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There’s plenty to laugh about in our rolling collection of reviews covering comedy across this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival.
COMEDY
Stickybeak ★★★★★
Festival Hub, Trades Hall, Quilt room, until October 15
Sometimes all a show needs is minimal props (three tiny fences made of rusty corrugated iron, white picket timber and broken fake bricks and milk crates) plus a whole lot of talent.
Stickybeak runs until October 15.Credit: NickMickPics
Kimberley Twiner, Jessie Ngaio, Laura Trenerry and Patrick Dwyer are a bunch of clowns. Their physical comedy, at times, literally moves at snail’s pace. It invites us to take a stickybeak at an assortment of characters – human and animal – that live beyond those fences.
Delightful buffoonery ensues as a delectable, steady stream of zany yet relatable skits and interactions unravel. The over-arching thread allows us to eavesdrop on a neighbourhood. You could find yourself doubled-over – with laughter – as dogs bounce about doing their business, cats beg and purr for attention, teens flirt and adults peep into each other’s lives. Stand-out scenes include a spine-chilling toddler tantrum and a perfectly annoying fly.
Stickybeak is brilliantly paced and it’s a rollicking, silly, well-played, joyous ride.
Reviewed by Donna Demaio
COMEDY
STUD | Aiden Willcox ★★★
Melbourne Town Hall, until October 8
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to date an AFL player from the ’90s, STUD plays the part of a stage simulation run amok.
Winner of Best Comedy at Melbourne Fringe in 2022, and taking out the gong for Best Newcomer at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, in his latest hour Aiden Willcox crafts a psyche that is repugnantly boorish – honing in on a myriad of alpha-male, hyper-masculine stereotypes.
STUD runs until October 8.Credit: Belinda Anderson-Hunt
Pacing the stage with a Johnny Bravo bravado, Willcox attempts to serenade and seduce the crowd through song and sketch. It’s enjoyable character comedy – but nothing that hasn’t been mastered before (think Zoë Coombs Marr’s all-conquering Dave). The toilet humour, as well, overstays its welcome and becomes wince-inducing.
STUD is akin to a one-night-stand in your 20s with the titular character: fine enough, but nothing you’d tell your mother about.
Reviewed by Tyson Wray
COMEDY
Leave to Enter | Nick Robertson ★★★
Festival Hub, Trades Hall, Evatt Room, until October 8
Nick Robertson wants to get something off his chest – so, he’s written his first show. After charmingly professing that “there’s a magic in storytelling,” he relays a 45-minute tale of adventure and mishap.
Robertson mainly mines a singular experience – being deported from Scotland – to find the funny.
As the story unfolds, the laughs come with repeated mentions of “the best film of all time”, his mother and his favourite free-to-play tile-matching online video game.
Leave to Enter runs until October 8.
Robertson’s likeable demeanour adds a little shine to the story. He quickly recovers each time there’s a slight fumble or minor stumble.
A Backstreet Boys soundtrack laces the honest account with nostalgia, while the use of a screen and basic graphics is entertaining and effective.
So, what is the best film of all time according to Robertson? Well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise
Reviewed by Donna Demaio
COMEDY
Death Metal Boomer | Dan Brader ★★
Caz Reitop’s Dirty Secrets, until October 8
The show begins nearly half an hour later than scheduled due to another performance running overtime in the venue. Sure, I think, it’s like a punk or metal gig, where runtimes are usually slightly off. But when Death Metal Boomer eventually begins, Dan Brader immediately launches into improv.
Death Metal Boomer runs until October 8.
It takes a while of audience banter to enter the show proper, not long after a loud Canadian guy and his friends egg Brader on to do a shoey after finding out he’s from New Zealand. He obliges, then proceeds to perform the entire gig shoeless.
The show itself is unmemorable, with many self-deprecating “gee whiz I’m Kiwi” piss takes alongside some quite misogynistic jokes. This could very well be the titular “death metal boomer” personified, but because Brader never contextualises this he really could be any questionable white guy. Even so, why don’t we leave those relics to fade into obscurity? As he repeatedly reminds the audience, he’s 40 years old. The death metal scene now is—if one bothers to observe—much more progressive. It’s 2023: punch up, not down.
Reviewed by Cher Tan
COMEDY
Eulogiser Bunny | Cameron Ribbons ★
Trades Hall, until October 8
This is probably the kind of comedy gig you need to be drunk to appreciate. I certainly wished I’d socked down a few. The premise is intriguing enough. Comedian Cameron Ribbons hosts his own funeral in the guise of a dodgy pastor. The promise of a murder mystery hovers in the air, and the audience is invited to guess the culprit as details of the artist’s demise are revealed.
Eulogiser Bunny runs until October 8.
Unfortunately, the murder mystery is a MacGuffin. Eulogiser Bunny is basically a stand-up show and, well, if you enjoy dad humour and terrible puns, go for your life.
Audible groans. Barbecue-stoppers. Several jokes so lame the mind immediately repressed them. I do recall an ill-judged mention of the Voice referendum – in support of it obviously, but still, why risk depressing the audience at a comedy show? As for a pronoun gag? Ha. Your funeral.
Perhaps it was opening night nerves: the filmed sections were funnier. The live stuff, though, was an evident strain even for the performer, and Ribbons got louder not better.
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead
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