Category: ff2014

ff2014, Day 33

This was always going to be a tough day – not much sleep, and a lot of heavy theatre pieces (I’d originally planned on trying to squeeze in Virtual Solitaire, but it was unfortunately cancelled).

The end result? A really sluggish Pete. Though the Bunker shows were fantastic.

  1. The Breakfast Club
  2. Needles & Opium
  3. Temper
  4. The Bunker Trilogy: Agamemnon
  5. The Bunker Trilogy: Macbeth
  6. Fight Night

Probably only three shows left. And a little thing called the “Fringe Awards”. And I have a 9am appointment Monday morning. That should be fun.

ff2014, Day 32

A busy day! Tight changeovers between shows necessitated two cab rides.

And then there’s the little matter of a photo shoot. More on that later!

  1. Rip, Drag & Ruminate
  2. Some Funny C*nt from New York
  3. A Gaggle of Saints
  4. Zorn@60

Zorn@60 was, quite frankly, fucking magnificent. Lights dropped at 7:30pm; they came up for the last time at 12:15am. Nearly every minute inbetween (except for the intervals) belongs in a highlights reel somewhere. Simply astonishing musicianship by musicians that appeared to be incredibly happy performing their art.

ff2014, Day 31

So – John Zorn.

Of the three performances in the Triple Bill, one of them didn’t really work for me at all… but the other two were so good that I leapt to my feet, Standing-O-style. Cobra was everything I’d ever hoped for, and more: it was genuinely exciting to see it played. How often are you sitting on the edge of your seat in a music show?

  1. La Leçon
  2. Zorn Triple Bill
  3. Come Heckle Christ

The flip-side of the Zorn high is, of course, some issues with “friends”. Sigh.

ff2014, Day 30

I turn up to Gaga v Assange expecting a ninety-minute show; I’ve got half-an-hour buffer up my sleeve to get to my next (Festival) show. Still, as I’m greeted at the top of Arcade Lane, I ask what time I can expect the performance to finish.

Eight-twenty, I’m told. A twenty-minute overrun.

I bite my lip; I don’t want to commit to a ten-minute changeover. I tell them I might have to bail; they suggest I just stay for the first Act. What about closure, I ask? “There’s a lot of songs, so you can get a pretty good feel for it,” I am told.

I was genuinely surprised at how much that comment rankled me. That there was so little care about the integrity of the piece annoyed the fuck out of me, and when they tried to placate me by telling me to go to FringeTIX for a refund (never going to happen) or to go to TuxCat for another show (they’re closed today)… well, consider me a little (lot) annoyed.

Still, at least it gave me the opportunity to see HolePunch, which I otherwise would have missed… it was the highlight of the day (after the lovely Take a Closer Look exhibition).

  1. The Luck Child
  2. HolePunch
  3. Rime of the Ancient Mariner
  4. A Nightmare On Love Street

Tomorrow is all about one thing: Zorn. John fucking Zorn. I bumped into two people today (of very different persuasions) who both saw his Masada Marathon last night and regard it as one of the best shows they’d ever seen. Cannot wait.

ff2014, Day 29

A lot of running around today. Shows that start and run late don’t lend themselves to smooth changeovers; shows that cancel don’t lead to being watched.

  1. History of Autism
  2. Xavier Toby – ‘Mining’ My Own Business
  3. Glenn Wool
  4. RUN GIRL RUN
  5. Pat Burtscher’s Overwhelmed
  6. Rhino Room Late Show (#3)

Tired. Again.

ff2014, Day 28

Ah, Monday. Poor, neglected, dead Monday.

No matter how I prodded my Scheduling Spreadsheet, I couldn’t do any better than three shows today, so I opted to tackle Dawson Nichols’ two-hour modern classic I Might Be Edgar Allan Poe at the tail end of the evening. And what an absolute belter it is; it’s one of the shows that I saw way back in 1998 that got me interested in this Fringe theatre stuff, and it’s still easy to see why.

