Sarah Blasko- Eternal Return Tour

Sarah Blasko's latest album Eternal Return is a bit of a departure from her previous albums with its more electronic feel and songs about love. Onagh and I were looking forward to seeing her bring these tracks to life at tonight's show at The Forum. We arrived as the second act Jack Colwell and his band were on the stage. While obviously talented, his performance was a bit over the top at times, and included a dramatic cover of Divinyls' "I Touch Myself."

Sarah Blasko and her band were all dressed in black as they took to the stage and started the evening with "I Am Ready." The first half of the set was songs from her new album, with highlights being "Better With You," "I'd Be Lost," "Say What You Want" and "Maybe This Time." Sarah was in a good mood and she danced around the stage throughout the night (attributing this to the fact she was wearing tap shoes). It was nice to hear some older songs, including "Always Worth It" from her first album The Overture And The Underscore, "All I Want," "We Won't Run" and "No Turning Back" from As Day Follows Night, and I Awake's "Cast The Net" and "Here," which was played in an acoustic style at the front of the stage and had the venue listening silently.  

For an encore Sarah honored the recent passing of Prince with a cover of Martika's "Love... Thy Will Be Done" (written by Martika and Prince) while bathed in purple light. She then played "I Wanna Be Your Man" and the fabulous "Luxurious" before finishing the night with "I Awake." It was another fantastic show by Sarah, and great to see her so happy in her life.

Here's the video for "I Wanna Be Your Man"

Where To Invade Next

I am a long time fan of Michael Moore, so was excited to get the chance to see his latest film Where To Invade Next when it opened here in theaters. In this film Moore "invades" different countries not to claim them for America, but to bring back their great ideas. This included things such as paid annual leave from Italy, healthy school meals from France, high performing schools from Finland, free university education from Slovenia, the rehabilitation of prisoners as in Norway, decriminalisation of drugs from Portugal, women's rights as in Tunisia, educating children about the horrors of the past as in Germany, and the prosecution of bankers that caused the GFC as done in Iceland.

As Moore learns about these great ideas it is pointed out that many of them first originated in America. While the United States has lost its way over time, affordable healthcare and the legalisation of gay marriage have happened in the last few years. In addition, presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders is bringing many of these ideas to the fore as part of his political revolution to take back the country from the establishment.

For me, many of these ideas are not as far fetched living in Australia. We have universal healthcare and I have four weeks of paid annual leave each year with my job (plus three months long service leave after 10 years). Women have paid maternity leave, and many of my colleagues usually take a year off work to care for their baby. While higher education may not be free, the Commonwealth's loan program means you don't have to pay fees up front and only begin paying back the loan as a percentage of your income when you start earning over $54,000. There are some ideas from the film that would be useful though, particularly confronting the country's treatment of its first peoples and the continuing racism that is a result of White Australia policy in the past.

MICF- Celia Pacquola and Velvet

I've been to a lot of shows over the course of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and the past two evenings have been my final ones for this year. On Monday night I went to see Celia Pacquola in The Looking Glass at the Comedy Theatre. Celia is a veteran of MICF and has branched out into acting with the comedy Utopia and drama The Beautiful Lie on the ABC. However, she joked that if someone as messed up as her can have that kind of success, imagine what a person with their life together could do. Celia's show mainly covered her being a single woman, love for beer, visits to a cat cafe, and a hilarious hate read of a passage from Miranda Kerr's book "Treasure Yourself." The ending was a very funny throwback to a story from the start of the show.

Tonight I headed down to the Malthouse Theatre for the disco cabaret show Velvet. The room was pumping from the start with DJ Joe Accaria playing music to get people in the mood. The show is set in a Studio 54-esque nightclub as a young conservatively dressed man (Brendan Maclean) wanders in and is intrigued by who he encounters. The cast is a hugely talented group that includes an acrobat, aerialist, hula boy, muscle man, two female backup singers and the legendary Marcia Hines.

Each member of the cast had their own moment to shine, with hula boy Craig Reid a real stand out. Marcia Hines nailed her vocals, but my favorite moment was Brendan Maclean's touching stripped back version of "Stayin' Alive" on ukulele. By the end of the show Maclean's character has transformed and is dancing around in a sequin jumpsuit with large feather collar. Velvet is a fantastic and entertaining show that will literally have you grooving even after it is finished - it's the only show I've ever been to where the audience stuck around to dance.

