For the past month our team of reviewers have immersed themselves in everything the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has to offer – from odes to sad earthworms to the aggressive pulverisation of fruit. Here are some of the moments and jokes that stood out the most.
Best joke of the festival
My favourite meta joke was by Alex Hines: “Do what you love…and it will kill your passion with capitalist greed” – Mikey Cahill
Putting On a Show by Alex Hines is on at Malthouse Theatre until April 21.
Takashi Wakasugi explaining the genius of the Aldi marketing cycle as illustrated by their decision not to sell condoms. How else would you create a demand for your baby products? – Lefa Singleton Norton
My favourite jokes of the festival were the darkest: Urooj Ashfaq’s feigned confusion at how the suicide helpline wasn’t a how-to line, and not one but two comedians – Emma Holland and Lara Ricote – repurposing the shortest short story there is (Ernest Hemingway’s “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”) and taking it to its darkest (in Holland’s case) and most ridiculous (in Ricote’s case) conclusions. – Sonia Nair
Japanese Aussie by Takashi Wakasugi is on at Chinese Museum until April 21
In a bit about nuclear weapons, Joel Kim Booster confesses that he has no interest in living in a city that’s not going to be nuked, because it doesn’t sound like it has a “bustling gay population”. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar
Ray O’Leary’s drawling recollections of buying a mattress protector was a four-minute masterpiece in deadpan absurdity – akin to Joe Pera reciting an old Mitch Hedberg routine. It had absolutely no right to be as funny as it was, but I and most others in the room were in tears. – Tyson Wray
Greg Larsen’s hilarious romp Revolting is full of nostalgic references from the ’90s and early ’00s (though you won’t need to be across them all to enjoy the show). Bodily fluids were lost when he recounted the efforts it once took to get onto the internet where, channelling Magda Szubanski, he would “Ask Jeeves”: “I said pet, I said love, I said Jeeves”.– Hannah Francis
The best joke of the festival was life itself. When John Kearns asked an audience member to recount the ending of Raymond Briggs’ perennial tearjerker The Snowman they describe his death-by-melting as going “back to normal”. Kearns only needed a few choice words to extend the implication: the complete dissolution of the self and the black pit of oblivion that awaits us all? That’s us just going back to normal. – John Bailey
The Bisexual’s Lament by Lou Wall is on at ACMI – The Gandel Lab and Trades Hall – Solidarity Hall until April 21
Most stand-out moment in a show
In The Bisexual’s Lament, Lou Wall created a banger pop anthem out of a conversation on Facebook Marketplace with the kookiest person to ever accidentally steal a bed frame. – Guy Webster
Luke Heggie has continued refining his caustic craft to the point where he can deliver an hour of non-stop, bullseye-hitting three-liners and savage, close-to-the-bone anecdotes without ever waiting for an applause break (name another comedian who does that). At the end of this, the stand-out show of the festival, the brusque chap adds a caveat. “I want you to take everything I’ve said tonight...literally.“ – Mikey Cahill
Catherine Bohart had the room in stitches with a gag about her girlfriend kink-shaming her for trying to introduce, uhh, a more niche form of oral sex into their bedroom repertoire. It was atomic, with sublime delivery. – Tyson Wray
Raven by Elf Lyons iwas a favourite for a few different reviewers – for a few different reasons.
I wasn’t wholly convinced by Elf Lyons’ creepy-strange offering Raven until she whisked it home to its glorious and visceral conclusion.
Not only did the rest of the show now make entire sense, the audience got a free showering of smashed fruit salad. – Hannah Francis
The jaw-dropping finale to Elf Lyons’ show will have everyone avoiding bananas for the next few days. After bequeathing the front row with a plastic sheet to cover themselves, Lyons starts pulverising all manner of fruits with her bare hands, beating them to oblivion with a mallet, all while beseeching the men in the audience to imagine the fruits are their penises. Sublime. – Sonia Nair
Riskiest joke or performance
I don’t think I’m ever likely to forget watching, mouth agape, as David Correos’ show came to a crescendo with him shirtless, red food dye staining his teeth, spices coated around his mouth, face striped with flour, red paint and blue paint, wearing white gloves. I won’t mention what he was actually doing to end up in this state. Comic genius or ultimate gross-out? A bit of both. – Lefa Singleton Norton
Oh No! by Urooj Ashfaq is on at Melbourne Town Hall - Cloak Room until April 21.
When He Huang classifies backpacking as a “white person thing to do”, retorting that Asian and Chinese people prefer to “travel with suitcases and dignity”. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar
There’s a moment in Tom Walker’s show when you wonder if his entire hour is going to concentrate on strange men who are obsessed with auto-fellatio. Credit to the fearless Mr Walker for responding: kinda! – John Bailey
It’s not entirely clear where Urooj Ashfaq’s joke about “pagal” (translating to mean “crazy” in Hindi) people is going, but she soon reveals that studying psychiatry made her realise that a) you can’t call people “pagal” and b) her and her entire family are “pagal”. – Sonia Nair
Prize for most heartwarming moment
Cam Venn’s alter ego Charles Horse introduces his audience to best bud Terry the Shark in a delightful one-man parody of a film montage. Not all the show’s characters make it to the end, so the pair’s reunion after a long separation in which Terry was brainwashed by a supervillain is all the more sweet. – Hannah Francis
Jenny Tian admits that Ronny Chieng’s performance at her university orientation week inspired her to pursue comedy, eventually soliciting him on social media for support act opportunities at his shows (he never responds to her DM). Tian later confirms that she was approached to support Chieng’s 2023 show; her audience cheered in encouragement at the full circle moment. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar
Chronically-ill comedian Ashley Apap’s available on-demand comedy show features her performing from the comfort of her bed on stage, which you can enjoy from the comfort of your own bed. Maximum cosy comedy vibes.
