Funny Ha Ha

As a part of the 10 Days In Melbourne series, as a celebration of the Melbourne Comedy Festival

Mr Lyons may have pipped me to the post on this one (pun intended), with his stand UP entry. Go there for some wisened historical ranting about the artform. But I shall press on regardless.

The reason it is my favourite artform is because it is so simple, yet so so complex. All that really needs to happen for stand up comedy to be created is for one individual to stand up in front of an audience (of more than one, preferably, but it is not essential) and say things that are amusing. They don't even really need a mic, though it does make it seem more performance-esque. While they perform (if they are in anyway a good comic) they need to recreate the material they have written as though they have never spoken those words before, as though they are thinking those thoughts for the first time. Simulataneously, they need to be gauging the audience, measuring how much they are enjoying the material, and levelling the rest of their performance to create the most hilarious experience for the crowd.

They need to use all the crafts of language and delivery to illicit a very specific reaction. Incongruity, truth, pun, shock...

In the style of Jase, the comedians I have seen perform a full show live include:

David O'Doherty, Wilson Dixon, Tim Minchin, Brendon Burns (these guys I saw in Melbourn), Wil Anderson, Danny Bhoy, Dylan Moran, Bill Bailey, Greg Fleet, Jason Byrne, Stephen K Amos, Jimoen, Janey Godley, Mickey D, Jay Sodagar, Howard Read, Boothby Graffoe, Adam Hills, Andrew Lawrence, Andrew Maxwell, Eric Walton, Andrew Bird... I'm sure there is more. I haven't included comedians that I have seen on video or heard on recording. And I also haven't included those that I have seen as a part of a magazine show or gala event. I also haven't included some all time greats, like Bill Hicks, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce etc. Because I haven't seen them live.

So. The Best. The Top 6. Here we go.

1. Brendon Burns.

The first show I saw of his was called Not For Everyone. No kidding. Burns is shouty and offensive and nothing is sacred. I saw him first in Edinburgh in 2003, where I was travelling solo. Somone thrust a flyer into my hand that compared him with Bill Hicks and I thought "Meh, why not?" (even though Burns would have had veto over the content of his flyer, he was still railing against the comparison).

I was dumbstruck. Amazed. Total Talent Crush. True Comedy Love. His material was sexist, homophobic, revolting and offensive. And I loved every minute.

Brendon Burns is an Australian who has lived in exhile in Britain because he uses too many 4 letter words to appear on Rove. Which as far as I can see is a reason to crown him and chain him to the Harbour Bridge in order to make him stay.

I saw him again the next year, with the best show I have seen him do - Burnsy vs Brendon. It was about the fact that he as a person didn't actually like his angry shouty performance persona. And it was brilliant Comedy Gold.

He won the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2007, which I didn't see live, but have seen on DVD. Again, his understanding of how to make an audience react is flawless. It's one of those shows that I can't say too much about. The less said the better. (I ordered it from the UK, and then found it in JBHiFi in Melbourne. Grrr)

But when I took the whole A Team to see him in Edinburgh in 2008, his show was, even I must admit, self-indulgent and less than 100% hilarious. I laughed, a lot, but not as much as I had. And not all of my party were as into it as I would have liked them to be.

His show in Melbourne this year was a hilarious return to form. He got a great review in The Age, and a couple more here and here . Trent (who hadn't seen him before) laughed his arse off, and once more, Burns was the highlight for me. Again.

I've now seen this comedy deity 7 times. And if he was playing tomorrow in West Bubblefuck, I would be the FIRST in the door. Again.

2. Tim Minchin

Another Australian, but this time with a more musical bent. I had seen him on tele, and heard some of his stuff. Which I thought was OK. But when I saw him live in Edinburgh in 08 it blew my tiny mind. Ascerbic, athiest and biting. Again with the offensive material, that is just so delicious.

The man is a talented muso, and while his singing voice is not exactly classically beautiful (much like him) it has power and passion, and is very easy to listen to.

The man seems to have some anger issues with organised religion, with pseudosciences and spiritual claptrap, with a need for logic in the world, and with taking criticism. Watching and hearing him exorcise these demons is fascinating and hysetrical.

3. Dylan Moran
... It seems this list is so far full of angry funny men. I am seeing this pattern in this post, and there it is again in my life.... Hmmmm.

Moran rose to astronomical fame with Black Books as Bernard Black, the beligerent drunkard bookshop owner.

His stand up is similarly drunken and angry, if a bit more articulate and less muddleheaded than Bernard. I saw Monster II in the West End in 2004, and then again at the Seymour Centre in 2005.

And the head on him! He looks like he has just washed a toilet with his skull, after drinking 2 bottles of merlot. I saw him crossing the road in Fitzroy a week ago (CLUNK! That was just the sound of his name dropping onto the floor. Did you hear it?), and it looked like he has just finished drunkenly bellowing at a wall. As only Irishmen can get away with.

4. Danny Bhoy

The half-Indian Scotsman with the Irish sounding name. Close up, he looks like a sexy, smirking, fully grown manchild. On stage, his long legs and huge eyes give him a bit of a Muppet kind of effect.

I've seen him spindle out some observational tales about 4 times now - the most recent of which was in West Bubblefuck, where I took some of the Boys from the Factory on an "excursion" under the guise of Danny Bhoy doing lots of material about national identity. Which is true, but I doubt any of them used his show as a Belonging text in their recent assessment. Nevertheless, it was a total blast. I also may have let it slip to my students that I find Danny Bhoy outrageously attractive, and that I have been taking shares out in binoculars companies in order to finance my stalking habits.

Danny Bhoy (notice how for him, I use his full name, where the others just got the journalistic surname treatment? Discuss) tends to do the observational stuff. He is nauseatingly cheery compared to my first 3 picks - he tends to find the joy in life rather than find things to moan and shout and write satirical songs about.

5. Bill Bailey
Another musical genius, another Black Books bumbler, another wierd hairdo.

I saw Part Troll on the West End in 2004 (cause I missed him in Edinburgh in 03), and was amazed that his on stage persona - much like his co star - is a lot like his very likable character in Black Books, but with a lot more intelligence, and savvy.

Like Danny Bhoy, Bailey is more about finding the joy that the rage. Observational musical comedy. And why not?

What is also just too funny to cope with is his face. Just his face. Too funny.

6. Greg Fleet

(I nearly picked Adam Hills. But that was maybe because I used to hate him so much, and now I quite like him, rather than used to not know who he was and now I love him. The gap is much the same so its easy to get confused)

Even though his material is so heavily focussed on rehab and being clean and I used to be a junkie (and the time period of how long he has been clean seems to stay the same as the years go on. Its always about 3 years.... curious...), Greg Fleet has a delivery and a manner that is just so damn likable that I cannot go past him. Its a laconic and laxidaysical Melbourne lexicon (which this sentence isn't). Again, I've been to his shows a number of times, and seen him do charity and gala spots too, and I just never get tired of the way he builds tension and interest and the way he makes you feel like he is just having a chat at the front of the stage. It might be his floppy tshirts. Maybe that's what gives him the relaxed feel.

On Monday night (shit was it only this week??!) I saw him do a spot at the Mirabel Foundation gig, and he was as likeable as ever - even though I'd heard some of his tales already. Then he came out and did some banter with Rebecca Barnard - they went to school together and did ceramics, and FUCK I am pleased I didn't have to teach them! - and then sang Shook Me All Night Long which was just gorgeous and one of the Special Moments of the festival for me.

Fleet also does the funny offensive shock value stuff, but he does it through anecdotes and a funny-thing-happened-to-me stories. Which I guess could be called anecdotes...