COMEDY
Opening Night Allstars Comedy Supershow ★★★★
The Palais, March 31
Almost unbelievably, there was only a passing mention of The Slap.
That’s right, the Comedy Festival opening night gala saw a couple of dozen comedians deliver their best “tight fives” – but instead of picking apart the Oscars-shaking Will Smith vs Chris Rock incident, they focused on trusty, taut material.
Comedian Rhys Nicholson hosted the Comedy Festival’s opening night gala.Credit:Monica Pronk
The result was mostly excellent, occasionally too safe – but an overall TKO.
Host Rhys Nicholson came in peace and left us in pieces, warming the orange and red lit stage for his peers to get to work.
Urzila Carlson detonated a few home-truth-bombs she learned during lockdown, specifically about her wife’s daily remit: “These bitches have had it too good for too long.” The South African-New Zealand comedian decided to go H.A.M. on the mothers who get to play LEGO all morning, a “stoner’s dream”.
Townsville-bred Danielle Walker gave us a perfectly deranged explanation of the different pigs you’ll find in the bush then shared a pungent tale of a present her mum gave her, a gift that keeps on giving when you just want it to stop.
Hughesy showed off his evergreen endurance with wonderful bits on electric scooter buffoonery and a brush with a “meth enthusiast” on the tram.
Dilruk Jayasinha maintained the pace by suavely telling us he’d flown back from somewhere international (or was it?). The grinning gun cocked his eyes and mouth open to the 3000 strong crowd as he threw Sri Lankans, Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis …and then everyone else under the proverbial bus.
Annie Louey drew one of the biggest laughs of the night as she teased out a numerical set-up making fun of Chinese numbers then hit jackpot with a death metal growl. Terrifying.
Irishman David O’Doherty closed the first half with local swipes at escape room influencers, brunch DJs and the predictable hubris of service staff who think they’ll remember your order. Absolute class.
All Kiwi Guy Montgomery had to do was walk out on stage and make fun of his gait to win us over. He then whisked us into an aeroplane and quickly convinced the room it’s disrespectful to consume creatures of the deep while high in the sky. The cheekboned cheer-jerker washed down his set with a splash of grim oat milk humour.
Star performers Becky Lucas and Damien Power went further with the comedy noir, the former smug in the knowledge she would be able to anticipate her own demise (and tssk at her murderer’s poor sense of direction) while the latter dared to go obsidian black skewering the lack of mental health services for narcissists then even further with an overdue satirical bit on the Acknowledgment of Country. Deadly.
Daniel Connell’s Gutless Wonder show will be one of the hits of the festival. His laconic lens zoomed in on family reunions at airports and a simply stunning rant on what age people should stop kissing their mum on the lips (answer: 15). The line “circumnavigating the scone” will stay with me.
The musical numbers hit somewhat of a bung note. Simply, the crowd wasn’t given enough guffaw-time. Busy arrangements drowned out some of the best lines, not allowing us to laugh as one. One other quibble: we didn’t need to hear how happy each comic was to see us, in the words of Roxette’s greatest hits Don’t Bore Us – Get To The Chorus!
Thematically, ALDI, lockdown tedium and self-pleasure remain a rich source of comedy nutrition like last year (vale avocado jokes 2004-2020). As the clock ticked closer to 11pm than 10 we were treated to one more of Rhys’s pieces about a nurse who vaccinated him then inexplicably took some blood: “Nobody else I’ve spoken to had that done to them”.
And with that, Melbourne’s month-long mood-booster shot of comedy has begun.
The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs until April 24. The Age is a major media partner.
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