  1. True Story
  2. EDGE!
  3. I Might Be Edgar Allan Poe

I spent some serious time trying to plan out the rest of the Festival season; as a result, I’ve started squirelling away money for cab fares, because there’s some silly hopping between shows coming up. Friday is going to be a bit nerve-wracking; I’m hoping it’ll be worth it.

ff2014, Day 27

That was a pretty fun birthday, I must say. After grabbing some k-pop presents for myself (another tradition I’m going to cultivate), I was opportunistically interviewed by Jane for The Guardian, met a Honey Pot attendee (and learnt a lot about that program as we shuffled between the three-shows-in-a-row that we saw together), and generally just chatted with a lot of lovely people.

And I saw some shows. That’s right, I remember now. Mind you, I could only tolerate a bit over an hour of the Crap Music Rave Party; the Royal Croquet Club was abominable. Dry and dusty, packed with young people (centres of their universes, one and all), and just plain unwelcoming to old fogies like myself.

  1. FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out
  2. Pants Down Circus – Rock
  3. A Simple Space
  4. Notoriously Yours
  5. Story
  6. Jack Druce – Adventure Peach
  7. Crap Music Rave Party

A Simple Space, on the other hand… amazing. No matter how many times I see the GOM guys and gals, they leave me weeping tears of delight and wonder. And today, I even got to be onstage during one of their tricks. Heaven.

ff2014, Day 26

So – One Hundred Shows for the year.

So – SADEH21. Fucking magnificent, it was, despite a few little flaws.

So – Jacques Barrett. Fucking magnificent, he was, despite a few quieter moments.

  1. SNUG & VENT
  2. Blackout
  3. Em Rusciano in ‘Divorce – The Musical’
  4. SADEH21
  5. Jacques Barrett is The Contrarian: Part Deux
  6. EUROWISION Adelaide 2014

Anyway – it’s currently 3:54am on March the 9th. And you know what that means, right? My birthday.

And so, in a tradition that I started last year, here’s a photo of me and my bestest Birthday Buddy, the gorgeous Taeyeon from Girls’ Generation:

Taeyeon & Pete

Sigh. So beautiful.

ff2014, Day 25

Wow, what a day. After a relatively sleepless night, I went on a 14km, 13-stop ArtWalk around the northwestern inner suburbs and city; then, because I was feeling a little knackered, decided that an all-comedy evening would be the go.

Normally, I try to avoid all-comedy days like this, but this one turned out to be an absolute pearler. Chris Turner upped the ante, Chris Wainhouse fucking dominated, and Pete Johansson completely smashed it with a set that he forewarned would be patchy. And then came the Rhino Late Show, with Dave Hughes, Jacques Barrett, and Lindsay Webb just blowing the place apart. Brilliant stuff.

  1. An American’s Guide to being like totally British
  2. Chris Turner: Pretty Fly
  3. Chris Wainhouse – The Anti-Chris
  4. Pete Johansson
  5. Rhino Room Late Show (#2)

But now starts the long slog home: I’ve got thirteen shows in the next two days. Red Bull to the rescue!

[2014016] Rainbow Rabbits with Rabies

[2014016] Rainbow Rabbits with Rabies

Nicole Henriksen @ Gluttony – The Piglet

11:10pm, Sat 15 Feb 2014

I don’t mind admitting that I’m a little narcissistic when it comes to the words on this blog; whilst I write here mainly to augment my memory, I’m fully aware that Google loves me, and that most artists will find what I write about them when vanity-Googling.

So when someone grabs a pull-quote for their précis or advertising materials from my blog, I get a little thrill. Seriously – a little buzz of joy that someone has decided that my words were nice enough to advertise their show. It’s never expected, and always delightful.

There were no quotes from Festival Freak in the Fringe Guide this year, and that’s fine – to be expected, even; but, whilst out-and-about with a friend near the Garden one evening, Nicole Henriksen bounded up to us and thrust a flyer in our direction. I took it, then realised who was proffering it: “Hello Nicole!” I pre-empted.

