Andrew McClelland - Truth Be Told

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Victoria Hotel

Sunday 10/04/2011

5 Stars *****

Andrew McClelland is a delightful performer who has crafted a unique and intelligent style of comedy story-telling. McClelland has made his name exploring offbeat and somewhat niche topics, such as pirates and the fall of the Roman Empire and is currently enjoying television exposure Friday mornings on channel 10s The Circle where he talks about lol cats and other bizarre web based phenomena.

In his current show “Truth be Told” McClelland is erudite and charming. He draws material from his own life in a delightfully self-aware manner. He skilfully explores the discomforts of a well dressed and slightly old fashioned persona in an abrasive contemporary world.

McClelland confronts the big stuff... existential questions such as; why does he always fancy lesbians? As well as, the patenting of cravat wearing on Australian television (I’m sure we all know the responsible party). He also looks at the more mundane, such as French foreign legion snipers, dancing in Croatian forests and being eaten by man-eating boars, you know all the usual stuff.

“Truth be Told” is a more personal approach for the comedy styling’s of Mr McClelland and it really works for him, proper side splitting, tear rolling, shoulder jerking laughs being the pay off. Wonderfully charismatic, he is easy to warm to and even though some of his jokes go over the heads of less well read audience members, they forgive him as he is just so darn likeable. “Truth be Told” rates as one of the easiest and most intriguing shows I’ve seen to date.

Bec Hill - 'Didn’t Want to Play your Stupid Game Anyway'

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Trades Hall

7pm, Friday, 08/04/2011

***** 5 stars

This wonderfully wacky and adorable 24 year old comedian questions the rules of ‘adulthood’ in her new show Didn't Want to Play your Stupid Game Anyway.

The show is appropriate for all of us of a grown-up persuasion and even a little younger. Hill is quite well mannered, as far as funny-people go. This show will, however, hold the greatest relevence for those of us who remember the point in our own lives when we realised our prior expectations of adult life were going to be nothing like the reality of it.

Hill’s usual props and interactive drawings are delightfully present and the show is less twee than previous offerings from the Adelaide born, London based performer. Grown ups all wear sensible clothes, serious glasses and carry briefcases don't they? Definately! Pfft!

Overall the writing is very clever and ideas are flawlessly linked. Her wonderful inventiveness and individuality have the audience begrudgingly forgive a couple of groan worthy puns and daggy jokes. She keeps the good times rolling, as she gets mad then makes an omelette.

A real coming of age show, Hill talks about selling out, moral integrity, independence and the stereotypes of adulthood. She truly is a marvellous performer and is upbeat, bouncy and energetic throughout.

A brilliant evening of laughs and loveliness, we are indulged with a guided tour through the glitter rainbow filled Bec-town. This is definitely a show for the big kid in all of us.

Adam Rozenbachs - Singledumber

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Tuesday 5^th April 2011

Trades Hall (cnr of Victoria and Lygon st)

The Meeting Room. 

 *** 3 stars

Adam Rozenbachs is a 36 year old single bloke and his show – ‘Singledumber’ (following on from last year’s singledumb) is an account of his exploits falling in and out of relationships due to faux pas and incompatibilities with the ladies in question.

If you enjoy a relaxed, Jerry Seinfeld-esque chat about the amusing side of everyday life then Rozenbachs is the man for you. The title is suggestive of Rozenbachs self deprecating style which is perhaps one of his best assets.

The night I saw him the audience was an absolute dud. I can only assume they had all had their voice boxes removed earlier in the day and were chuckling along silently. Despite this Rozenbachs delivered, although hampered by a few nerves earlier in the set, as is understandable with such an unresponsive audience.

So – take your sense of humour along and you’ll have a rollicking good time. Rozenbachs is actually a really good looking guy; maybe someone should suggest he closet the love of heavy metal, Maccas and skate shoes from the 90s to bag a long term lady love.

A Tourist in Melbourne Town

So - here I am in chilly Melbourne, (actually, it's sunny right at the moment but if I've learnt anything over the past week it is never to believe the good weather, she's just a tease).

I have been more or less without internet for the last couple of weeks and so have found myself being productive in other ways, with visits to Art galleries, libraries, exercise, yoga, friends and work... you know, all that stuff that seems less important when you get distracted by the magical mysteries of the interwebs.

I am staying very near a suburb called Moonee ponds. Sound familiar possums? Yes, that's right, my friend Janine assures me it is the geographical and spiritual home land of Dame Edna. It feels great to be so close to a national treasure.

As I may have already mentioned to some of you, there is a church of scientology (alien acceptance headquarters) next door. Did you know they wear matching waistcoats while relaxing in their compound? Urgh, freaks me out every day. What a hater I am.

