Published in Treadlie Issue 1, December 2010
When Sydney bike gang the Feather Brigade held their first public event, HalloWheel, in October, co-founder Kathi Herricks wore a very fitting costume. ‘I went as a cult leader,’ she says, ‘which is kind of appropriate for the Feather Brigade because we’re trying to get people to join our little cult.’
Kathi and her housemate, Jai Saunders, started blogging as the Feather Brigade in June after rediscovering the joy of riding. Neither had hopped on a bike since childhood. ‘All of my memories were of being a kid and getting bruised and banged up shins from the pedals and almost riding into a river – my bike memories weren’t very happy memories,’ says Jai. But something about watching the Sydney cycleways develop inspired her to get back on a bike. Then she found Florence. Continue reading ‘Wanna be in my gang?’
Posted in Interview profiles and Treadlie.
Published on RHUM.org.au October 2010
Geraldine Quinn has been on my radar for the last few years as must-see local comedy talent. The postcard lying on the table in the Trades Hall New Ballroom supported this theory, boasting four-star reviews for Shut Up and Sing from six different Australian and British publications. And the feisty cabaret artist certainly met expectations in most areas: four-star voice (an absolute belter), four-star moves (daggy but deft), four-star attire (all spangly-dangly razzle-dazzle). Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: Geraldine Quinn – Shut Up and Sing’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au October 2010
The promo for Ugly Blue Flowers says, “It is not something that is understood. More felt.” Hopefully that lets me off the hook to at least some degree – I certainly didn’t understand this show. I can’t tell you what the point of it was, or even if there was a point at all. But I can tell you that I enjoyed it, and that it was very, very funny. Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: Ugly Blue Flowers’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au October 2010
A box of cornflakes once told me that the simple things in life are often the best. And so it is with Michael Connell, a comedian who does simple stand-up and delivers barrel-loads of easy, hearty belly laughs.
However in response to a country newspaper review describing Acting the Goat as ‘just some guy onstage telling jokes’, Connell has added a couple of extras. He does a few tricks, with juggling balls, a harmonica and his netbanking password, and injects an informative tone into the show with readings from Goat Farming – the English Way. Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: Michael Connell – Acting the Goat’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au October 2010
It’s a shame that Fan Tales was a one-off show – this afternoon of fan fiction readings was a little ripper. Hosted building-wise by queer bookshop Hares and Hyenas and person-wise by cheeky stand up comic Jules Wilkinson, Fan Tales served two purposes – a celebration of the form for all the fangirls and boys in the audience, and a kind of crash course for the muggles (those of us who aren’t part of the fan fiction community). Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: Fan Tales’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au September 2010
One of my pet hates is reviews that open with, ‘I had no idea what to expect when I arrived for blah blah blah blah blah.’ But I really, truly didn’t know what to expect when I walked up the stairs at the back of Errol’s Café to see The Future Sound of Mime. White pancake makeup? Stripey shirts and black braces? Walking against the wind? Trapped in a box?
What I did not expect was to unearth a treasure. Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: Future Sound of Mime’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au September 2010
Sometimes it’s tough being a fifty foot woman. The council’s always on your back about civic damage, dating is difficult and birthday parties just aren’t that much fun. But – it’s nothing a spot of hula hooping over breakfast can’t fix, right?
Big Shoes to Fill: An Expose of a 50 Ft. Woman is the first solo show by Anna ‘Pocket Rocket’ Lumb, a Melbourne-based circus artist who has earned her stripes as an aerialist, acrobat, trapeze artist and hula hooper in group shows all over the world. Big Shoes is a little bit circus and a little bit slapstick, featuring a tour of Australia’s famous big things and some hilarious dance routines complete with fringed leotard. Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: Big Shoes to Fill – An Expose of a 50 Ft. Woman’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Published on RHUM.org.au September 2010
After breaching her student visa, bewildered international student Shireen finds herself locked away in a detention centre. At first she expects a quick resolution to her dilemma but her hopes are dashed by her lawyer Huong, a Vietnamese-Australian woman who was once a refugee herself. Huong’s sense of optimism is being ground away by the horrors she deals with in the pro bono work that she feels compelled to do, but that also gives her nightmares. Con, another of Huong’s cases, considers himself Australian but is facing deportation to Greece, which he left as a baby. Then there is Ania, a strange, shoeless blonde woman invisible to everyone but Shireen. Continue reading ‘Melbourne Fringe Festival 2010: I Could Be You’
Posted in RHUM and Reviews.
Edited version published in Frankie 37 (September/October 2010)
‘A good kiss is a mutual kiss,’ says Philip Thiel. ‘A good kiss is shared equally between the two people. You don’t have to debrief to know when you’ve had a perfect kiss based on that criteria, because it’s quite evident.’ And he should know. The Melbourne blogger is kissing someone different every day this year, on the lips – sometimes friends, but more often strangers.
Philip has blogged his year-long projects since 2005, when he wrote a rhyming couplet every day. Since then he has spent a year giving flowers to people, another honouring Catholic saints, and a year exploring Paris by following strangers. Last year was all about lemons, with Philip conjuring up a new lemony activity every day. ‘I got totally sick of lemons,’ he says. ‘By September or October in any one year I’m utterly sick of whatever the thing is, but also stubborn in my endeavour to do a thing a day and not stop. The great freedom that I have in making the rules is matched by a kind of fascist attitude to the rules once they are made.’ Continue reading ‘Pucker up’
Posted in Interview profiles and frankie.
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 in Treadlie Issue 1, December 2010
