[2015134] EUROWISION Adelaide 2015
Carousel Pony Productions @ Gluttony – The Lotus Palace
11:45pm, Sun 8 Mar 2015
So – I’m waiting in the queue for my fourth straight Eurowision, and Beth turns up – as one might expect. What I didn’t expect, however, was the news that Karen Hyland had died; whilst I didn’t have much association with her, I certainly understood her standing in the local comedy community, so it was a real shock… and cause for reflection.
Not quite the perfect lead-in for another round of Eurowision craziness… and it did colour the rest of the evening somewhat, especially since I knew that some of the performers onstage would be grieving.
But some things don’t change: Carla Conlin and Andrew Crupi reprised their hosting roles as Heidi & Uri, and production values seemed to have gone up a touch: they were escorted onstage with a shower of bubbles. After the usual awkward banter and borderline stereotypes, we were launched into the acts themselves. Forgive the vagueness (and quite possible complete wrongness) of some of the following notes; my memory is not what it used to be.
Diana Scalzi represented France, trotting out a Celine Dion number. Jason Chong murdered (in the best way possible) Hello (I think?) for Azerbaijan. Last year’s winner, Gerry Masi, switched from Moldova to Poland; once again, his performance of White Girl (With A Black Girl’s Ass) bore little attachment to his newly adopted home (except, perhaps, for the “costumes” of his accompanying dancers), but it was still a good bit of fun.
Elena & Grant from The Shuffle Show represented Russia, and belted through a handful of songs (including a rework of Sexual Healing into Soviet Healing), before Bok & Fahey – complete with kilts, dodgy underwear, and ukuleles – giggled their way through a “fuck buddies” song.
Hans – representing Germany, of course – dedicated his (super-polished!) song to Guy Sebastian, and Dave Eastgate starred for Japan by singing over a bloody awful J-pop ballad with a terrible “best friend” chorus. Finally, a parody of Eurovision 2014’s winning song was performed (by George someone? George Cassar, maybe?), with Heidi & Uri providing some lo-fi flame effects.
Throughout, Mark Trenwith performed his now-standard Postcards for each country, and the Hyperdance Dancers popped up in various songs (and for the requisite flag-waving)… it was all pretty much what you’d expect. But my own response to this year’s Eurowision was a little more muted: maybe it was because of my mulling over the news prior to the show, maybe it was because I was far more sober than usual, maybe it was because the date had rolled over and I was now another year older. I’m pretty sure it’s not because the show has become formulaic, though, because it’s a formula that works.
(134) EUROWISION Adelaide 2015: More Eurowision antics; you know the deal. That's a good thing, BTW. #ff2015 #ADLfringe
— Pete Muller (@festivalfreakAU) March 8, 2015