Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Festival Location: Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Festival Type: Comedy Festivals

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

By: © Matthew MacDermott 2009

Heard the one about Melbourne?

Melbourne, fairly or unfairly, is the butt of many jokes in Australia - mainly due to its highly unpredictable, four-seasons-in-one-day and often gloomy weather.

However, the joke is on the rest of Australia in April when the Victorian capital plays host to The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as it has for the past 20 years.

With 1,500 comedians performing in 288 shows over three-and-half weeks, this ranks among the top three comedy festivals in the world, alongside Edinburgh's Festival Fringe and Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival.

Attending the festival for the first time this year, the biggest dilemma (notwithstanding how to fit an umbrella, raincoat, two jackets, gloves and a scarf into our luggage) is deciding who to see. Taking in the opening weekend shows, we eventually went for one from our own backyard and one from someone else's.

Australia's Adam Hills sits atop the tree of Australia comedic talent and has soared to huge levels of public appeal through his hosting role on the popular Spicks and Specks music quiz show on the ABC. He is also one damn funny stand-up who delivers a high-energy show with plenty of audience interaction, capped off with Footloose-inspired car rooftop dancing. A great way to kick off our festival experience in Melbourne's Romanesque Forum Theatre.

On night two, we opt for the headline international act - Ireland's Dylan Moran, a.k.a the world's grumpiest bookshop owner Bernard Black of the BBC's Black Books - at the festival's unofficial headquarters, the imposing Melbourne Town Hall. Dylan provides an entirely different style of show to Adam, very little audience interaction but lashings of self-indulgent loathing, rambling, sarcasm and enough dry wit to fill Australia's outback.

His show contained many observations on Australian life, including his belief that Australians should be satisfied with the standard spider bite on the bollocks as the exotic mode of death of choice, rather than seeking out even more exciting options by flinging ourselves into shark, stingray and jellyfish-infested seas at any opportunity.

Dylan's show also provided a neat contrast with the previous night's show by Adam, who had recently spent time in Ireland and provided his own observations on Irish life, including the potential for great misunderstanding based on the vastly different meanings of the word 'deadly' in Australia (deadly) and Ireland (great) - particularly in relation to aforementioned bullock-biting spiders.

With Guinness as a major sponsor of the festival, our visit had a distinct Irish feel (well, it is about having a laugh after all).

This is just a small taste of the international smorgasboard of comedy that is The Melbourne International Comedy Festival. There are dozens of shows on every night with prices averaging a very reasonable AUS$22. A blackboard outside the town hall is updated daily and shows what's on and what's available, including free street theatre and performances. There are also plenty of impromptu shows at bars and clubs.

Melbourne's futuristic Federation Square is another hub of activity during the festival and from here you can link up with the cafes and bars lining the Yarra River.

Melbourne is Australia's multicultural melting pot and the diversity and quality of food on offer is outstanding. Just like the comedy, choosing is the hardest part and we went for Vietnamese and Greek on our two-night stay (to provide some variety from the Irish theme starting to dominate the weekend).

When in Melbourne, also be sure to check out the huge Queen Victoria Markets and do like the locals and catch a tram out to St. Kilda beach.

Plenty of laughs, great food and beer in a vibrant, multi-cultural city, all under clear blue skies that ensured the swath of warm clothes stayed packed in the suitcase. It is hard to think of a better place to be than Melbourne in April - and that's no joke!

by Matthew MacDermott

Melbourne International Comedy Festival Dates and Location

Melbourne's International Comedy Festival is held annually in various venues around Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. For more info check out The Melbourne International Comedy Festival web site.