She looked momentarily taken aback – but only monentarily. We had a lovely chat – very bubbly and enthusiastic on her part, which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen her perform – and I assured her that I’d try and squeeze her show in.

But it was only when I got home that I noticed there was a pull-quote from me on the flyer: “It’s perfect”, it said, leaving off the leading quotation mark.

But go and read my post about Henriksen’s last show… go find the quote. Cheeky, eh?

Still, I had fond memories of Naked Unicorn Vomit, and I love Nicole’s seemingly endless optimistic energy, so back into The Piglet I went. It’s a bigger venue than the one she used last year, and the crowd is a bit bigger too… but also a little more confused.

Still totally on-board with Henriksen’s lunacy, mind you… just confused.

Henriksen kicks off proceedings with a bit of her standup; not her strongest material, sure, but entertaining enough. But then the characters come out to play: Big Yellow Button’s Big Business – Art Piece is a new direction for her, veering wildly away from her previous Europop. NK appeared to have been murdered during a home invasion whilst we were on a Skype call with her; Nicole’s discomfort onstage in the aftermath was delicious. And MC Misogynist got another airing for her gloriously misguided lyrics.

In between character pieces, Henriksen struts the stage with a sense of surety and confidence that is almost unmatched by any other performer; she really is impressive to behold. Her forays into the audience (as part of a Jeopardy-ish game show) also reeked of confidence, though her question to me (“Mein Kampf?” – “Your favourite book,” I answered) may have been getting dangerously close to the edge.

If I wanted to nitpick, I could say that her video accompaniment really should have been projected onto a white screen – using the black stage backing doesn’t really help the legibility of the clips, and made NK’s death more sinister than ludicrous. And MC Misogynist’s new material – like Poppin’ My Pussy – didn’t have the overblown attitude of previous efforts.

But, like I said, that’d be nitpicking. Henriksen’s strength is in her imagination and – most importantly – her commitment to her imagination; that she wields such impregnable confidence onstage is impressive. With a crowd willing to go along for the ride – as this crowd was – it’s a bloody fun (and weird) way to have some laughs.

ff2014, Day 24

So: I’m having a lovely chat with the woman running the Face Your Selfie exhibition, and I notice it’s 9pm – time for my next show. Dash to the venue; I’m the only ticket sale, so regrettably they’re cancelling. Bugger. Out comes the phone; great, there’s a 9:15pm show on The Shortlist nearby. A quick dash, only to discover that it, too, is cancelled.

Last chance: another 9:15pm show, the return of Red Bastard. Having seen his show in 2010, I was wary of the small (and largely drunk, and largely non-English-as-a-first-language) crowd that assembled… I couldn’t see how the show could work as well with the small crowd.

And it didn’t. It worked better.

  1. Maybe you could crack my sternum
  2. Sam Simmons – Death Of A Sails-Man
  3. Red Bastard
  4. GLORY BOX!

You know that feeling when you’ve got something (emotional – let’s keep it clean and abstract, folks) buried deep inside and you need to spit it out, but the opportunity to do so never presents itself? Yep, I’ve got that right now. Fun.

[2014015] Chris Radburn – Breaking Rad

[2014015] Chris Radburn – Breaking Rad

Chris Radburn @ Gluttony – The Piglet

10:10pm, Sat 15 Feb 2014

So – I’ve taken my seat in The Piglet, and it’s becoming apparent that Chris Radburn is going to get a decent-sized crowd in… the place is going to be at least half-full. Across the aisle from me, I recognise a recently familiar face: “Excuse me,” I introduce myself, “weren’t you at [my previous show]?”

He looked at me guardedly. “Yes…?”

“If you don’t mind me asking, who do you write for?”

His look turns to bewilderment, and he tells me. “But… how did you know?”

I chuckled knowingly, and started asking him about his media outlet’s review load over Fringe. “I do more reviews than most,” he says with a sense of pride, “I’ll see anywhere from thirty to forty shows.”

