The best heckles, riskiest jokes and strangest moments from this year’s comedy festival

For the past month, our reviewers have immersed themselves in everything the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has to offer – from a dance all about rat kings to a homemade underwear air-cannon. Here are some of the moments and jokes that stood out the most.

Best joke of the festival

The best joke was a classic bait-and-switch set-up from Garry Starr. It also happened to be the best example of crowd participation, and right up there with riskiest feat. I wonder how the joke would have gone if no one in the audience had agreed to join the mostly naked Starr on stage for The Jungle Book. He was quite clear it would involve being a “bear”. – Hannah Francis

Classic Penguins by Garry Starr is at The Malthouse until April 20.

The masterful bait-and-switch in Garry Starr’s show, which kicks off with an audience member kindly obliging Garry’s request to bare all on stage. They both get ready offstage, and when they re-appear, Garry is next to a tottering, oversized teddy bear. We collectively think, “phew, the naked audience member is the bear, that wasn’t as revealing as we thought”, but Garry has other plans for us. – Sonia Nair

Scout Boxall’s response to gatekeeping men who demand female fans prove their expertise by sharing three key facts: “Why don’t you name three women who feel safe around you.” – Lefa Singleton Norton

Breaking The Fifth Wall by Lou Wall is on until April 20.

Lou Wall’s Facebook Marketplace story was an absolute knockout. So, 5am is the new time to pick up an item … according to one emoji-happy customer who just couldn’t resist bartering over a free bed frame. – Mikey Cahill

Takashi Wakasugi’s use of a haiku to describe a one-dollar coin felt like a fun New York Times game, with only the sharpest audience members eventually cottoning on to the answer. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Not much can beat the 10-minute “Margaret Thatcher: The Musical” sequence packed with Andrew Lloyd Webber-style spectacle in Flo & Joan’s One Man Musical. – Guy Webster

Nath Valvo, as MC at Token’s Comedy Festival Preview night, was given the task of warming up the crowd. He delivered the goods with a stream of one-liners including the relatable pearler, “No last song is better than the first Uber.” – Donna Demaio

The best joke I witnessed wasn’t even written by a comedian, but by an audience member. But it was delivered by Schalk Bezuidenhout in one of the greatest call-backs I’ve ever witnessed. No spoilers – but it’s one heck of a brilliant grand finale. – Tyson Wray

Vidya Rajan and Mel McGlensey idolise Greg at the Chinese Museum.

Most stand-out moment in a show

Vidya Rajan and Mel McGlensey’s Greg was mostly G-rated fun until their rap battle, deliberately misheard by Rajan as a “rat” battle – cue cute rat ears outfit. Rajan gave us a few verses of a well-written rap-roast, then took things in an unexpected direction with some explicit (and surreal) mimed dance moves. – Hannah Francis

Ahir Shah won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2023 for his show, Ends, which he was finally able to bring to Melbourne after UK television commitments scuppered his plans for last year’s festival. The final 20 minutes are breathtaking – no more so than when he juxtaposes the wedding days of both himself and his grandmother. Five stars, no notes. – Tyson Wray

A short-lived musical about a pirate in Victorian England near the end of Hannah Camilleri’s What I’m Going For has given me an earworm I’m yet to shake. – Guy Webster

Ahir Shah performs Ends at The Westin until April 20.

I’m sorry to cite him again, but the bait-and-switch in Garry Starr’s show on Penguin classics was simply unforgettable – alongside him feeding a pulverised grape to an audience member, catapulting over the same audience member in an illustration of the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, spinning around precisely 80 times to demonstrate Around the World in 80 Days, astonishingly not vomiting after, and being joined by a legion of fellow nudists to encapsulate The Time Machine. – Sonia Nair

When Brendan Murphy ends his show, Buffy Revamped, with a live rendition of R.E.M’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine), with lyrics changed to narrate the storyline of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he stands on a desk with arms outstretched, belting out the musical number with gusto. The sold-out crowd doesn’t hold back, joining him during the chorus. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Riskiest joke or performance

Noah Szto joked he was risking his medical licence (yes, he’s really a doctor) delivering a presentation for The Late Nite PowerPoint Comedy Showcase on how to make prostate exams more appealing, adopting rap superstar Dr Dre into a new acronym for Digital Rectal Exam. We’ll never think about prostate cancer the same again. – Lefa Singleton Norton

When Noah Szto, comedian AND doctor, joined five other comedians for The Late Nite PowerPoint Comedy Showcase, he decided to dedicate his entire spot to joking about rectal medical examinations. Was it hilarious? Yes, it was. – Donna Demaio

Med School by Noah Szto is at ACMI until April 20.Credit: Ian Laidlaw

Olga Koch somehow manages to compare the fall of the Berlin Wall to a woman getting her period. It’s in such deliciously bad taste. – Tyson Wray

When Nish Kumar remarks he’s never seen a good-looking white supremacist, the crowd laughs awkwardly, unsure of where the joke is heading. Unrelenting, Kumar leans into the tension, comparing controversial comedian Jimmy Carr to a haunted Victorian marionette, eliciting raucous laughter from the crowd. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Lou Wall’s entire show is built on lying to the audience, which could risk getting them offside. Wall comes clean on many of the lies by the end of the show, but not all of them. I was thinking about Wall’s lies for days! – Hannah Francis

