Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival had it's humble beginnings back in 1987, when a small group of comedians who regularly performed at clubs such as The Last Laugh decided to get together and hold a special event in order to get more people to the clubs. It was an instant success - Peter Cook who was in town at the time became their guest of honor, and Barry Humphries made a special performance as Sir Les Patterson.

Now 14 years later, Melbourne still plays host to this "special event" which is now considered one of the world's top comedy festivals. Between the 29th March and 22nd April it played host to 1900 artists, performing in over 70 venues in 205 separate shows. And while only 37 out 205 were international, one could hardly deny that the British acts stood out from this years crowd. Comedians such as Dave Gorman, Ben N Arn and Chris Addison made their debut appearances at the festival this year, as well as previous favourites - The Boosh, Ross Noble, Jeff Green, Jenny Éclair, and Jerry Sadowitz who experienced sell-out shows.

During the festival, the city becomes a hive activity with banner flags, posters, flyers, and countless comedians lining the streets. The hub is the Town Hall, which boasts more than 9 rooms to perform in and plays host to most of the major events including the final of the Raw Comedy competition (Australia's answer to "So You Think You're Funny?"), Upfront - a special gala performance from the world's best female comedy acts, as well as countless other highlights.

Other important venues include the Trades Hall (another multi-room venue) in the north of the city, the Athenaeum, and the Hi-Fi Bar which is considered party central for the comedians, hosting the Festival Club with its late night stand-up appearances, karaoke/band sessions, awards nights and loads more frivolities.

It is perhaps the frivolities and the fun to be had including the festival club that make comedians fall in love with the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Adam Bloom said in a recent ComedyLive interview that Melbourne is like a working holiday, and "what makes Melbourne so special is the after-gig, everybody gets involved in this festival culture, everyone becomes a big family for a month. The buzz is from connecting with people who enjoy what you do, and you can't get a more wonderful feeling than that."

This opinion tends to be shared by the other overseas comics that journeyed to Melbourne this year for the festival. On any given night, one could expect to see the comics and fans mixing together at the Festival Club into the wee hours of the morning, drinking and socializing without the barriers of club passes nor the pressures of winning major awards such Perrier that are at the Edinburgh Fringe. For the comedians, it is a time to really get to know their fellow performers in a relaxed atmosphere. For the fans, it is a special moment to mingle and create lasting memories of these funny people that will keep them coming back to the shows year after year.

Another reason perhaps that comedians return every April to Melbourne is the audiences. Bloom also concurred that in comparison to Edinburgh, "Melbourne has got a tiny edge on it, because they treat comedy with the respect of a theatre audience but they laugh like a comedy club. When I did the Gala in 1999, and I looked out at a thousand faces beaming with me with intense appreciation of what I was doing, where every joke was treated as something special to behold and enjoy, I just thought "fuck!". It was just wonderful to play to audiences who listened, where there wasn't one stupid heckler or anyone talking over you. it was the perfect festival." And that is perhaps why comedians such as Dave Gorman and Chris Addison who experienced almost dream debuts this year at Melbourne, hope to return again next year and have declared it as one of their favourite places to have ever gigged.

However, not all acts had the same luck with audiences in Melbourne. Those that were promoted independently of the festival and performing outside the core venues of the Town Hall, Hi-Fi Bar and Athenaeum encountered huge problems with advertising and other media coverage. Up until the final week of the festival, the board outside the Town Hall listing a rundown of the evenings shows did not include the smaller fringe venues such as the Black Box, which was located a mere 3 blocks down from the hub of the festival. Just one of these acts affected heavily by this oversight was UK act Ben n Arn who performed their hit show Priorite A Gauche.

Arnold Widdowson of the duo stated during the festival "Susan Provan (festival director) has provan herself to be a thorn in my side. she's sponsoring these shows and it seems she's deliberately try to push any other shows to the periphery. My impression is that everything about this place is great apart from certain ways that the festival is run. If I was Susan Provan I'd be worried. It's not just us or Mary (Tobin, one of the independent festival producers) who runs the Black Box, but other venues as well. This is our message to them - sort all that crisis out before the comedians come over, because if it weren't for us there wouldn't be festival."

Yet more controversy occurred at the festival with the inclusion of Scott Capurro and Jerry Sadowitz in the 2001 line-up. In order to boost publicity for his show, Capurro appeared on a live late night variety show hosted by Melbourne based comic Rove McManus, simply titled Rove. During his 5 minute set he alluded to the image of Jesus on the cross being sexually stimulating, and snorting cocaine off the backs of 17 year old boys. For those who have seen his act before, they will realise that this is a regular component of Capurro's act, however producers at Rove claimed that they knew nothing of the shock value of his material. Scott Capurro claims that the producers however did have full knowledge of the material, and he was used as a publicity stunt in order to boost the shows flagging ratings.

Subsequently, the footage was pulled from the delayed broadcast of the show in Western Australia, one of the executive producers was sacked 3 days after it went to air and Rove McManus was quoted as saying that Capurro should be thrown out of the country.

A very similar media incident happened to Sadowitz, where the media in Melbourne went to town for his show's lewd material relating to child pornography. Talkback radio was up in arms with hundreds of callers ringing in to demand the performer cancel his remaining appearances. By press reports however, it appeared that a section of talkback listeners went one step further - members of a Child Protection Agency purchased almost 90% of the tickets to one of Sadowitz's shows, making it a sold out performance, then didn't turn up. Sadowitz then proceeded to perform to about 10 people in the audience, 2 of which were media plants put there by these members. It didn't take long for him to change the material covered in his show. One last stunt that brought attention to the overseas performers (but without the controversy) relates to the Barry Award, Melbourne's answer to the Perrier. The Barrys were named after the legendary Barry Humphries, and have been the official awards given by the Festival organisers for the past 5 years. The prize is $5000 Australian dollars and of course, a funny trophy. Traditionally this honour has been awarded to an Australian act, with the exception of the show Arctic Boosh who won in 2000 after managing to capture the attention of the press and public alike from day one of the festival. However many internationals have been nominated previously, such as Simon Munnery, Adam Bloom, and Ross Noble and the fact that the Barry appears to be consistently awarded to home-grown talent rather than what is more than likely the best show is a bitching point amongst many overseas performers.

2001 marked the second consecutive year that Ross Noble was nominated, along with acts - Dave Gorman, Rich Hall, and Aussie comics Lawrence Mooney, Damian Callinan and act Brian Munich and Friends. And it was reported at the time of the nominations being announced that Noble declared that if he or any other overseas act should win the Barry, they should go to the local casino and gamble the cash winnings. (Such is the state of the Australian dollar to the British pound and the American dollar, rendering the prize almost useless to any overseas act that should win it).

Not surprisingly, it was an Australian show that took the honour again - Brian Munich and Friends, who scooped not only the Barry Award for Best Show but also a Critics Award from major Melbourne newspaper and Festival sponsor The Age. For those who saw the show, it was indeed a highlight of the festival, the story of a demented TV show host and his unfortunate guests, likened to Simon Munnery in approach and weird-genius humour. Both awards appear to be well deserved, and in this case one could hardly doubt that Australia has acts of a world-class standard. Performers such as Sarah Kendall, Adam Hills, Pupperty of the Penis, and Lano and Woodley, all of which performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and will all be coming to stage near you soon.