Junkee Picks: Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2013
MICF opens today (March 27) and runs until April 21. That's a lot of comedy. Here are some of our picks.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival kicks off today. It would be a Herculean task to catch all of the great comedians on the bill, so instead here are our picks of must-see acts, in no particular order: from locals to internationals, young upstarts to comedy stars. But also you should just buy some random tickets, because those are always the best nights.
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Arj Barker – Go Time
Did weed-smoking Olympian Michael Phelps set a really bad example for children, or did he set a really good example for pot? The laid-back Flight Of The Conchords star answers this and other troubling existential questions in his brand new show, Go Time.
Melbourne: March 28-31, April 2-7, April 9-16 and April 18-21 @ Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
Sydney: May 3-5 at Enmore Theatre
Josh Thomas – Douchebag
Melbourne’s Josh Thomas is worried he might be a bad person. He once went overseas, and made a weird choice – the kind of choice that he is pretty sure only bad people make. His new show is about that, as well as all the other mean things he has done to people. (If you can’t catch him in Melbourne, you can catch his new show, Please Like Me, every Thursday night on ABC2)
Melbourne: April 2- 21 (excluding Mondays) @ The Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
Nina Oyama – Get Smut
Fresh out of high school, Sydney’s Nina Oyama is one of the youngest and most exciting talents to grace this year’s festival. Her solo show is about sex, chicken nuggets and other things that are simultaneously gross and awesome.
Melbourne: March 27- 11 April @ LOOP Project Space and Bar – buy tickets here.
Genevieve Fricker – Party Pooper
RAW Comedy finalist and rising star Genevieve Fricker makes her first solo outing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in Party Pooper – an unfortunately true story of good intentions, broken hearts and linen trousers. Here’s her interviewing Wil Anderson for Fairfax:
Melbourne: March 30 – April 21 @ The Forum Theatre – buy tickets here.
Sydney: May 1-4 @ The Factory Theatre Container
Max Attwood – Am I Better Than Gandhi?
There have been 105 billion people on earth over the course of history, some of them better than others. In his new show, young Melbourne-ite Max Attwood ponders the entirely reasonable question: ‘Am I Better Than Gandhi?’ The answer may surprise.
Melbourne: March 28-May 2 and May 4- 9 @ The Tuxedo Cat – buy tickets here.
Margaret Cho – Mother
Margaret Cho is old enough to be somebody’s mother, but the older she gets, the more she regresses into childhood. See the queer icon take to the stage for a raw and hilarious show about finding an identity in a society that would rather keep her out of sight.
Melbourne: April 16-21 @ The Capitol Theatre – buy tickets here.
Brisbane: April 22 @ The Tivoli
Perth: April 24 @ The Astor Theatre
Sydney: April 26 @ Enmore Theatre
David O’Doherty – Sieze The David O’Doherty (Carpe DO’Diem)
David O’Doherty has been one of our favourites for a while now, and his new show aims to fix everything that’s wrong with the world. The Irish comedian specialises in Casio, has been in Australia a bunch of times and, outside of his stand up sets and his Comedy Central special, he’s written a couple of amazing books with Aussie comedian Claudia O’Doherty: 100 Facts About Pandas and 100 Facts About Sharks. If you need to know anything else about him, watch this:
Melbourne: March 28-April 21 @ The Forum – buy tickets here.
Claire Hooper – Plums
The Good News Week star has pondered life’s big questions, and decided that plums are the answer. How the hell is that possible? You’ll have to go to the show to find out.
Melbourne: March 28-April 21 excluding Mondays @ The Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
Rich Fulcher – Tiny Acts Of Rebellion
Are you sometimes overcome with feelings of powerlessness, dwarfed by your insignificance in the grand scheme of things? Don’t despair – Rich Fulcher, of Snuff Box and The Mighty Boosh, is here to show you all the small ways you can stick it to the man.
Melbourne: April 15-21 @ The Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
Em Rusciano – Puberty Rhythm & Blues
Using songs and stories, Em Rusciano – Mamamia writer and host of Mamamia Today radio – takes a long, hard look at the period known as puberty. She hopes to provide therapy for those who, like her, acquired their sexual knowledge from Dolly Doctor and under the stairs at a blue light disco.
Melbourne: March 27-April 21 (except Sundays) at The Forum Theatre – buy tickets here.
Mike Birbiglia – My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend
Mike Birbiglia’s new show has won more awards than you could possibly imagine, and played to packed houses all around the world. Birbiglia has appeared in everything from indie flick Cedar Rapids to HBO’s Girls, and he’s touring the country with his new film, Sleepwalk With Me, produced by friend and collaborator Ira Glass. Praised for its wit and poignancy, his new show is a painfully honest recounting of a lifetime’s worth of romantic blunders.
Melbourne: March 28-31 and April 2-4 @ The Capitol Theatre – buy tickets here.
Sydney: April 6 @ The Sydney Opera House
FanFiction Comedy
What would happen if Hermione Grainger hooked up with Marty McFly? Would Glee’s Burt Hummel be gentle when caressing you with his rough, mechanic’s hands? New Zealand’s irreverent and hilarious FanFiction Comedy crew thrive on just these kinds of pop cultural mash-ups – and will be bringing a few of the festival stars on stage too. Here, for instance, is David O’Doherty on Kevin McCloud.
Melbourne: Festival March 30-April 21 (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) @ The Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
Emily Taylor – Cannonball
Emily Taylor’s Cannonball looks beneath the surface of the everyday. The “unique and hilarious” show sees Taylor take on ten seemingly-everyday characters. You work with them. They went to your school. You met them once at a party. But you’ve never before seen them quite like this.
Melbourne: March 28 @ Victoria Hotel – buy tickets here.
Joel Creasey – The Drama Captain
Joel Creasey once rigged an election to ensure he’d become the Drama Captain of his high school; since then, his penchant for drama has only grown. He’s been fired, beaten up and dumped. He could be sad, but why bother, when revelling in drama is so much more fun?
Melbourne: March 28 @ Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
Perth: May 15-18 @ Jack High Room
Anne Edmonds – The Quarter Cabbage
Have you ever bought a quarter cabbage and wondered who gets all the other parts? Who are you sharing your dinner with? Anne Edmonds’ magical, mysterious new one-woman play is about four strangers brought together by a vegetable. Here’s a clip from her show last year:
Melbourne: March 29 @ The Melbourne Town Hall – buy tickets here.
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Alasdair Duncan is an author, freelance writer and video game-lover who has had work published in Crikey, The Drum, The Brag, Beat, Rip It Up, The Music Network, Rave Magazine, AXN Cult and Star Observer.