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It is happening in Melbourne on Remembrance Day. That is November 11 and then again on November 12.
A line up of brilliant comics briefed to produce “Critical Comedy”. The Testing Ground Emporium is opposite the car park at Victoria Market. Can’t miss it.
Well, that is just the working title. What is critical comedy after all? Awkward Giraffe is planning to do a show to explore that question on the weekend November 11 and 12 at the Testing Grounds just near Victoria Market.
Watch this space for more detail.
I went to step outside the Rubber Chicken after seeing a show and was met with a large crowd of Tibetan protesters with placards chanting ‘Lewis Spears not funny, Lewis Spears not funny” and “what do we want” “an apology” “When do we want it” “Now” The Dali Lama had just attracted a lot of negative press following asking a boy to suck his tongue which predicably attracted comedians to make fun of him which seemed a reasonable reaction to a spiritual leader making such a suggestion. One of the placards simply stated “Your jokes make me sad” which made me laugh for some reason. Perhaps because of the simplicity of the statement. Jokes can make you sad depending on your position on the subject. Obviously that’s not the aim of a joke but I guess they land where they land. I’m sure the intention of the placard was not to make anyone laugh but here I was finding more hilarity from that sign than any of the jokes I had just seen. I didn’t find the fact that the holder of the sign was saddened by a joke funny, I just found the fact that he was holding it outside a comedy venue during a comedy festival in protest funny. The protest was described as a silent protest in an article in the Herald Sun the following day. It wasn’t silent at all and I wondered if the journalist had even been there.
by Kieran Butler
“We have not cancelled him. We don’t cancel people. We don’t ban people,” Ms Provan said
This is bullshit.
In late 2012, Susan Provan attended a secret meeting in St Kilda to discuss how to ban me, not just from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, but from festivals around the world where Provan has considerable influence.
I had already had shows banned from the Melbourne Fringe in both 2010 and 2011. The Melbourne arts industry was already well practiced in the dark art of selective censorship.
Was anyone else in the room where it happened?
Of course. But I had a spy on the inside. Furthermore, months later, Bev Killick bragged to me that I had indeed been black listed from festivals all over the world. The meeting happened at her house in St Kilda. It turned out to be completely true. Festivals around the world closed their doors to me.
In 2013, my friend Paul Provenza and his show ‘Set List” were produced by MICF and Susan Provan. Provenza was skeptical about my story of being banned until Provan expressly forbade him from putting me on his “Set List” stage. She removed me from a line up. That is the definition of banning someone.
Susan Provan bans and cancels people. That is a fact.
MICF cancelled Barry Humphries in a swoon of self congratulation. ‘That old dog will go away to die’ the kids must have thought. Like me – and the countless others who have felt the wrath of Susan Provan over the past 30 years.
Problem was, Humphries did die. Who saw that coming? And it turns out, unsurprisingly, that in Australia everyone loves you when you’re dead. Andrew Hansen even wrote a song about it. Rolf Harris really should neck himself. He’ll be remembered fondly. Like George Pell. Just you wait.
I predicted last Sunday morning that the MICF would be hypocrites on all this. Initially, Susan Provan had an each way bet, but pointedly confirmed there would be no tribute for Humphries. But Provan has an Order of Australia. Only rank hypocrisy will do from that lot.
So now, after a back flip worthy of any LNP government, there will be a MICF tribute to Barry Humphries. Provan has done this before with those she has kicked to the kerb. After they die. Dave Grant comes to mind.
The MICF cancelled Humphries. This is a fact. Removing someone’s name from an award is designed to deliberately tarnish their legacy. Nothing less. The comedians who barracked for it at the time, jacked off over it with glees. Tearing down the titans of the past they were. Like all Young Turks. Cos they’re building something better. Apparently.
That something better was partially revealed in what tends to unearth the future of Australian comedy: MICF’s Raw Comedy. In the 2022 National Final one contestant clearly implied that my comedy comrade, Eurydice Dixon, wasn’t cute enough to be murdered in a park in broad daylight. That won second prize and a bunch of flowers.
If he saw that, I can only imagine that Barry Humphries would have shat himself in fear at the sheer genius of kids today!
For my part, I am particularly chuffed that MICF cancelled me. Always was. When they did it to Barry Humphries, I felt just a little bit vindicated.
Who knows? Maybe they’ll put on a tribute to me in the not too distant future. I fucking hope not. I really do. Who wants to be venerated by liars and hypocrites?
I saw Stuart Daulman at the Comedy Festival on Easter Saturday. I don’t know my way round the comedy world really so I hadn’t heard of him, but I’m told he is well known.
I saw him in the Quilt Room at Trades Hall. He did a selection of set pieces under the general title of “Family” or something like that. Not actual stand up. I got a few laughs, he earned the twenty something bucks. Having said that I was left dissatisfied with the show and would likely “prefer others” , as the racing guides put it, in future.
The format was that the show was framed by conversations with his family, hence the title I guess, and then an inner frame where he was an American special forces commander giving a pep talk to the troops before and then at the end of the show after an action. No biting satire here, no shadow of Abu Ghraib etc, just gentle mockery of American enthusiasm and sentimentality. Inside that the best piece was of a harassed pub owner covering for his regular Trivia Night MC. It showed some empathy and was quite funny. Hands down the worst piece was when he donned a lizard mask and gave a speech as a Liberal MP. I mean, I don’t like the Liberals either but the mask pretty much was the joke. It was like the worst bit from the worst day of the worst student comedy revue you ever saw.
Other bits were in between. There was a tradie, the main joke being that he was noisy and also apparently that he earned good money. I won’t be an arsehole and describe all the bits. And I repeat that I did laugh from time to time But the thing about political comedy, and the inclusion of the lizard bit made it impossible not to view it through that lens, is that one has to at least be able to humour the presuppositions it is based on. You don’t have to agree with them but you have to find a place of sympathy with them., or at least interest in them.
And the presuppositions here seemed to be of facile middle class Laborism right down to the friendly attitude to the American military. And even that could have been funny if it had engaged with other points of view.
The legendary Festival of Surrealisms has been reborn in Melbourne. It’ll be on April 22/23 this year, see the poster. I missed it due to covid when it returned last year. Keen to get to it this year, and I’m giving it a plug now. Nothing to do with Awkward Giraffe as such, I’m just giving it a plug.
Interesting fact, April 23 is Shakespeare’s recorded death day and by tradition also his birthday. Also St George’s Day. St George is I think the only Christian saint also regarded by many Muslims as a prophet of Islam. Make of that what you will.
Jenny Hughes Jenny Hughes
Rides through cyber space
Jenny Hughes Jenny Hughes
Searching for her place.
She may have unusual views
But she is basically good news
Jenny Hughes
Is on a cruise
Jenny Hughes.
It clashed with the plugin “CoBlocks” I’ll send the plugin developers a message to see if the problem is fixable. But in the meantime I’ve deactivated CoBlocks. Once you have saved a quick draft you can edit it further which is what I am doing now.
I’m making this post as a test
And making it rhyme as a jest.
Using the blog
Some say, is a slog
And takes too much time to invest.