Published on RHUM.org.au April 2010
It’s a brave comedian that takes on two full shows in the one comedy festival, but late at night, in a tiny room at Trades Hall, Lou Sanz and Claire Hooper do just that. I’m here to report that The Sandz and Hopper Show is a slice of fried gold.
Under a shaggy haircut Lou Sanz looks like Breakfast Club-era Ally Sheedy, shooting a perpetual death stare at no one in particular. Claire Hooper, on the other hand, is upbeat: frothy and bubbly like the milk for a babyccino. It quickly becomes apparent that this sharp contrast in disposition is because Hooper is inherently evil, treating the writing of the show as an avenue for making Sanz her unwilling sexual plaything. Continue reading ‘RHUM loves The Sandz and Hopper Show @ MICF 2010′
Posted in Comedy, RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au April 2010
It’s a shame that Stand Up and Be Counted: Knows No Boundaries was a one-night-only affair, because it was a ripper. Over two hours (and a bit), six female comedians brought the house down.
First up Melinda Buttle gave us a cracking impersonation of her ex-Navy Dad’s encounter with a beggar in Bourke Street. This was unfortunately cut a bit short when she had to scuttle off to her solo gig.
Stella Young is an absolute gem. A person of short stature with much to say about disability, be warned that she does make liberal use of the c-word – cripple. At 88cm tall she’s a tiny package but one that was chock full of sass as she riffed on public transport, the annoyingness of kites and being patted on the head by condescending “normal people”. “I’ve realised that ’special’ is a code word for ’shit’,” she told us, and if that’s her definition of the word then I say she is anything but. Continue reading ‘RHUM loves Stand Up & Be Counted: Knows No Boundaries @ MICF 2010′
Posted in Comedy, RHUM and Reviews.
Published on The Pun, 12 April 2010
American business guru Tom Peters says that the secret to success is to ‘under promise and over deliver’. Funny Irishman and tiny Yamaha keyboard guru David O’Doherty appears to subscribe to this advice.
His first song for the evening instructs the audience to ‘please lower your expectations’. Then he tells us how bad he is at telling jokes. Then he laments that every review he has ever received has essentially said, ‘It’s good, I suppose. If you’re into that sort of thing.’ And then he over delivers. Continue reading ‘David O’Doherty – David O’Doh-Party’
Posted in Comedy, Reviews and The Pun.
Published on The Pun, 30 March 2010
When it comes to self-deprecating humour, Felicity Ward can deprecate with the best of them. Her performance at last year’s MICF, Felicity Ward’s Ugly as a Child Variety Show, contained a liberal sprinkling of anecdotes about her idiotic misadventures. This year she cracks open the Book of Moron, a hefty tome she has penned full of stories of her own stupidity.
Wearing a blazer and cravat and clutching a pipe to her mouth, Felicity sits in a comfy armchair and reads aloud from her book. Across the way onstage, fellow Ronnie Johns Half Hour/3rd Degree member James Pender accompanies her on guitar, dressed as a dog. Continue reading ‘Felicity Ward Reads From the Book of Moron’
Posted in Comedy, Reviews and The Pun.
Published on The Pun, 29 March 2010
The unofficial title of Reginald D. Hunter’s show is Trophy Nigga, owing to the media’s habit of booking him for commentary only when race-related issues are in the news. His response to such requests is to insist that he be introduced as ‘Reginald – King of the Blacks!’, which tends to be a dealbreaker.
He has a reputation for controversy and an obvious, deep-seated belief that everyone should get their thoughts, no matter how unpopular, out in the open. A recent profile in The Age said that he has been labelled a misogynist by some thanks to his ‘referring to rape in a punchline’. Actually, in this show he jokes about rape no less than four times. The profile paraphrases him as saying that anyone seeing a comedy show might assume that the performer is joking. You might also assume that in a room with more than, say, ten women in it, at least one will have experienced sexual assault. Continue reading ‘Reginald D. Hunter’
Posted in Comedy, Reviews and The Pun.
Published on The Pun, 29 March 2010
Born in Egypt, brought up in Sydney and banned in Rockhampton, Akmal Saleh’s stand-up show It’s Not My Fault is based on extracts from his recently-published memoir, The Life of Akmal. Musings on being raised in the Coptic Orthodox Church, battling through ‘special English’ class as a new Australian, and the early days of his comedy career give us a CliffsNotes version of the book.
