Everyone loves a good night out, especially when it’s to enjoy some A class comedy sans kids, with a wine in hand! Melbourne is once again host to the worlds best comedians and I for one, will absolutely be making the most of the comedy festival this year! *My babysitter will be bathing in $50 notes by the end of April!
Top 5 is pretty hard, and there are a stack of shows that are also on my (other) list , and absolutely should be on yours too….(including the insanely funny
50 Shades, The Musical Parody)
However, here are 5 shows that you mustn’t miss, in no particular order… Although, I do have a huge girl crush on all of the Fringe Wives so….
Glittergrass incorporates storytelling, slapstick comedy, Dolly-dazzling outfits and a killer soundtrack played entirely LIVE by the wives themselves on banjo, accordion, uke, mandolin, washboard, lagerphone, musical saw, kazoos, the spoons (and anything else they can rustle up) with the support of a junk band rhythm section.
This timely and uncompromising feminist call-to-arms is created and performed by physical comedy queen Tessa Waters (Winner: Best Comedy Weekly Award, Adelaide Fringe 2017, Womanz/Over Promises/Fully Sik), musical comedy powerhouse Victoria Falconer (Winner: London Cabaret Award 2015, EastEnd Cabaret/Yeti’s Demon Dive Bar) and acclaimed comedian and storyteller Rowena Hutson (Winner: Most Outstanding Comedy Melbourne Fringe 2015, Strong Female Character) and this year will also feature Laura Frew (Double Denim / Director’s Choice Award MICF 2018) and Sharnema Nougar (Two Little Dickheads).
Date: Thur 28th March – Sun 21st April (no show Mondays)
Fun, feisty and incredibly fertile Odette! is the larger-than-life cleaning lady everybody loves to love. Meet her in this award-nominated debut solo show, fresh from successful runs in Australia and the UK.
On a quest for the passionate romance that can only come from an immaculately coiffed superstar of daytime TV, Odette! dreams of shacking up with heart-throb Ridge Forrester from The Bold and The Beautiful.
After her shock elimination from the 2019 annual B&B super fan championship competition by a trick question in the first round, Odette! has broken into the final and pushed her way to the head of the queue, determined to be the first to catch Ridge’s eye. With an arsenal of ideas to win him over, indomitable optimism and an ever expanding baby bump, her dreams seem within reach. Until Brian, her jilted ex-lover, appears.
A hilarious new song-fuelled character comedy about dreaming big and falling hard, Odette! was nominated for the FRINGE WORLD Best Comedy Award 2018.
Dates: 25 March – 4 April
Time: 10pm
Venue: The Butterfly Club, 5 Carson Place off Lt Collins Street
Duration: 60 Minutes
Tanya Losanno The Good, The Bad and the Elderly
2019 Moosehead Receipt Tanya Lossano returns to the stage with a show about the reality and the chaos that ensues when you find yourself thrust from generation X, slap bang into the sandwich generation.
Tanya Losanno is a first generation Australian to post World War 2 immigrant Italian parents and has recently moved back to where she grew up, with her family in tow and is now looking down the barrel of being a carer to her elderly parents.
From feeling like she grew up on the set of the Godfather, where the weapon of choice was guilt, to feeling like she is in a spaghetti western, where belligerence is the weapon of choice, The Good, The Bad and the Elderly is about a modern day cowboy trying to look after two old school ones.
Dates: 28th March – 21st April
Time: 6pm, 7pm
Venue: The Coopers Malt House, Shell Room, 113 Sturt St
Duration: 60 Minutes
What Would Bill Murray Do?
By David Tieck
Want to have more fun in your life? Start asking yourself- What Would Bill Murray Do?
David Tieck is a big-fat absurdist, idiotic, stupid faced, teddy bear type person. In this new hour of silliness, Tieck is officially promising to show off at least 37 totally weird, reckless and flippantly foolish ideas, as well as possibly up to as many as 1 profound ideas.
Taking a note from Bill Murray’s beautiful approach to life and comedy, this visceral show weaves together mischievous characters and sublime silliness with poems, songs and ridiculous joy. Tieck and Murray have a lot in common; they both studied at The Second City Chicago, they both have brothers, they’re both survivors of horrific cystic acne and they both love to leave audiences with a new life philosophy on how to have the most fun ever.
Dates: 27th March – 8th April (no show Wed 3rd April)
Time: 18:30
Venue: Imperial Hotel, 2-8 Bourke St
Tickets: $18-$22
Duration: 50 mins
Bookings: comedyfestival.com.au
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GARRY STARR CONQUERS TROY
Acting was invented by the ancient Greeks. Before that people were just pretending. With the release of his ground-breaking new book ‘An Actor Pretends’, disgraced actor Garry Starr enlightens us all with the ancient art of ‘not-for-realism’, thus (once again) saving the performing arts from inevitable extinction.
Following his multi-award-winning debut in 2018 (Garry Starr Performs Everything), comic wunderkind Damien Warren-Smith delivers another anarchic drama masterclass to remember.
Damien Warren-Smith grew up in the sleepy snowy mountain town of Cooma before studying at Actors Centre Australia. Upon graduating, he moved to London where he spent more than a decade working as an actor and deviser with companies such as Tall Stories, Hull Truck and Nottingham Playhouse. In 2013, he studied at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris before creating internationally renowned clown collective A Plague of iDiOTS.
Date: Thu 28 March – Sun 21 April (no show Mondays)
Time: Tues-Sat 9:15pm, Sun 8:15pm
Venue: Tower Theatre, The Coopers Malthouse, 113 Sturt St
Tickets: $32-$24
Duration: 60 mins duration – Rating: 18+
Bookings: 03 9685 5111 or online at www.malthousetheatre.com.au and www.comedyfestival.com.au
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Have a wonderful time, and make sure you let us know about all the awesome shows you have seen so we don’t miss out!
Liv xx
I just like to smile, smiling’s my favourite – Buddy (Elf)
The Wilsons of Oz 