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: Hannah Gadsby and Sara Pascoe

Friday night at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is always super busy and full of sold out shows. Tonight Onagh and I started our evening at the Melbourne Town Hall with Hannah Gadsby's show Donkey. We are both big fans of Hannah, having seen her show in previous years. This year she explored her mental health and how being diagnosed with ADHD has changed how she views herself. Having built a career around "depression comedy," being told she had ADHD and getting on ritalin has completely changed her perspective on her behavior and attitude to life. The funniest stories revolved around her long simmering hatred for a server named Fletcher at her local cafe, and her unique solutions to problems she couldn't bring herself to deal with. This was another funny show from Hannah at the festival and it finished with an entertaining singing number.

Next we rushed downstairs to join the line for UK comedian Sara Pascoe and her show Sara Pascoe Vs History. Sara was incredibly smart in the way she wove together stories of her own relationships over time while delving into the sexual evolution of the human race. She wondered if her current relationship could last when history's great romances have not (e.g. Adam and Eve; Napoleon and Josephine). She also explored male and female sexual desire, sperm selection, female anatomy, having babies and other interesting insights from research she has done. All in all this was an intelligent and fascinating hour of comedy and my favorite show of the festival so far.

MICF: Sara Pascoe Vs The Truth

Tonight's Melbourne International Comedy Festival show pick was done by Onagh for Sara Pascoe Vs The Truth.  Sara is from the UK and was the first international comedian I've seen at the festival this year.  Her show explored themes around what is true or actually real in life through personal ante dotes about her family, boyfriend and herself. It was a good stand-up set that wove things together in the end with some interesting observations on doppelgangers, feminism, whether we are living our own versions of the Truman Show, and the acting ability of Andie Macdowell.