Post Script

I had planned the end of my Comedy Festival vacation carefully. But you can't plan everything that comes up. How viby the rest of the audience will be, what surprise guests Ali McGregor will have lined up in her late night variety show (the Axis of Awesome were pretty good), or who you will meet on the stairs going up to the Supper Room at the M.T.H.

I'd been wondering if I would run into Reginald D. Hunter again and there he was on the stairs looking full of beans. I said "hi" and we hugged (clumsily) and then it occured to me that he might have no idea who I was. So I explained we met at the Hotel William in 2008 but he was none the wiser. He had no recollection of the gig. I told him my name and he went off down the steps muttering it, no doubt wondering if we'd made love (sorry buddy, only in my dreams).

Ali McGregor's guests included Barry Crocker and they did a wonderful rendition of "so in love with you am I" from "Kiss me Kate". He's still got it and so has Ali's side kick Asher Treleven who did a strip (all packed tightly into his budgy smugglers). It was the high point of the evening (the song not the strip).

Packing them in (Last Day of the Festival)

Felicity Ward was very good (very punchy, very affable, her story telling was sublime) but she suffered from the "packing them in" syndrome. You have your shows booked too close together and you worry about getting to the next show. You ask yourself "do I really have time to laugh?". Like last year, after five minutes of "Kristen Schaal is like a horse" she was really started to tick me off!!!

Andrew Lawrence was great (as Justin Hazelwood said). Great story telling and punchlines? They didn't seem planted they just came. Weird. It was like they came out of the metre of his delivery. He's a genius.

Mike Wilmot is one of my favourites for his blue humour. Sorry, I love a smutty joke. He made the comment that you shouldn't do your dirty stuff up front but I timed him, it took him seven minutes into his set to do a joke about anal rape in prison (practice what you preach buddy!). He's like a lovable old uncle that you practice flirting with (you know you've done it). Just think of it as a job, going around the world touching people up. He presses my button every time (is that a finger he's pointing or his he just glad to see me?).

Danka Melbourne!!!

I thought the perfect end to a weird Saturday would be Die Roten Punkte (the red dots). And I was right. They went gang busters to get us all envolved. I was suitably amused, though a bit worried that if my companions in the banquet room in the Victoria Hotel were as mellow as I was, we might have been a bit of a let down. It's like they have a little scenario that they let us into (like the Kranskys). It seems like they're acting the moment but is it the same every night? I've never scene their show twice.

Reaching round for my soul

Five-thirty of Day Four saw me at this show. It was one of those "my life and welcome to it" shows. Jeff Hewitt was funny and friendly (I was sitting up the front on the comfy seats and he mistook me for someone's mum). It was like a date without the promise of heavy petting (obviously because to him I was someone's ma). He was one of those people who got frightened off comedy by a bad gig, this could happen to anyone. What I wonder is, what do you do when everything seems to go right (no room for self pity then). So where is the material?

In the toilet

You're probably wondering why I have a picture of a toilet in my blog. Simply because the toilets around the Melbourne Town Hall are the best public toilets I've found anywhere in the world. Probably because the council takes very good care of them. You frequently encounter staff cleaning them. This is the one on Collins Street next to the Ticketmaster booking office but my other favourite is the ladies loo on the first floor to the left of the front steps. It always has soap and sometimes hand loition. Try them you'll like them.

Flyering, like it or lump it

Here's a picture of Mikey Mileos and some of the guys out there in front of the Melbourne Town Hall flyering their arses off. I've seen this process from both sides (not as a comedian, in another job). It is a confronting process, actually getting out there on the street and selling yourself to the punters. It can be hard on the ego. From the audience's stand point it can be kind of interesting. Comedians will go to all kinds of stunts to get you to notice them and their show. Some of my favourites were blow-up penguins, give away condoms and this year, a guy who dressed up as the grim reaper. Someone you don't want to meet out there on the street. If all else fails there is always the black board, updated every day, that tells people who cluster outside the M.T.H. what time the festival shows are on that night.

Funky Federation Square

During the Festival Federation Square becomes a veritable city of entertainment with a show ground feel. Mobile carnival tents like the Bosco and the Casca Deur are errected to house many of the Festival shows. It gives a whole festive atmosphere to the event. I even went on the ferris wheel.