I declared myself a nerd when I was only young, discovering the wonders of sci-fi, the exhilarating breathlessness of awesome adventures, but also the heartbreak of discrimination within nerd culture. So when I heard about a one woman show focusing on the feminist fight of us nerds, of course I was interested. Feminerd: The Cabaret,…
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As part of the Sydney Comedy Festival, I was privileged to catch Canadian-American comedy act DeAnne Smith for her one-off Sydney show, Get Into It, on Thursday night. It’s a shame that she’s already come and gone from Sydney, considering she clearly belongs here. DeAnne is a lesbian and let the audience know this from…
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Luisa Omielan, hailing from the UK, has brought her stand-up show, What Would Beyoncé Do? to Australia. Starting at the Adelaide Fringe, then Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and now in Sydney from the 22nd April until the 26th, the show is critically acclaimed. If you’re after an upbeat evening and are looking for the answers to…
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Rose Callaghan and her mates Kelly Fastuca and Will Sylvince took to the stage at Hugs and Kisses nightclub to deliver some choice anecdotes about dating, fame, living the creative life and ‘rooting.’ Hugs and Kisses is a mysterious venue. Even by Melbourne standards of laneway obscurity, Hugs and Kisses is tricky to find. A…
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Lady Sings It Better is an impressive cabaret group of four women, who are performing in Melbourne as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, that deliver a clever mix of musical talent and entertainment, with underlying feminist themes and hard-hitting pop culture critiques. The ladies, Maeve Marsden, Libby Wood, Annaliese Szota, and Fiona Pearson,…
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Can feminists be funny? Of course. Feminism is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. That’s the dictionary definition. Here is a list of awesome people who are two of my favourite things: advocates of gender equality and who are fucking funny. Oh, and they’re not afraid to drop…
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The award-winning duo Sparrow-Folk is performing their new show SuBIRDia at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Sydney Comedy Festival, and the Wagga Wagga Comedy festival. The pair began their career in musical comedy under a Hills hoist, in true Aussie style. I caught up with them in the lead-up to their Melbourne debut and…
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My current thesis was once described by a kindly reviewer as like ‘watching somebody psycho-analysing themselves,’ and I would call that a pretty accurate observation of my mode of research. It is an intense picking apart of ‘me-ness,’ that is the well-trodden reflexive testing ground of the mentally askew. My research considers ways that trauma…
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Showing from 27 May – 8 June at the Loft Theatre in Melbourne, Lulu McClatchy’s Supergirly: Return of the Pop Princess is a balance of crude potty mouth, raw Aussie humour and some pretty spot on observations about the popular music industry. Supergirly tells the tale of Lulu McClatchy’s alter ego, Supergirly; an…
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Just as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival departs, the cool change has come over and suddenly everything is looking a little greyer and a whole lot less funny. Luckily for me, I was able to assuage the post-MICF blues and catch the last performance of the MICF incarnation of That Sexy Show. Taking on…
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In town for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF), UK comedian Shappi Khorsandi delighted her audience with funny, insightful and poignant tales derived from her own life experiences. Stepping into the curtained Mini Main Town Hall to see Khorsandi ply her trade initially felt intimidating, but after doing her own off-stage introduction and entering dressed in…
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“We’re all a bit confused about stuff right now. Like who pays for dinner on the first date? Do I walk first through doors so you can check out my arse? Does the treatment of our first female PM indicate a chunk of people in Australia are actually mental? More importantly, does a short…
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Welcome to the magical land where everyone lives after the fairy tale’s over. Jack’s done a few too many lines, Rapunzel’s expecting her tenth and Cinderella’s found out that The Prince bats for the other team and is more interested in her arse than her slippers of glass. It’s like Shrek rewritten by Alan…
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‘What is comedy? What is a joke? What is rape?’ asks Adrienne Truscott. The American comedian informs us several times in between swigs of canned gin and tonic, that she ‘is new to this’ (stand up) but she knows the rules; black people can joke about black people and Jews can joke about Jews….
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