

Doctor Bob, an inspiration to all Melbourne-based comedians, in dealing with his apparent lack of material success ("If you view the term 'success' with, like, how successful you are, then arguably I'm an abysmal failure!"), keeps a positive attitude throughout the show, and is rewarded in the end by being offered a spot on a TV show with his nemesis The Hoots Mon.

Brian and Sophie are an estranged couple, having recently broken up. Brian is essentially lost without Sophie, who is fed up with his childish behaviour and attention-seeking attitude. Their story reaches the heartbreaking climax of Brian attempting suicide, only to be saved at the last moment by a phonecall from Sophie, completely out of the blue. ("Fuck you've got amazing timing." "Really? What are you doing?" "Oh, you know... just hangin'...")

James James and Other James are a comedy duo who've decided to persue separate careers because of creative differences (JJ: "I wanted to be creative, he wanted to be different!"). OJ, a comedian who "doesn't do jokes", has great difficulty trying to come up with a festival show, largely due to his obsession with the video game Civilisations. The others repeatedly attempt to cajole him into writing, culminating in JJ's idea of OJ basing his show on his obsession with a game, winning a "major prize from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival". However, OJ's success was short lived; in Edinburgh, another comedian did a show about a more popular game and was labelled 'post-modern', while the crowd largely ignore OJ and called him 'Australian'.

The music included The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (opening and closing the show), and REM's Bad Day among other songs. The use of music and tail-ends of conversations gave a good sense of progression, with hilarious scene openers such as "They reckon that the last thing he said was 'Did you know that bread can be used as an adhesive?'", and "Now, he reckons he stabbed a guy with a gun, but I reckon that's bullshit." "What, he stabbed a guy who was holding a gun, or he stabbed a guy with a gun?"

Without getting too emotional, I can honestly say that at one point I was on the verge of tears, a rather embarrassing situation as I was in the front row. The tone was raw at times, riotous as others, and felt too short at only one hour. I'd like to think that, Festival time contraints aside, this play could easily be extended and performed again. I'd like to see it again.

Fleet may have grown up in Geelong, he may have publicised problems with addiction, he may even have been Simon Pegg's flatmate (as one of my sources tells me)... Say what you want about Greg Fleet, but I do believe that underneath his vitriolic and at times manic exterior, there beats the heart of a poet.

Die On Your Feet is now a memory, but it is an enduring one, and I'm a better comedy fan for having seen it. Thanks Fleety.

MICF reviews - first installment!

Morning all!

I guess that I should start with the Comfest reviews, considering my promise to do so last week. I’ll try to collect a few reviews from friends over the next few weeks, but for now you’ll have to make do with my ramblings.


Comics Lounge - Dave O’Neil, some other guy and Corrine Grant, MCed by Fox Klein.

I kicked off this year’s Comfest with a free ticket to the Comics Lounge, a venue that I must admit I’d avoided for some time, and rightly so; the seating arrangement was fairly odd for a comedy gig. I wouldn’t have such a problem with the whole “sit around a table, eating and drinking while the act is on” bit if it didn’t mean that half of the audience had to swivel their seats around to see, and if the waitresses didn’t keep topping up drinks. There’s nothing quite like sitting in a room of 60-odd round tables, around most of which are seated drunk dickheads who heckle the performers. But I digress.

Dave was first on, and while his material was funny, good natured and mostly fresh, he did tend to slur so us sods up in the back seats couldn’t make out what he said half the time. I’d like to think that this is because, as he said in his set, he has a young child (only a few months old?), and I’d imagine that looking after babies is pretty tiring. So Dave was good, but partly unintelligible.

Next on was a guy, who’s name I didn’t catch and frankly don’t mind either way, who’s set basically consisted of “I’m a wog so I can make racist and ethnic jokes, but that’s ok because I’m a wog” material. Not funny, but had the drunks roaring with laughter. I guess someone has to cater for the racist tendencies in the lower middle class? Perhaps his festival show was better, but I certainly wasn’t inclined to find out.

Lastly, Corrine was the headliner, and so popular that she had a whole table cat-calling her as soon as she walked on stage. I’m not sure she knew what to do about it, and tried ignoring it but their calls were persistent, and eventually she made a quip at them and they calmed down. Her material would have been great, had I not seen it all at the Adam’s Nectar pre-festival gigs (hosted by Adam Hills at the Nectar Lounge, 228 Flinders Lane) last year. Corrine has good delivery and quite a good stage presence, but unfortunately her material is stale. I still enjoy watching her though, but I do wish she was on another panel show, she really shines when she’s got an opinion on things (instead of just being the token woman).