Andy Warhol - Ai Weiwei

It has taken a while but I finally managed to check out the Andy Warhol - Ai Weiwei exhibition this afternoon at the NGV. Covering both of their careers, the exhibition features over 300 works from these two contemporary artists in a wide variety of media including paintings, sculptures, photography and film.

While Warhol defined the twentieth century Pop Art movement in New York City, Weiwei builds on this legacy in the twenty-first century as he brings together the traditional with the modern. Both artists have similar themes running through their careers, including self-portraiture, the chronicling of daily life, their own artistic studios, flowers, and a love of cats. Weiwei's work is more political though, and as a social activist in China he continues to battle for human rights and freedom of expression.

Below are some of my favorite pieces from the exhibition, and how each artist has dealt with similar topics and themes in their work.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei tackling similar topics

Ai Weiwei

MICF- Sara Pascoe and Laura Davis

For tonight's MICF shows Onagh and I started at the Melbourne Town Hall to see Sara Pascoe in Animal. In this show Sara explores the theme of empathy and its limitations as she weaves through stories about hearing God over the loudspeaker of a grocery store, her love of mice, Tony Blair's bladder and a very different type of glass ceiling. Always intelligent, these stories tie together for a very funny conclusion.

Next we headed to ACMI to see Laura Davis in Marco. Polo. As we entered the room Laura was in a modest swimsuit sitting on top of a ladder blindfolded while a slightly deflated flamingo pool raft was on the floor in the corner. During the show Laura invited the crowd to join her in the pool, and being blindfolded she was reliant on that call back of "Polo" as she posed questions and interacted with the audience. She covered a range of topics from the handles of maple syrup bottles to questioning whether a potential rapist is more of a feminist than her because he assumed she could get his car to start. It was a thought provoking and unique show.

MICF- Tom Ballard, Gen Fricker and Andrew McClelland

It was a comedy packed Sunday as I started my afternoon at the Trades Hall for Tom Ballard's Boundless Plains To Share. In this show (he is also doing another one at MICF) Tom weaved through the stories of four different refugees seeking to come to Australia while utilising a slide show to focus on the history of Australia's immigration policy (which was just as horrifying in past as it is in the present). It was a high energy show as Tom raced through this history lesson, which also included some pre-planned questions for audience members to read out at certain points. I got chosen to read out the following question towards the end: "Why would you want them here when all they do is leech off our economy?" This was particularly funny considering my American accent. As this was also an Auslan interpreted show we got learn some very interesting sign language for certain things. Tom may not have had a final solution to this issue, but the show definitely left you thinking.

Next I headed to the Greek Centre for Gen Fricker's show Yeah? Yeah! Gen spent her 50 minutes discussing assorted stories from her life, such as her Maori heritage, battle with cystic acne and an experience with an incompetent dentist. The funniest story though was around her neighbor's horrible jam band, which she proceeded to discuss both on social media and at her job as a Triple J presenter, and how they ended up finding out about her real thoughts on their abilities. She finished her show by playing her version of a love song.

The final show of the evening was Andrew McClelland in We Really Must Do This Again Sometime at The Forum. Andrew was a tour de force as he sang, danced and joked his way through a very entertaining hour of comedy. Dressed in his usual dandy style, he talked about his issues with magicians, his girlfriend's obsession with The Sims, and how he used World War II dictators to motivate him while exercising. The show ended with an audience sing along that is an earworm that will get stuck in your head for the rest of the night.

MICF- Arj Barker

I crossed the Yarra River for tonight's Melbourne International Comedy Festival show at the Palais Theatre featuring fellow Marinite Arj Barker in Organic. We were treated to a surprise opening stand-up set by Australian comedian Joel Ozborn, who told jokes about playing for the 'troops,' tattoos, and the misappropriation of the Southern Cross by bogans.

Arj is in his 10th year at MICF with yet another brand new show. Since he spends so much time here a lot of the material related to Australia, including our ever evolving roster of PMs, Brisvegas, and the extensive list of Australian phrases with the word 'shit' in them. Ever the man child, Arj is now living with his girlfriend, which he joked has completed him by bringing out an angry side he didn't know existed. Part of this might be due to his girlfriend making them eat organic and gluten free. The show had some big laughs throughout, especially the bits around Uber and spoilers. Arj tied it all together at the end with the song "Organic," which was my favorite part of the show as it was a throw back to classic Arj.