I'm still alive! And the MICF 2012 is a comin'!

Hello. It has been a long time between drinks (read: posts). Sorry, ok? Sorry!  I've had other things on, ok? Jeez. Take it easy. I'm back! You can stop crying into your pillow all night. And get ready for some massif lolz: Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2012 starts in LESS THAN ONE WEEK.


There's lots and lots to be excited about but it's late on a school night and I don't deal well with less than 7 hours sleep so I might just say one thing then go to bed because I have Project Management training to go to tomorrow which means I have to catch the train and I haven't got a ticket so have to get up extra early to go and get one. So. Here 'tis:


I saw Canadian-born, UK-based Pat Burtscher at Adelaide Fringe last week and he is fantastic, and his show wasn't even finished yet. This will be his first MICF trip. He seems generally concerned about the state of the world (in particular the fact that it is swarming with assholes and/or religion) and has a number of slowly delivered, sometimes wonderfully violent, solutions to offer you. He does this great thing where he closes his eyes a lot when he delivers his musings which made me think he was reading them from the back of his eyelids (see below). I liked that. I liked it all.

I am excited about many comedy things but I am more tired than excited and a Louis CK DVD is on in the living room and I can sense the delicious Malteaster treat sitting in the fridge for me. This is what I've been doing instead of blogging. Judge away.


Before I go I would like to thank Al's Music Rant for reminding me that I like to do this thing by inviting me to a thing on facebook. Thanks Al. I look forward to seeing your show.

Archibald Wheeler Whets His Whistle

Patrick Miller* of Vigilantelope fame (is fame the wrong word here? Whatever, they won a Golden Gibbo so that's a thing, right? Update: LIES! I lied to you! Sorry. The were nominated, not winning, but nom is still pretty fantastic) has been left to his own devices. The result is...astonishing. 


It starts off accessible enough with geriatric Archie (Patrick does the best old guy end-of-sentence whistle ever) singing about his tiresome wife, Mavis. Then it keeps going. Patrick transforms from Archie to Archie's son, (then to) Archie's grandson, (and) Archie's son's best mate (but don't forgot) Archie's grandson's best mate etc. etc. etc. I'm tired (but also flippin' enthralled) just watching. 


A testament to Patrick's clearly marvellous brain, the narrative somehow traverses through Fred Hollow's brother's surgery then an industrial freezer with a yak (or maybe llama, I forget), to a farcical The Castle-esque court room sequence, and finally, like any good comedy show, to a hospital for a self-embrace. Patrick deserves that hug, he is clearly giving it his all up there. 


I think that if Patrick could've some how cloned himself and played all the characters (well, he already does play them all...you know what I mean, play them all at once kind of thing, like at the same time standing next to each other) then he would've made his director's** life more sleep-based and less awake-always-doing-comedy-things-based. But they get around this 'there only being one of Pat in the world' problem pretty smoothly. But maybe someone should give him a TV show and lots of money to make CGI versions of himself. Yes? Hello? Producer willing to take risks are you out there?


This show about one of my favourite topics of all time: intergenerational male relationships. As such I was not only laughing at the silly but also wishing to squash Archie's face with my bare hands. Oh! Also! He plays really rad songs and is totes talented on the piano and with singing and dancing even a bit too. 


Archie is playing at Trades Hall at 7pm until 10 April. 




* Just to clarify, it's not this guy or this guy but this guy that I'm talking about. 
** PLUG PLUG PLUG PLUG! His director is Al Newstead of Al's Music Rant.

Al’s Music Rant

Watching this show made me totally jelly of Al’s obviously impressive (and totally obsessive) musical knowledge. He just has it all. Up there. I imagine all the little chunks of his knowledge (music and otherwise) swimming around in his head and every now and then two of them crash into each other. Then suddenly he’s figured out who has stolen something from other artists to create every song in their repertoire, what the Pancake parlor has to do with music and how classic songs would sound if they were abused by some of today’s “artists”.

Al is just so darned likeable and his show is a living, breathing, repeatable example of what happens when you let people do what they love. This show could have so easily have been a snarky rant (it does have 'Rant' in the title, afterall). Instead Al blesses us with characters, song, dance and isn’t afraid of embarrassing himself (particularly evidenced by one moment in the show that is car-crash can’t look away amazing).  Even though Al and I clearly have very different taste in music (I’ll have you know I love Ke$ha, Al) I still loved his show and so did the guy up the back who emphatically agreed with all of Al's music nerd commentary.

Someone I was at this show with last night said afterwards “You know it’s a good show when you can’t pick out your favourite bit ‘cause there are too many”. Hear hear!

Al’s Music Rant is playing at Eurotrash Tue–Thur, Sat and Sun at 9pm until 10 April. 


Also here is Al's blog from whence the show came.