Anyway, I've been working at the comedy festival, which is pretty great. I'm an information lady. I sit in a booth and tell people what to see (pinnacle of my career). Ha, ha... despite sarcasm I do absolutely love it, so I thought I might do some reviews of stuff I've seen. If I do some print outs I could even make myself redundant and then just go and see shows instead of sitting in my booth. Rad.

Upstairs at The Kings

As you may know, I have not long had a fancy pants new camera... a Canon digital SLR. Clearly I'm not a film purist, the convenience of the digital far outweigh the romanticism of film for me. Besides that; I've eaten enough sandwiches that taste like chemicals to last a lifetime.

I suspect my extended hours in the darkroom may have been spent as a result of a lack of technical skill with the contraption in the first place, but as per usual I made no efforts to remedy this.

So... as a result, I'm trying to slowly work it out and remember those years of photography classes. I have a manual and one day I may read it (hopefully).

Below are some snaps I took upstairs at The Kings Hotel (my former home away from home). It's probably worth sharing the ghostly and run down top floor that used to be a hostel to the kind of people that were willing to live above a pub.

If I remember correctly, it has been disused since 1994 / 95 and the majority of furnishings remain more or less the same, although much of it has been consolidated into a couple of rooms to free up other space for storage.

When I was working at the hotel, occasionally I was fortunate enough to have customers share their memories of the place with me and I have heard stories from people who lived there as a child. Often these people are just 'popping by' to see what has changed in the 40 years since their last visit. Needless to say it is usually a lot. Some are disappointed but most are impressed by the dramatic change of layout and the care, passion and energy that is now being injected into the place.

The run down ghostliness of the top floor's current state is quite fascinating and the peculiar things stashed upstairs captivated my interest... these are just a few of the pictures I took.

 

In total it's a series of 20 photographs, many of them close ups, as the wider views became huge tangled confusions of compositionally awkward frames due to the pure volume of 'stuff'.

Maybe one day I'll be able to pick the lock to the spooky room that is permanently locked... that would be pretty rad.

Adelaide Fringe Festival Frenzy

Well... Happy fringe everybody. I hope you’re all having lovely drunken, sleep deprived lives at the moment, as is the requirement of February / March in this fine state. 

If you are looking for show recommendations please look no further than the fantastic ‘Short back and sides’ blog by the lovely gadabout Mr Ian Bell (Dj Ian to most of you). This man is out and about just about every night, (maybe every night?) and so has kindly started a blog to sort the wheat from the chaff on your behalf.

http://djianshortbacknsides.blogspot.com/ 

I was also wondering if the Adelaideans amongst us know that Tuxedo Cat is still hip and happening as a venue? I had seen it listed several times and was working under the false assumption that it was still on the rooftop in Synagogue place. Not so! Apparently that site has been turned into apartments, or something equally as unappealing.

The new venue is in a gutted building directly across the road from the Adelaide Town Hall. Marked by an unassuming black and white sign on the footpath this space is an amazing playground for all your favourite ghostly fantasies. The beer garden can also be accessed from Waymouth st (I think it’s that paved area just next to the Advertiser building) where all of your drinking requirements can be met from a caravan and your cigarettes can be butted in colourful plastic dog bowls.

I was fortunate enough to hang some artwork on the second floor yesterday, along with the wonderful Anna Goodhind and Sally Kitten who organised the whole shebang. Get along and check it out, they’re open from 4pm daily.

Happy Fringe-ing folks!!

Spread the Luuurve *A book reccomendation*

I’m reading Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people” At the moment. It is not at all the snide, calculating, ‘how to get ahead in business’ guide I had expected.

It is actually just something of an instructional manual on how to be nice to other people. I absolutely love it!

I’ve been feeling very much that the negativity and cynicism of my nearest and dearest, in fact our whole generation is adding to the dystopia of our existence. I’ve always been a big fan of all that ‘manifesting your own reality’ stuff... you are the only one who controls your own circumstances and mindset, so take some goddamn responsibility for it (cliché,cliché,cliché).

I still believe it though!

If there was one book currently, (yes this is a big call!) that I could make required reading for all my friends and associates, this would be it! What’s that you say? Not ‘The Game’, after you crapped on about it for weeks???

I do love the whole self-help phenomena despite my shame at how daggy most of this material is, I’m a complete sucker for it. I’ve been hiding self help books under my bed for about 10 years, if not longer in the hope that my ultimate spiritual enlightenment will be thought to have spontaneously erupted in my body when it does come about, rather than having been germinated as a seed many years ago. He he.

I feel as if I should be ashamed about this as I am about reading my star sign every day. But I suppose I’m not really. If the choice is between ‘right’ and ‘happy’, I choose ‘happy’ every time.