To celebrate Belinda's birthday we decided to once again hit the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for an evening of shows. First up was
Charlie Pickering with
How To Tame A Wild Squirrel at The Comedy Theatre. As host of
The Weekly with Charlie Pickering (sort of an Australian version of
The Daily Show) and previous host of
The Project, Charlie is known for his sharp and hard hitting observations on politics and current events. This was a looser evening of comedy, with Charlie stating he wanted it to be more of a conversation. At times these audience interactions seemed to derail the show they went on for too long with no real comedic pay off. His bits around Tony Abbott, racism, how the internet has changed the way we live, and instructions on how to tame a wild squirrel to be a pet were more successful.
We then headed to the Melbourne Town Hall to see
Mel Buttle in
Up To Pussy's Bow. In this year's show Mel has had enough and goes after people who are annoying or rude, including ladies of leisure with small dogs, body corporates, girls playing at a public swimming pool and an annoying American tourist in Hawaii. Mel also included stories about her family, and had a very funny bit about her dad who likes to scavenge around for dumped treasures. In addition, Mel's love for selling things on Gumtree resulted in some unique items on offer for the audience.
Our final show of the night was American comedian
Alex Edelman with
Everything Handed To You. Raised Orthodox Jew in Boston his show dealt with identity and family. He used a meeting with his twin brother (a bodybuilding, frequent flyer mile runner) and precocious 13 year old brother at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to tell them he's moving to the UK as a jumping off point for different anecdotes throughout the set. The show was very funny and well written, and had me laughing out loud throughout - definitely my highlight of MICF so far.