Fox Klein was a really good MC. I’d never seen him before (although I had heard of him through friends), but his delivery felt natural and he was quite witty. I’d be happy to say that he was the funniest person on stage that night.

All in all, a pretty sub-par night to begin the festival on, but hey, it was free.


Dylan Moran, What It Is, Hamer Hall (Arts Centre).

Having purchased these tickets late last year (in the afterglow of seeing and meeting Bill Bailey, surely the loveliest man in the world), I was looking forward to this show immensely. Dylan delivered, and though acerbic and dry, he seemed far more laid back and good natured than I was expecting. From where I sat, he actually looked a lot younger than in his various recorded shows (but then, my eyesight’s not that good), which was a pleasant surprise. We chortled and wheezed and ached with laughter until we wept, and all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves - I’d recommend that anyone who hasn’t seen him rectify the situation as soon as humanly possible.

However, unless you’re a masochist, I would strongly urge you not to meet him afterwards. Perhaps I was naïve thinking that he would be interested in meeting his audience. Perhaps I was foolish to expect that he would have a quick chat to people. Perhaps I was just very spoilt by his Black Books colleague Bill Bailey, who was so lovely that he happily posed for photographs and chatted away until the last person made their excuses and left. I think I’ll blame Bill… spoiling his audience like that… bah. At any rate, Dylan did come out and sign autographs, but the adjective “begrudgingly” does spring to mind when I think about it. He wasn’t unpleasant, not in the least, but he seemed rather disinterested. Each to their own, I guess. It was still a brilliant show though, and I would definitely see him again (although I clearly wouldn’t bother trying to meet him again).


David O’Doherty - Let’s Comedy! Hi-Fi Bar and Ballroom.

David is always a treat to watch, and is finally getting the recognition he deserves - every time I passed the Town Hall chalkboard, he seemed to have sold out his show that night. His brand of comedy is a wonderful blend of hesitance, embarrassment, innocence, wit, honesty, and of course whimsy, set to fun little tunes from his Casio (Yamaha?) keyboard. I chose to take a friend of mine, who had never been to a live comedy gig before, to this show because I knew that it would be a lovely introduction to the joys of live comedy. She was not disappointed.

After a hilarious introduction, which seemed to last for 5 minutes of sitting in the darkness listening to David talking from backstage, he sauntered to his chair and took the venue by storm. Well, perhaps not by storm, but definitely by a moderate gale. He played some new songs, got a very assertive heckle from a woman who wanted to hear his song Very Mild Superpowers, and even managed to whip a woman in the front row in the face with his mic lead. Oh yes, that’s just the was he rolls, apparently. (Of course he profusely apologised immediately, such is his kind nature.)

I’d be willing to put money on David’s future in comedy - it’s a sure thing. Just watch, he’s already going places (and I don’t just mean to Auckland).


The Bedroom Philosopher - Songs from the 86 Tram, European Bier Café.

Justin Heazelwood, aka The Bedroom Philosopher, is another comedian who’s definitely coming up in the world of comedy, and like DO‘D I‘d recommend him to everyone. He won the Director’s choice award this year, despite having his run cut short due to being run into by an 86 tram and fracturing his **humurus** (the irony was not lost on him). I managed to catch his show a few nights before his accident, and am happy to report that it was brilliant, packed out and a resounding success if the comments of the audience afterwards were anything to go by.

At the beginning I was sceptical because it seemed to smack of student theatre, but my fears were quickly allayed by his adept storytelling style and musicianship. I left his show feeling less likely to despise the crazies on the tram, because, as he pointed out in his understated manner, they all have their stories, even if said stories are far more musical than mine. I will also never be able to see the word “depot” without thinking of bogan children. Thanks Justin.



Phew! That’s about enough to begin with. More to come shortly!

One small step for a mouse...

Good morning internet! *fanfare*

Well well. I've been told countless times that I should start a blog, so here I am. What inspired me? Well, I already subscribe to a few blogs, I think there needs to be more conversation about Australian comedy on teh webs, and I read the most hilarious blog this morning about the new Trek movie by a clearly livid Trek fan. Good stuff. I nearly cried with laughter.

This blog will essentially be a bi-weekly update on various comedy happenings in and around Melbourne, beginning with a few reviews of shows I saw at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and the occasional geek-out about random nerdy bits and pieces.

Of course, if anyone does read this, and has any interesting and relevant news/links/jokes/etc, please feel free to send them to me! I've never been able to keep a diary, and I can imagine I might run out of steam with this after a while, so any help keeping readers up to date with information and reviews would be appreciated! (Maybe this could become a weekly blog? Baby steps Mouse, baby steps...)

So, in conclusion: read this blog. Or not. I don't want you to feel pressured or anything.

Mouse out!