Fresh New Worries by Gillian Cosgriff is on at Arts Centre Melbourne until April 20.Credit: Nicole Reed

Prize for most heartwarming moment

Only the ever-wholesome Gillian Cosgriff could get 150 people to sing along to a rendition of Don’t Worry Be Happy led by a toy bass. – Guy Webster

Laura Davis made the audience gasp with the description of a joke as “the flowers you lay on the graves of your expectations”. – Lefa Singleton Norton

Despair is Beneath Us by Laura Davis is at The Greek until April 20.Credit: Chayla Taylor

Chris Parker’s nostalgic anecdotes about passion versus technical ability when he was the only boy in a ballet school of girls. It explains his effervescent main character energy. – Mikey Cahill

Rhys Darby’s dancing Roomba vacuum cleaner goes missing and Darby spends a good portion of the show trying to get it back. They are eventually reunited with the help of a Tesla Cybertruck dude-bro. – Hannah Francis

Ahir Shah’s deeply emotional and heart-rending show, Ends, which revolved around the behemoth sacrifices his grandparents made to pave the way for his privilege to “go without saying” as a person of colour living in the UK and which contained an uncharacteristically hopeful prognosis for the future. – Sonia Nair

Most interesting example of crowd participation

A tie between Vidya Rajan and Mel McGlensey’s interactive show Greg, where unsuspecting men in the audience were pulled up to be “Greg” (whether they were or not) and simpered over as the subjects of Rajan and McGlensey’s joint adoration, and Con Coutis’ show Escape from Heck Island, which cleverly incorporated crowd responses into an intricate narrative full of audiovisual cues. – Sonia Nair

Zoë Coombs Marr’s homemade T-shirt air-cannon followed by a homemade underwear air-cannon. Several of the audience left with memorable souvenirs. – Lefa Singleton Norton

Tiffany Wong’s live use of ChatGPT creates an exciting unpredictability which tests machine accuracy against human interactivity. Wong’s willingness to leave her fate in the hands of the crowd’s responses shows bravery, and the audience graciously abide by playing along with the bit. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

The brilliant clowning prodigy Garry Starr crowd-surfs over his audience while completely naked – enough said. In fact, he doesn’t wear pants the entire show. It’s lunacy (and very deftly handled with the consent of the crowd), and it’s brilliant. – Tyson Wray

Family Man by Josh Glanc is at the Chinese Museum until April 20.

Post show, Steve Porters (a character created by drag king Daisy Doris May) from How to Flirt: The TED XXX Talk, enthusiastically addresses every single person exiting. – Donna Demaio

Josh Glanc took lots of sneaky photos on an old-school digital camera then almost magically had them all shown on the screen at the end of his show. – Mikey Cahill

I found out midway through Josh Glanc’s Family Man that if you’re not wearing a lanyard you’ll have to walk out of the theatre backed by a sad, cinematic score. – Guy Webster

Strangest (or best) heckle

Amy Gledhill faced all of our fears when a heckler in the front row who “looks like my dad” responded to her advice for good sex. – Guy Webster

Jenny’s Travels by Jenny Tian is on at Melb Town Hall until April 20.

It wasn’t so much a heckle but a spectacular retort. Halfway through her show Jenny’s Travels, Jenny Tian realised there was a 12-year-old in the front row. Leaning forward, and with a side glance to the child’s mother, she says, “You’re going to learn a lot tonight.” – Donna Demaio

More heartwarming crowd-work than a heckle, The Listies were asking kids what chores they did at home to help out. “Cleaning up the dog’s business,” chirped a youngster. Cue: Matthew Kelly dragging his bum across the floor like a worm-ridden canine, shouting “I’m Bluey”. – Mikey Cahill

Best mime

Josh Burton, one half of the Burton Brothers, does a cartoonish and very funny impression of a hawk. It’s a memorable, absurd, blink-and-you’ll miss moment in the show, aided by clever sound design. – Hannah Francis

Best personalisation of the acknowledgement of Country

Janty Blair, who paid her respects to “elders past, present, and merging down the Princes Freeway”, going on to announce her pronouns as B&D: “Black and Deadly.” – Lefa Singleton Norton

Comedian Stephanie Broadbridge.Credit: Dylan Coker

Best song or dance number

Stephanie Broadbridge’s titular song Breaking, which was both a display of empathy for a certain, highly pilloried breakdancer and a side-splittingly funny play on the word “breaking” – Broadbridge would recreate a comical breakdancing pose while collapsing in tears. – Sonia Nair

If you’ve only got time/money for one last show this week

Make it the annual Moosehead Benefit gala on the final night of the festival, Sunday, April 20. If you know, you know. But if you don’t – each year for almost four decades the creme de la creme of the festival are handpicked by industry experts for a two-hour extravaganza featuring the biggest names of the festival, award winners/nominees and rising stars. Best of all, all money raised from the event goes to supporting artists at next year’s festival (this year the recipients were Janty Blair, Brett Blake, Burton Brothers, Frankie McNair & Isaac Haigh). Only $70 a pop, it will sell out as always. – Tyson Wray

The Age is a Melbourne International Comedy Festival partner.

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