Points of view: theatre, comedy and news
Burt Williamson’s new show, 104kg of Pure Banter, is in one word fine. Is it funny? Yes. Does it make us laugh? Yes. Is it particularly memorable or different? No. It’s a decent set, but it doesn’t quite spark anything in us or leave us feeling anything apart from the fact that it’s a nice show.
Improv is difficult and subjective, more so than other genre. A performer really has to be at the top of their game in order to be even just halfway decent at improv, because there’s no one tool that they can rely on to move a scene forward. The quality of, improv mostly swings between two extremes, poor and fantastic. Holy Shit Improv can be safely considered the latter.
Starting as an off-beat and innocent comedy show that could be mistaken for stand-up, Rhys Darby’s The Legend Returns quickly devolves into unmitigated and hilarious chaos, covering everything from the feud between Australia and New Zealand to the next Olympics and the dangers of AI.
Whatever we may have been expecting from Glenn Moore’s new hour, Please Sir, Glenn I Have Some Moore, our expectations are far exceeded by what we bear witness to onstage. It’s certainly a frenetic and intense hour where Moore pushes what is possible from a comedy show to the extreme, to the point where it becomes everything that we may want from a comedy show.
It’s the feelings of community, support and warmth - in addition to laughter - that are evoked over the course of this show that prove that Helen Bauer is a comedic machine. It is virtually impossible to have a bad time with her at the helm. Bless Her is an hour of transcendental comedy where Bauer both celebrates and critiques the idea of self love, using everything we know and love about her comedy whilst showcasing how she’s grown as a performer, comedian and writer.
For all intents and purposes, the morning is quite a jarring time for comedy. Alex Prescot’s Cosy may just be the exception that proves the rule, providing the blueprint for how stand-up can still be enjoyable before midday as long as it follows the same general rules of a children's show; light, wholesome and plenty of music.
Comedy is a rather complicated beast, and no show perhaps exemplifies the challenges that a comedian may face over the course of a show’s lifespan better than Alex Kealy’s The Fear. Whilst a classic example of observationist humour covering the political and personal spectrums, the number of contextual issues over the course of the hour outwith the material ultimately detracts from the overall performance and unrestrained enjoyability of the hour.
The international hit show Taskmaster, hosted by the almighty Taskmaster Greg Davies and his faithful assistant Alex Horne announces a brand-new line-up of comedians for its highly anticipated 19th series.
Amongst the myriad of Christmas pantos, Deck the Stalls, promises us the warmth of Christmas cheer without the added cheesiness that often accompanies Christmas shows.
In Awkward Productions’ Gwyneth Goes Skiing, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin very much live up to the tenor set by the infamous trial on which this show is based on. What we see over the course of this production is an amalgamation of all the comedy and storytelling techniques that they have been refining over... Continue Reading →
Pepper & Salt 