★★★: Veteran columnist Lawrence Money makes Melbourne International Comedy Festival stand-up debut

At an age most people are winding down, former newspaper columnist Lawrence Money is rocketing out of retirement and on to the comedy stage. READ OUR REVIEW.

When Lawrence Money started working at this newspaper, no man had yet landed on the moon.

Now, at an age most people are winding down, he’s rocketing out of retirement and on to stage at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

“I’ve been told ‘You are so old,” he laughed, “But I’m well aware of that.”

COMEDY NEWBIES AND RISING STARS TO WATCH

YOUR GUIDE TO THE MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL

HOW TO DO THE COMEDY FESTIVAL ON A BUDGET

The veteran newspaper columnist from the Sun News-Pictorial, The Herald and The Age is now a first-time stand-up comedian hitting the stand-up microphone with a 50-minute show packed with hilarious tales.

The prolific book author, after-dinner speaker and Master of Ceremonies simply needed another challenge.

Lawrence Money in Loose Change.

“My brain is used to whirring away, I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing,” he said.

For 37 years and across multiple mastheads, Money’s column of humorous gossip delighted Melburnians — even the rich, famous and powerful figures it spent its inches dissecting.

He first started tapping out a daily column in 1979 and decided, “I’m gonna ride this little pony all the way”.

It was a job he loved and for almost four decades until he took a redundancy package that was exactly what he did.

“I couldn’t believe they paid me to do it,” he said. “And then they paid me not to do it.”

Money is not to be confused with veteran comic and radio star Lawrence Mooney, currently hosting Triple M Sydney’s breakfast show.

(Although the pair have frequently been mistaken for each other).

The pair is appearing at the same festival, with Money now playing the role of the young upstart.

“It brings you alive,” he said, describing the process of putting together a show.

Money has been attending open mic nights, performing his show in his loungeroom and is ready to roll for a live audience.

For now it’s a stand-up show, but Money can see things changing as he gets older.

“By 75 I’m hoping to do lie-down comedy,” he joked.

“By that stage I’ll be at the State Theatre, on a queen-sized bed taking little nanna naps along the way”.

REVIEW: LAWRENCE MONEY, LOOSE CHANGE

Rating: ★★★

Reviewer: Daniel Ziffer

Stop. You’re probably thinking of experienced comedian Lawrence Mooney — radio host, Malcolm Turnbull impressions, two “O”s.

Money is the long-time newspaper columnist hitting the stage for the first time.

His debut show is old-school comedy, with stories, jokes and top-level name-dropping.

Money’s the first to tell you about his half a century in the game as he mines the hilarious indignities of age and takes on political correctness, the #MeToo movement and questions of identity.

In a grim part of town, up stairs above a kebab shop, the venue is an unpolished diamond of the Gold Rush era. Money isn’t that old, but he’s worth checking out too.

Lawrence Money, Loose Change, until April 20, Speakeasy HQ.