Mar 09

FRINGE – Adelaide Comedy Debate – Arkaba – 2.5K

By Caroline Melia

Adelaide Comedy Debate: Can Comedy Save The World From The Apocalypse

The Comedy Debate format has been going for five years now, and the premise is a good one, two teams made up of four comedians battle out the debate topic and make everyone laugh in the process.

At nearly four hours long, it was perhaps a little drawn out, I don’t think it was really necessary to have the last summing up section, but it was an enjoyable evening.

The venue provided plenty of material for ARK jokes and both teams were enthusiastic and overall very funny in presenting there argument, even when one of the ‘against’ team admitted he had been preparing to argue for the other side. But the debate was never the point of the show. Much more of the focus seemed to go into taking the mickey out of each other’s shows. This was also very funny (though was a bit lost on me as I haven’t had the chance to see any of the panellists shows yet).

This did provide the opportunity to preview some of the comedians taking part in the festival and for that alone it was worth it. Felicity Ward (show: The Hedgehog Dilemma), Gordon Southern (show; A Brief History of History) and Rob Hunter (show The Late O’Clock Show) were particularly memorable performances.

The debate was eventually decided by a game of rock, paper, scissors the opposing team won, proving that though you can laugh at things, it will never stop them happing.

Kryztoff Rating  2.5K

Mar 09

FRINGE – Paul Foot – Still Life – Cinema Nova until March 18 – 4K

Paul Foot, we all know him as Robin Da Hood from that add in his red suit, the comedian from the UK. Stop, No let’s not call him a comedian, let’s describe him as a strange little guy who through his eccentric weirdness, who seems to have fits during his rants, who seems to be outright out of this world strangely weird, entertains crowds to the fullest.

In his first Adelaide Fringe appearance, thanks to the immigration departments mistake not reading the Adelaide City Councils request in time to not let him in, Paul is able to educate that there is a different level of comedy, which can only be presented by a few, such as Paul, who’s minds we will never understand, do we even understand all of his comedy?

And laughter after fits of laughter follow, starting with the off stage announcement,  followed by some more off stage announcement, a brief glimpse into Paul Foot’s performance. Before the show begins a great and lengthy planning session is held, in detail. Once the show begins, with ‘glimpses’, some rather disturbing, meeting Penny, beware, learning about Pierce Brosnan’s plan on running a cockerel sanctuary, pineapple’s prevail above guava, no none of it is the typical stand up comedy, but filled with plenty of ‘What the’ moments. Following the recap the crowd is very reluctant to leave.

Paul foot sure has a weird way of entertaining, but he is a most entertaining person to see.

Kryztoff Rating   4K

Mar 07

FRINGE: Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death – Comedy – The Science Exchange – 3.5K

There’s the old adage, “nothing is certain except death and taxes”. Timandra Harkness and Matt Parker have combined their talents (his maths, hers comedy) to explore the former and to look at the statistics that relate to our exits from this world.

Matt obviously loves all things maths, warming up the audience with a quick exercise that shows off his prowess. We then get into the main event. The first half of the show is predominantly taken up by a segment titled, “What Are the Odds?” in which figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics are utilised to look at the odds of dying from particular causes. While this may sound a tad depressing, it’s all very light-hearted and so ends up being a pleasant mix of enlightening and amusing. Following this, there’s the practical “five tips to help you not die in a plane crash”, a countdown to the death of the entire audience, an optimistic look at the health effects of alcohol and a rather cynical, but sadly accurate, analysis of the use of health statistics in the media.

Harkness and Parker work well together, projecting a nice combination of nerdiness and affability. The content is interesting, though with this type of show there’s always the worry that some of it might go over the heads of those with no knowledge of statistics, while other sections may be boringly simple for those who do. There seemed to be a good mix from both groups in the audience though and the enjoyment seemed to be widespread, so it appears that they have managed to get the balance right. A lot of the humour in this show is quietly amusing rather than laugh-out-loud funny and there are a few points where it falls a bit flat, but this is not a fatal flaw.

