MICF: Lawrence Leung Wants a Jetpack

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is on once again this year.  Ruth, Danny and I met up for dinner on Lygon Street before heading to the Trades Hall to see Lawrence Leung.  In this show Lawrence is inspired by an old photo of his father, and wants to have ambition and purpose like his Dad did at his age.  So he decides to give up his quest to make friends with an Ewok and aim higher- to fly.

Lawrence recounts that tv shows in the 80's talked about a future where people would travel around using jetpacks.  He wants to be able to fly in a jetpack and starts his quest by contacting some of the few rocket men in the world, but they ignore his requests.  So he finds a local guy who likes to tinker in his shed (a bogan MacGyver) and convinces him to build a jetpack.  Unfortunately for Lawrence, it's made mostly out of lawnmower parts. They decide to try out their jetpack for the first time at the annual Birdman Rally along the Yarra River.  The video of this was both frightening and hilarious to watch.  Although Lawrence only lasted about 3 seconds in the air, he did win the George Abel Crafty Combinations award and some prize money, which he plans to use to buy stock in a NZ jetpack company.  I really enjoyed the show and Lawrence's use of photos, animation, voice mail and video to tell the story.