MICF- Nazeem Hussain and Helen Thorn

I began the evening for my final two shows of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival at ACMI to catch Nazeem Hussain's show Public Frenemy. Nazeem recently appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! so the first part of his show was about his experiences in the African jungle. As expected Nazeem discussed the current state of politics in both Australia and the US (using some of the material from Political Asylum last week). The most hilarious bit though was about when he worked at the Telstra Call Centre and the emails he sent to then CEO Sol Trujillo to try and get fired.

Next I headed up to The Tuxedo Cat on LaTrobe Street for my friend Helen Thorn's show Thorny Questions. Helen came out onto the stage in a black catsuit (not the gold lame one she normally wears as one half of the UK comedy duo the Scummy Mummies). In this solo show Helen discussed topics such as body image, the labels we put on ourselves, being in a long-term relationship, and her experiences with bullies during her teen years growing up in country Victoria. There were even a few "guest" appearances by some different characters, including Helen's mother-in-law. I found the show to be very funny, with some laugh out loud moments which may have been aided by knowing a few of the people being discussed in the show in real life.

Scummy Mummies Book Launch

Tonight I had the pleasure of heading to Readings in Carlton for the book launch of Scummy Mummies by Ellie Gibson and my friend Helen Thorn. Ellie and Helen are the comedy duo behind Scummy Mummies, the number one parenting podcast in the UK. Helen is out here with Will and the kids for a family holiday and to perform a solo show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, so it was good to get a chance to catch up with them and help celebrate the release of the new book.

Comedian Claire Hooper acted as MC for the evening and kicked things off with a few stories of her own parenting travails, such as crying as she spied on her child through a fence at day care after dropping her off for the first time. Next up was Michael Williams, Director at the Wheeler Centre and former panelist with Helen on the short-lived 2005 ABC arts show Vulture. He joked that Vulture united the disparate arts community in its hatred for the show. Then Helen took to the podium in her gold lame Scummy Mummies jacket (unfortunately no gold catsuit this time) and spoke about meeting Ellie for the first time four years ago and their journey from the podcast to live comedy shows and now a book. If you are a parent who likes to drink wine and feed your child fish sticks instead of organic food then this is the book for you!

MICF: Helen Thorn Is Arty Farty

Tonight I met up with Julie and headed back to the Comedy Festival to check out Helen Thorn's show "Arty Farty." Helen wrote the show and it involves her experiences in the arts throughout her life. It started with ballet in preschool, then jazz dance, her cello years in high school, university art life, and finally today as an arts worker. In between the monologues about each period of her life, she did characters that reflected the arty influences of that time. I thought Helen did a great job, and there were some funny stories from her childhood. The characters were over the top and fantastic. I was very proud of the effort she put in, and I hope this run of shows has gone well for her (tonight's performance was sold out).

After the show Julie and I headed over to The Westin for some food and conversation. I hadn't seen her since I got back from the States, so it was nice to catch up. Julie has been good about letting me know about any job listings for the private schools in The Age that don't get listed online, so I had to thank her in person for that. Once we finished eating we said goodbye and headed to our respective trams for the ride home.

Culture Vulture

Tonight I headed down to the ABC tv studios in Elsternwick to watch the taping of this week's episode of Vulture. I met up with Will, his mother and sister, as well as Helen's parents. The topics this week were the convict miniseries "Mary Bryant," the Australian architect awards, "raunch culture," and the death of copyright. The panel had good discussions on all the topics, and even though it was a bit more academic this week it was still interesting.

After the taping, Helen, Will, and I met up with host Richard Fidler, and audience warm-up comedian Justin Kennedy at Grossi Florentino on Bourke Street. We had a delicious dinner, a couple bottles of Shiraz, and entertaining conversation. It was a good night.

Happy Halloween to all my US friends. I can't say that I really missed dealing with 20 hyper second graders loaded up with energy and sugar this year. I hope the Wilson School Harvest Festival was a success and that you made lots of money for your classrooms.