Akmal calls it like he sees it – and then ducks. His quip that ‘the Lebs took the credit for inventing felafel, and they also took my car stereo’ is followed quickly by, ‘It’s a joke, relax!’ No comment is out of bounds but he delivers his offensive japes in such a gentle, unassuming manner that this reviewer rather wanted to give him a cuddle. Continue reading ‘Akmal – It’s Not My Fault’
Posted in Comedy, Reviews and The Pun.
Published in frankie 34 (March/April 2010)
Motorbikes: Simone Tops
While glass artist Simone Tops remembers always being obsessed with motorbikes, she only got her licence a few years ago. “It’s like one of those childhood dreams you have that might take you a while to achieve as an adult,” she says. “You realise that you’re not a child anymore – you’re an adult and you get to do anything you want. All the people who told you that you couldn’t, or that it’s dangerous, aren’t there any more. You can just do it.”
Perhaps it was only a matter of time before a motorbike theme emerged in her artwork. Recent pieces exploring engine blueprints – “motorbikes, jet engines and other crazy old diesel engines, early cars and stuff like that” – helped lead Simone to her latest project: replicating a Yamaha DT360 in glass, part by part. “I guess that’s something that tends to happen when you’re obsessed with something for so long,” she says. “It kind of encroaches on other parts of your life.” Continue reading ‘I’m obsessed with…’
Posted in Interview profiles and frankie.
Published in frankie 33 (January/February 2010)
Marie-Christin Grosse-Venhaus: unicycle
German high school exchange student Marie-Christin Grosse-Venhaus met her Canberran host father in 2008 in Denmark at UNICON, the world unicycling championships. Marie already knew she would be spending a year in Australia, so they kept in touch. “Then a day before Christmas I got an email from him saying they had decided to be my host family,” she says. “It was perfect.”
Marie first tried unicycling when she was seven. “I lived in a really small town, more like a village, and our trainer lived next-door,” she says. “Every kid did unicycling.” She gave it up when she changed primary schools, but took it up again in Year 6 after some friends showed an interest in the sport.
In April Marie’s host-dad took her to Wollongong for UniNats, the Australian national unicycle championships. “I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to take part because I’m not Australian,” she says. “But they were really happy to have me here. I met so many nice people.”
It’s a good thing the Aussies were so welcoming, because Marie went on to take first place in 16 events. “I wasn’t bad in Germany,” she says, “almost top 20. I’d looked at some times from other UniNats and thought, maybe I’d be really good, but I didn’t expect to win all the disciplines.” Continue reading ‘You’re the best!’
Posted in Interview profiles and frankie.
As told to Chloe Walker, published in frankie 33 (January/February 2010)
I’ve always known I was adopted. I’ve never felt resentful about it; unconditional love has been around me from day dot. But I’ve always known there was a possibility of people being out there. There’s always been a desire to meet up with my birth parents, to have a sense of exactly where I came from.
About 10 years ago I started looking for my birth parents. I was about to get married and start my own family, and I guess I felt it was time to find some initial information about that question mark. Continue reading ‘Everybody has a story: Matthew Ho, 32′
Posted in Interview profiles and frankie.
Published in frankie 31 (September/October 2009)
For a couple with a vineyard, two wine labels and two oenology PhDs between them, Col McBryde and Jen Gardner sure talk a lot about beer. The idea for their wine company, Some Young Punks, was conceived over a few brewskis with their business partner, Nic Bourke. So was the concept for the Label’s pulp-fiction aesthetic. “You throw enough beers and the three of us in the mix and there’s all kinds of talk,” Col says.
The company is based at Col and Jen’s vineyard in Clare, South Australia. It was here that they founded their first wine label, Adelina, which serves the higher end of the market. After finding themselves with “some cabernets that weren’t going to make the grade”, Nic and Col decided to start a side project rather than sell on the fruit. “We always thought it would stay fairly small and we’d make volumes that we could drink within a year if it all went pear-shaped. We’d be dead by now if that was the case,” Col laughs.
Continue reading ‘Some Young Punks’
Posted in Interview profiles, Lifestyle and frankie.
Published on RHUM.org.au April 2010