Comedy Festival Wrap-Up

The Comedy Festival has come and gone for another year and for yet another April I've found myself swearing more frequently than usual. The anecdotal evidence is that the festival was a huge success: plenty of shows were selling out (including a healthy bunch of locals), long queues were sighted all around the Town Hall, and Trades Hall has made a welcome comeback to the Festival scene.

Though some might have devoted themselves to the 20-hour Comedy Lock-In, I was more than content with cracking the dozen (see right) and seeing some quality shows in the process. Working as a reviewer for the second year has been a great opportunity to study the art as well as the humour. When a comic gets up for their 50 minute set, there's a hell of a lot going on that's not immediately obvious. Keep an eye out for it.

The Festival awards were given out last Saturday, with the results available here, although strangely the Barry Award has been left out - it went to Demitri Martin.

But for those who just can't get enough competitive comedy, here are my festival top five, in rank order. I guess that makes these the Second Annual Ariontheweb Ill-Informed Comedy Punter Award:


1. Damian Callinan in Spaznuts. Callinan's show was a comedic and artistic tour-de-force. Cleverly written, brilliantly performed, infertility has never been funnier.

2. Wolfe Bowarte in LaLaLuna. A clever visual show with enough dreamy hyperreality to scare the kids.

3. Mark Watson: 50 Years Before Death and the Awful Prospect of Eternity. A deceptively simple show from an unassuming Welshman who will no doubt go on to big things.

4. Tim Minchin. A supurb musical comedian doing what he does best. Bad taste lyrics, brilliant musicianship, and a sense of style that leaves you gasping for more.

5. Sam Simmons in Tales from the Erotic Cat. Not brilliantly funny, but a perfomer who is prepared to take risks and try new things. Can generate laughs just by looking at him.

Anyone else care to share their favourites?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Mark Watson's actually from Bristol - the accent's a bit of an affectation...
12 May 2006 at 08:16
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thanks for all the fish

After 13 years with Blogspot, I've shifted blogging platform. So (drumroll, please), you can find my new blog here . Ari on the Web will stay online, so you can scroll through the archives for all sorts of embarrassing tidbits. To make it easier to find some of my writing on particular themes, I've grouped some pieces together under a few labels: Cancer Fatherhood Indonesia travels North Korea travels United States travels Undergraduate days   So as they say here in my new home of Japan, so long, and thanks for the all the fish.
Read more

Welcome to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

North Korea is a place that is shrouded in mystery and conjecture, much of it of its own creation. For so long it has chosen to close itself off from the rest of the world that little information flows in or out of the place. In the absense of hard facts, rumour and speculation run rife. I plead guilty as one who has engaged in plenty of rumour-mongering in the past (and, let's be honest, will probably try my hand at it in the future), but to really come to grips with the place it is necessary to see it first hand. Much of the speculation is not meant in a harsh, negative way - although there are elements of that - but is instead meant in the same way that people watch the bearded lady at the circus. Curious, but not necessarily critical. Perhaps they could but those on the number plates - DPRK: The Bearded Lady of Asia. Since there are so few who have seen the place but so many who speculate, I think it is worth publishing a few thoughts after my trip. It's important
Read more

Can conspicuous consumption save the news business?

Image
It’s a dire time for the news industry. Readers are flooding to social media for content, advertisers are moving with them and costs are being cut at a brutal rate in a desperate bid to meet falling revenue. It is increasingly clear that business models that depend on amassing large audiences in order to provide a forum for advertising will always struggle against the “niche of one” audience that social media platforms can provide for advertisers. There’s been lots of talk lately about ways to fund public interest journalism. One idea is to tax the online aggregators – Facebook and Google, primarily – that sell advertising against the news content of others to support news organisations. Another is to make news subscriptions or donations to its producers tax deductible.  Both ideas are worth considering, but they do not abrogate the need for news organisations to seek better ways to draw revenue from consumers.  (It is alarming that discussion of efforts to build a
Read more