You don’t have to love statistics for this show to be entertaining, though it is likely to appeal most to those with at least a passing interest. So if you enjoy your comedy a little intellectual and don’t mind a graph or two, get along to the Science Exchange. Chances are, you’ll have a good time.

Kryztoff Rating: 3.5K

Mar 07

FRINGE – Deanne Smith – Livin’ the Sweet Life – Gluttony – 2.5K

2012 may well or should go down as the gay themed Fringe. Every second show (or is it even more prevalent than that) seems totally fixated on gay marriage, gay acts, gay anxiety and then gay marriage again. Do these performers really believe the whole universe can think of nothing else? (Apologies right now for those performers who are trying to deal with some of these issues in a helpful way.) Tonight it was Canadian comedienne Deanne Smith.

I first saw Smith at Feast two years ago and in the context of her audience that night her patter was explainable. But Smith is one of the better (potential) comics on the circuit with great stage charisma, delivery and wit with a brain to match. So why she sees it necessary at the Adelaide Fringe to seemingly play to the only crowd she thinks will come to her shows is, at this juncture, beyond me. Come on Deanne, sure you have to start somewhere and sustain a hard core of fans but have a go at reaching out beyond lesbian fantasies. (Tonight’s speciality was the intricacies of a bikini wax.)

With so much good stuff good stuff there about her 10 day meditation retreat, her nerdy love song and a very funny rant about how the making of cell phones should get every true blue tree hugger on the planet up in arms, fellow lesbians will rate this a 4 to 4.5 star hour.

The rest of us may just leave shaking our heads and wondering why those ten minutes needed to exist at all.

Kryztoff Rating (for rest of the worlders)    2.5K

Mar 07

FESTIVAL OF ARTS: School Dance- Theatre – 4K

A play aimed at teenagers exploring the social pecking order of high school through the experiences of three ‘losers’ at a school social would not usually send me running to the box office but School Dance has a lot more to offer.  Set in the 80s with many a cultural reference and filtered through the John Hughes rites of passage sensibilities, Windmill Theatre’s Festival offering provides nostalgia, laughs a plenty and some extraordinary dance moves!

The plot follows our geek hero Matt (writer Matthew Whittet) from the High School dance into the metaphorical land of the invisible and with the help of his athletically challenged friends, back again.  A slightly strange storyline unlikely to be found in a John Hughes classic but it is held together by wonderfully creative production, a great soundtrack and an engaging cast.  Amber McMahon gave a brilliant comic performance in all the female roles, Jonathon Oxlade and Luke Smiles also make very convincing teenagers.  School Dance deals with some real issues but thankfully the focus is on entertainment.  The play blends surreal moments, pitch-perfect 80s American cheese with a buddy story moral to great affect.

It is a brave aim to produce a play aimed at teenagers, an audience group notorious for being strangers to the theatre, but this production should attract any child of the 80s or fan of comedy theatre.  A real treat for Festival goers who have ever or are currently living the teenage experience.

Kryztoff Rating   4K

Mar 07

FRINGE – Mangina – Spare Room – Garden – 3.5K

It is not at all clear to this reviewer why Amanda Monroe’s Mangina has classified itself as a comedy act playing out in the Garden at 11pm when a more appropriate home would be in the other end of the Fringe Guide and the Rundle / Hindley Street divide at Higher Ground alongside say, The Ballad of the Unbeatable Hearts.

Mangina is the life tale of a man born desiring to be a woman and spending nearly 50 years trying to conform with the expectations of parents, friends and society generally before saying ‘stuff it’ and giving his heart over to her chemistry.

From initial influences like Hitchcock’s Psycho and a trip to a drag show in Kings Cross, the boy from Melbourne found unfortunate ways to make her world work – drug taking in extremis a part of the cocktail of self and public deceit.

With humour, poignancy and fun music, Monroe draws her audience into her story and the world of a trans-sexual. There is nothing pretty about it all, other than the perhaps belated triumph of having survived it and living happily to tell us the tale.