Meanwhile, Laura Davis commissioned fellow bird-enthusiast Matt Hyde to create a soundscape tribute to the birdlife that would have been found on the Yarra wetlands before colonisation, the lands on which Laura is performing Albatross. It’s a unique and touching acknowledgment of country that sets the scene beautifully for their show. – Lefa Singleton Norton
Albatross by Laura Davis is on at Doubletree by Hilton until April 21Credit: Chayla Taylor
Josh Glanc makes a very difficult thing look easy. His surreal, physical comedy is an utter joy, especially when he busts out singing a catchy 30-second jingle “I’m a family man” and so fully commits to the bit that you have to wonder whether he needs to be committed. The hirsute journeyman controls the room with his cheeky eyes, a quizzical smile and frequent musical interludes. Top of his game and, honestly, robbed of a nomination for Most Outstanding Show. –Mikey Cahill
Seeing Van Gogh’s ear find himself as an art critic in turn of the century Paris during Adrian Bliss’s Inside Everything was a surprising tear-jerker – and seeing Lou Wall’s grandmother promise to see their debut on ABC before immediately falling asleep was golden. – Guy Webster
Julia Masli’s ha ha ha ha ha ha ha was a full hour of therapeutic audience interaction as she engaged the crowd to attempt to solve all of our own personal grievances. The perfect show to leave you feeling a little bit more hopeful about society and the strangers around us every day. – Tyson Wray
The wholesome, entertaining The Von Donk Family Old-Timey Vaudeville Revue is made even more so when the crowd buoy Vaughn’s (Andrew McClelland) and Lottie’s (Louisa Fitzhardinge’s) listlessness by collectively singing a song they’d learned earlier in the routine. – Sonia Nair
The Von Donk Family Old-Timey Vaudeville Revue by Louisa Fitzhardinge and Andrew McClelland is on at The Butterfly Club until April 21.Credit: Mark Gambino
Most interesting example of crowd participation
Crowd interaction in Norwegian clown Viggo Venn’s show British Comedian is rife. His ability to get audience members to immerse themselves in a verse of Eminem’s My Name Is was only topped by convincing another to propose to a stranger on stage. – Tyson Wray
Unsurprisingly for anyone who’s been to a Reuben Kaye show, my pick for most interesting example of crowd participation is Reuben Kaye with his legs spread around a gentleman’s balding head belting anti-capitalist slogans. – Guy Webster
This year, Lara Ricote’s whole show was a metaphorical relationship with that night’s crowd, from meet-cute to break-up. It was packed with audience interaction, but given Ricote is hard of hearing and the room’s acoustics were pretty average, there was plenty of chaos, interruptions and misunderstandings. Just like a real relationship! – John Bailey
Little Tiny Wet Show (baptism) by Lara Ricote is on at ACMI – Swinburne Studio, until April 21.
A packed-out theatre being led in an air guitar riff-off by The Listies in their show Make Some Noise. – Lefa Singleton Norton
Nina Conti invited people on stage for a therapy session with her puppet Monkey. One man got up and for a tense extended moment refused to sit in the chair, then sang Happy Birthday in full booming opera voice, to the bemusement of all. – Hannah Francis
Elf Lyons makes deathly eye contact with every man in the audience while doing and saying the most uncomfortable things, while Lara Ricote plays a game with her audience where she makes them shout out a series of consonants and vowels to come up with a name for themselves – Opos on the night I visit – which she then addresses them by for the rest of the show. – Sonia Nair
Strangest (or best) heckle
Inside Everyone by Adrian Bliss is on at Malthouse Theatre until April 21.
Anna Piper Scott asked her audience who identified as queer, to which the majority of her sold-out audience responded with cheers and clapping. When she asked her follow-up question, who identifies as straight, a cheeky audience member piped up with “sorry!” which was met with plenty of laughter. – Lefa Singleton Norton
It’s not quite a heckle, but someone in the audience for Adrian Bliss’s Inside Everything burped perfectly in time to the beat of Bliss’s ballad-like ode to sad earthworms. – Guy Webster
Best sewing chops
I was eyeing off Grace Jarvis’ gorgeous dress and preparing to ask her where she got it from when she volunteered the information halfway through her set – she had made it herself! – Hannah Francis
Best one-liner
Kirsty Webeck using the descriptor “friend of Bunnings” to identify someone as a lesbian. – Lefa Singleton Norton
Most charming visiting comedian
Chloe Petts comes across as a quintessential English football lover but deserves a round of applause for the way she localised some of her show content – having the hots for our mayor, knowing that Brighton has different connotations here than Britain’s seaside hippy hotbed, and gently teasing the “soft Brunswick boys” in the front row. – Hannah Francis
Best entrance to a show
Lou Wall bursts out from behind the curtains to battle moving targets in a ’90s-style slideshow outlining the worst moments of their previous year. – Sonia Nair
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