It’s 11:30 on a Sunday morning, and a crowd of people are gathered at Marieville Esplanade in Battery Point for a game of beach cricket. Not an unusual scene. What makes this unusual is that the players, spectators and self-appointed umpires are variously participants, organisers and crew of the Hobart Comedy Festival. Most Festivals would have a closing night where the participants gather for a drink or seven. Hobart is no exception, but it is the sheer friendliness of the scene that everyone (except those with early flights out) has braved the sunshine to play a game of cricket that is poorly adjudicated and in which no scores are kept. I doubt there’s another festival in the world where the producer dons a Dalek apron to man the barbeque while the rest of the crowd mock the redheads for being outside.
The Hobart Comedy Festival bills itself as being ’ the world’s smallest cultural event’, but that’s not a bad thing. In January 2002 there was no viable comedy industry in Tasmania. A few comedy duos straddled the corporate market and theatrical sphere, a few restaurants and pubs had attempted short-lived ‘comedy club’ events, and the state was visited by touring artists far less frequently than is currently common.
Between January 2002 and January 2005 – across four Januarys – the number of venues in use by The Hobart Comedy Festival has increased from one to five, the number of local artists engaged increased from eight to eighteen and the number of interstate guests increased from nil to nine. Hobart now boasts two regular comedy rooms, Big Laughs in the Little Pub (held on the last Wednesday of every month at the New Sydney Hotel) and Sund’y Side Up (held approximately fortnightly on Sundays at The Republic Bar, North Hobart).
From humble beginnings, the festival has continued to grow, getting more attention and more interest from punters and performers alike, yet still maintaining the atmosphere gained form a group of people getting together just to make people laugh. Without a constant stream of comedy and comedians to influence them, Tassie’s up-and-comers develop their own unique unaffected style, something which should stand them in good stead in the future, according to Adam Hills.
In 2002, the bill included duos X & Wellington (John X and Craig Wellington), The Red Hot Cols (Colin Dean and Andrew Colrain), Novak ‘n’ Good [say it quickly, you’ll get it] (Glenn Brown and Daryl Peebles), Tassie’s Raw Comedy champ for the year 2000, Ben Payne, and ‘some guy form Bruny Island’ named Ueli Niederer. Since then, the festival has featured such performers as Adam Hills, Rod Quantock, Wil Anderson, Dave Hughes, Kim Hope, The Scared Weird Little Guys, Lano and Woodley, Charlie Pickering, Greg Fleet, Justin Hamilton, Danny McGinlay, Justin Heazlewood, Corinne Grant, Damian Callinan and Tom Gleeson, not to mention the numerous local acts, some of whom have gone on to perform in, and then move to, Melbourne.
The 2006 festival featured shows by Justin Hamilton and Adam Hills, as well as Tassie Stands Up, a showcase of local talent, with guest acts Andy McClelland, Hannah Gadsby and Jim McDonald, plus a special appearance by “X Wellington”, Wellington X, on the one night John X wasn’t in Melbourne playing Pumbaa in the Lion King. The Big Finale was MC’d by the fun-tastic Damian Callinan, and featured the best of Tassie Stands Up, plus Justin Hamilton, Corinne Grant and Tom Gleeson.
Whatever 2007 has to bring, you an be guaranteed that Hobart will produce something that may be ‘the world’s smallest’, but also one of the most unique.