This is powerful stuff and, of course, on subject matter that many won’t wish to engage in (especially your ordinary Garden punters.) But this is the Fringe and experiments like an hour with Amanda are worth the effort. As suggested above, Mangina would serve excellently as a companion piece to Richard Fry’s The Ballad of the Unbeatable Hearts.

Anyone who is, was or who wonders about the plight of the ‘misfits’ of our society should take Mangina in. While the language used may lack depth, no one can deny its authenticity.

Kryztoff Rating   3.5K

Mar 07

FRINGE – Tony Roberts – The Gambler – The Cupola, Garden – 2.5k

By Julia Loipersberger

Tony Roberts, entirely against his will, became a victim of putting on his premiere show for the 2012 season at 10.45pm in the Garden of Unearthly Delights. The number of hecklers who had had more than enough to drink and then ploughed on anyway was very disruptive – and to the man in the white shirt who just couldn’t let go of the fact that Tony is from New Zealand, you’re not as funny as you think you are. Or funny at all, really. The show was also obviously set up for a small gathering of audience members, and (thrilled as he was) it was clear that Tony hadn’t anticipated selling The Cupola to full capacity, meaning that only audience members in the first two rows had a proper view of the card table set up at the front of the room and everybody else had to stand for the duration of the performance.  These issues became the backdrop to a stilted and unpolished performance.

Performed in a conversational style, Tony Roberts takes his audience on a rundown of his philosophies on gambling, the pokies and stories of his background and road to becoming a professional ‘gambler’. Tony exudes a real confessional warmth when speaking about his life, but his show suffers from forced attempts at jokes, which detracts from the genuine humour in most of what he has to say and at times derails his act into a stand-up ‘boom boom’ style show.

But that is not what we are here to see. Tony Roberts is a card trickster, and despite the many other failings of his performance this is what we got. I have no idea how he performs the tricks he does, and I won’t ruin them for those who might have some inkling by describing them in detail. Suffice to say, Tony Roberts may not be quite the comedian he tries to be but he certainly fits the bill as an amazing card magician.

‘The Gambler’ isn’t the best show you will see at the Fringe, and needs some work to improve the continuity of the show and avoid some of the lengthy pauses while Tony sets up his next trick. However, it’s impossible to deny that Tony is phenomenal at what he does, and he is worth going to see just to allow yourself to be wowed by the most humble of magicians – the card trickster.

Kryztoff Rating   2.5K

Mar 07

FRINGE – The Beast – Stuart Bowden – Tuxedo Cat – 3K

By Julia Loipersberger

The Fringe venue, Tuxedo Cat, has shifted this year, from derelict old premises on King William Street to an enormous – and no less derelict – location on North Terrace. The abandoned underground carparks with wires coming out of the ceiling, the maze leading to the toilets and the general impossibility of finding the individual performance rooms all lent themselves towards the feeling that we were, in fact, in the innards of a spooky yet somehow comforting suburban cave.

As it turns out, this is exactly what the incredibly excitable Stuart Bowden wanted us to feel. In the very intimate setting of Tuxedo Cat’s ‘The Blue Room’, he welcomed guests while strumming on a ukulele and whistling a quiet ditty to himself.

Stuart then kicked off his story about a beast who lives on the outskirts of town called Winslow.  He weaved his story partly through spoken word and partly through comedic and sweet songs of love and yearning, in the style of indie band ‘The Moldy Peaches’ (best known for their songs in the movie ‘Juno’). Stuart promises that Winslow will dive into our hearts , where he will lie nestled and grow old and ugly with us, and as ‘The Beast’ progresses I do find myself wanting to make room for the misunderstood creature on the outskirts of town.

Frustratingly, the rhythm of the show is poor – Stuart gently unwraps Winslow’s story with the audience, taking time over details and little anecdotes, but suddenly unravels everything by ending the story rapidly and without doing justice to the lengthy build-up. This was disappointing and jarring.

This was also a preview show – as Stuart continually and abashedly pointed out – which meant that various kinks needed ironing out, including his occasional memory lapses. Moreover, at times it really felt like Stuart’s story of the monster with a predilection for floral dresses and cowgirl bikinis was more of a story whispered to a five year old who couldn’t sleep through a storm rather than a performance to a paying audience – although this gave it some of its charm.