I smile to myself, and am happy that the house lights choose that moment to drop.

Chris Radburn leaps onto the stage, and it is clear that he owns it; despite lackadaisical body language, he exudes confidence, and he quickly wins most of the crowd over with material that I would call “middle-age staple”: Kids! Aren’t they nutty? Parents! Aren’t they competitive? There’s also a bit about his short-lived legal career, and a few attempts to show a bit of edginess – Radburn drops a c-bomb with considered precision, one eyebrow raised, and throws in some fingering material that caused some nervous laughs from the older members of the audience.

It’s all well-practised, it’s all casual-yet-confidently delivered with the polish of a comedian who has served his time; but it’s also accompanied by an undercurrent that’s distinctly anti-women… and I, for one, can do without that in my comedy now. That’s not to say that I was representative of Radburn’s audience – one chap, in particular, was laughing almost to the point of tears… especially during some of the “women are bitches” moments.

Having said that, I didn’t hear the reviewer mentioned above laugh once.

As time wears on, I’m becoming increasingly negative towards this show. Whilst there’s undoubtedly some solid material, a nice structure, and well-managed callbacks, the downsides are becoming too much to bear. I’m sure Chris Radburn would be a brilliant comic for men who don’t get out to much comedy, but for the more seasoned comedy-goers – and less misogynistic – amongst us, there’s a certain guiltiness that accompanies the laughs.

[2014014] Claire Ford: ConsciousMess

[2014014] Claire Ford: ConsciousMess

Claire Ford @ Austral Hotel – Red Room

8:45pm, Sat 15 Feb 2014

Occasionally, I see a show that I really want to like, but simply cannot – for reasons beyond the control of the artist.

This show was one such instance. Despite having no knowledge of Ford’s work (she’s apparently done a bit of work on TV), I’m willing to take a chance on a bit of character-based comedy – and she certainly brought a bunch of curious characters to the performance. And, as the small crowd entered the Red Room (still sticky after the heat and rain of the last few days), Ford stomped around the stage wearing flippers and a goggle/snorkel combo making indecipherable muffled mutterings. Lights down, she starts throwing sopping wet tennis balls from a bowl of water at the audience, beckoning for their return after effectively splattering their targets.

It is, it must be said, a thoroughly WTF-ish start to proceedings.

Ford then cycled through a series of bizarre characters – the spaced-out grapefruit girl, a French Satan (or was it Friend-of-Satan?) who harbours a pathological dislike of spoons, and small-town celebrity wannabe Terri Skyler. They’re all curious characters, interesting in their own right…

…but they’re let down by the room. The PA in the Red Room has Ford’s voice coming across as boomy, making it difficult to follow a lot of her monologues; the pre-recorded audio that is pivotal to a lot of her sketches is almost unintelligible.

And – worse – the crowd is awful.

Two pairs of reviewers (and their comps), plus another couple who bought tickets at the door, sat there cross-armed and stony-faced. Ford’s attempt to get them involved with a game of mimed hopscotch failed to crack their sullen faces. And I sat there and tried to give as much laughter and positivity as I could… but, in the end, one person’s positivity isn’t able to overcome the negativity of six.

And that is a massive, massive shame, because I reckon there’s more than enough oddball nuttery in Claire Ford to get a room rolling with laughter. But it was never going to be this Red Room, and it was never going to be this stiff-lipped audience.

ff2014, Day 22

I remember the good old days when you could see five or six shows on a weeknight. Maybe it’s my own standards – and a desire to not see a lot of repeat performances – that is limiting my options, though I’m certain late-night shows are thin on the ground.

  1. They Saw a Thylacine
  2. Alexis Dubus – Cars And Girls
  3. Lindsay Webb in ‘What’s Your Name? What Do You Do?’
  4. Wendy House

That was a pretty reasonable day, all up; Thylacine and Cars And Girls are both beautifully poetic pieces. Pity about the apres-shows end of the day, though.