Nonetheless – it was impossible not to come along on Stuart’s ride. He obviously delights in his ability to share his story with the audience, and is incredibly likeable. I’m excited to see what more polished performances in future years might bring from this performer.

And so, for all of its flaws, ‘The Beast’ is a beautiful, touching story presented competently and making for a wonderful foray into the Fringe. For those of you who enjoy quirky performances which are unique, this is the show to see.

Kryztoff Rating   3K

Mar 07

FESTIVAL – Instructions for an Imaginary Man – Adelaide Gaol – 3.5K

I had not been inside the cell area of the Adelaide Gaol before last night and it is an arresting thought that until relatively recently any human being was made to wait out time in such a place. It is even more disturbing when such victims are wrongly incarcerated because of their beliefs and it is for those poor souls that Instructions for an Imaginary Man has been created.

As the lights dimmed, the audience was made to wait it seemed an indeterminable period of time before anything happened before them. Combined with the makeshift furniture of gaol benches and old matrasses laid out on the floor on which patrons had make do for comfort, the claustrophobia and anxiety arising in this period were palpable and very much set the scene for the next hour.

Instructions is poetry composed by prisoners of conscience from across the globe put to music by Richard Chew, sung from the rear of the stage area by Nigel Cliffe (Baritone) and Cheryl Pickering (Mezzo Soprano) and separated from actor, Graeme Rose, by a six piece ensemble (the composer on piano.)

Rose worked his cell area excellently conveying the boredom and despair of such deprivations and the obsessions with what would seem to those not in that predicament mundane matters like a solitary uncovered light globe and a peep hole.

Between the actor and his audience was a transparent curtain that acted not only a barrier to a closer connection to this isolated soul but also as a screen for various video pieces.

As immersive as the whole theatrical performance was, it also had its drawbacks. Operatic performance, such as this effectively was, often makes it hard to pick up what is being sung and thus the connection between sound and sight was often hard to make, diminishing the result. (Sure, we had the words in our hands but not the light to read them in situ.) The emotive lighting of the singers high above the other performers made for eeriness but some parallel treatment in the seating / lying area would also have been a boon.

Theatre that truly removes you from one’s comfortable world and places you in that of the production is rare and this aspect was a triumph. However, more attention to the needs of the audience (as highlighted above) may have helped round out a most emotive experience in a production that is most worthy of our Festival.

Mar 06

FRINGE: One Flesh – Theatre – Town Hall – 3K

A young couple enter a hotel room, fling off their shoes and jump into bed. It is a week until their wedding and they are in love. You may think you know where this is going. You’d be wrong. What ensues is not an hour of lascivious carnal knowledge but rather an exploration of love, boundaries, faith and the choices people make in relation to these issues.

The performances of the three actors, Bella Macdiarmid (Ash), Nick Masters (Russ) and Gemma Soul (Esther), are solid, though not overly moving. Macdiarmid shows some good evolution in a role that seems defensive for the majority of the time; Soul is sweet, though perhaps a little too subdued; while Masters presents a peculiar blend of arrogance and naivety. The result of this combination is that, while the story and characters are interesting, it is difficult to feel any strong emotional investment in them or the piece.

The Prince Alfred Room at the Town Hall is turned into the hotel room for this show and the space is well utilised in this way, allowing the audience to be up close to the action. Despite the close proximity and the naturalistic feel of the play, the actors do still need to watch their projection though, with some lines lost at times. Site-lines can also be a problem with the in-the-round nature of the staging and the fact that much of the action takes place lying down, meaning that certain members of the audience will inevitably miss some of the actors’ expressions at times.

With the portrayal of the younger generations in the media tending to focus on those getting into trouble, drinking and being promiscuous, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are swathes of young adults making very different life choices. To see these people represented on-stage is even rarer. This is an original and insightful play from Micharne Cloughley.

Kryztoff rating: 3K