Hosted by Wil Anderson with a special appearance by Dave Callan, the 2006 Raw Comedy Final rounded up in style.
Heading up the first set was Bart Freebairn from Queensland who had a laid back style to his set. The strongest part of his material included a reference to a late night phone call from the ocean. The reference in this section to being ‘wet’ illustrated Bart’s ability to use pun’s and use them well. Although it became a little overworked at times he performed well and the material was strong enough to support his pun adherence. This set also included a marvellous spot about pirates.
Bec Hill from South Australia was next. An impressive aspect of Bec’s set was that she turned a ‘tight five’ into a complete set, rounding off the five with call back’s and circular closure. She covered a variety of topics in this set including references to redundant topics, a memorable encounter with a dwarf and a piece which referred to her being a nineteen year old virgin, which she executed in a way which showed a sophisticated command of extracting humour through the sheer convoluted nature of her spiel.
Victorian Tom Ballard delivered mostly one liners in his set which covered topics from funsize Mars Bars to funerals. Although the jokes came fairly thick and fast there were a few creepers in there with a physical twist to cap one off. Tom ended with a memorable piece about sponsoring a child with a new take on the colour of skin.
South Australia’s other entrant Hannah Gadsby had a dry aspect to her delivery. The first of the contestants to really do dirty material, Hannah’s inclusion of the ‘c word’ in a bit about Pam Ayres was inspired, she made this material work in a way that wasn’t sensationalist. She also painted a great portrait of Smithtown and like Bec Hill rounded off her set with a great call back.
Jeff Hewitt, a lawyer, from Western Australia started his set with material about rejection. His material quickly began to parody aspects of his own misogyny as he moved through to the subject of gay cowboys. Jeff also dropped the ‘c word’ and had an interesting piece on “existentialism” vs “the recorder” as he moved through a variety of topics, ending his set on a more serious note.
Danii Johnstone from New South Wales produced a face paced set, which touched on her parents, tampons and included a clever piece about names of porn stars and fruit. At times there was a little too much information in this set to absorb but Danii crowned it with a parody to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” exposing the not so nice aspects of Santa.
Also from New South Wales, Paul Ayre was next up. Paul had a halted start to his set which used the intro music to great comic effect. Paul continued his set in a low key, almost monotone way. Almost thematic to this section of the set was the well executed notion of not telling jokes, and a highlight of this piece was a bit about testing out deaf people. With accompaniment Paul then moved onto delivering a parody of the song “Breakfast at Tiffanies”, which became a very aggressive performance towards the end but failed to live up to the sophistication of his earlier material.
After the break the second set was kicked off by Michael Williams from Victoria who emerged onto the stage with an easel with a set of large cards on it. Michael revealed these cards one by one as he delivered the material. Slightly reminiscent of Sam Simmons, in this aspect it seems appropriate that Michael is also someone who is truly absurd, and proficient at it. Highlights of this set included takes on pacman, an ice cream man, a kidnap note, and the impressive and most ‘Simmons like’ “dog mouth”. Michael then finished this set strongly with a poem about being lazy.
He was followed by Matt Burton from Tasmania who opened his set with a poo joke. Matt’s humour was fairly observational moving through a lot of material fairly quickly including topics such as pink shirts, bogans and smoking. The most notable aspect of this set was the high energy with which it was delivered, however this did threaten at times to drown out any subtleties in the material.
Next was Victorian Celia Pacquola who touched on drink spiking, internet dating, javelin and t-ball amongst other things. Celia had a good command of her set, pitching it with just the right control and moving through the material seamlessly like an old pro, ending her set with a wicked piece about suffocating sheep with woolly jumpers.
Dylan Bennett and Kadek Hobman as “Separated at Birth” were impressive in the next spot, opening with a routine parodying street speak. These guys had a really strong physical aspect to their performance that was hilarious at times. They were mic’d up rather than using hand mikes and the sound quality here, together with the fast pace of their verbal banter made it difficult at times to hear. These guys worked well together and rounded out the set with a clever piece about turning ‘a night out’ into “The Macarena”.
They were followed by Ben Jenkins from New South Wales who began with some material about mobile phones and predictive text and expanded on these themes well. Ben is more of a creeper than a gag man, showing the makings of a really good storyteller within his allotted five minutes. Other highlights included material about unexpected avalanches, the Running of the Bulls and a hilarious notion about people who keep money up their bottoms.
Selina Jenkins as “Beau Heartbreaker” rounded of the show with her performance as a male impersonator. Most of her material was about being from the country, stuff about her mum and a pun about being a ladies man/lady man. Selina cuts an unlikely figure as a man and derives a lot of the humour from this. She topped the set with an enjoyable original song about ‘getting the ladies’.
The first prize for the newly instated “Raw Recruit” prize (a prize which goes to someone who’d never done a gig before they entered Raw) went to Celia Pacquola of Victoria. There were two runners up to the main prize; Dylan Bennett and Kadek Hobman as “Separated at Birth” and Michael Williams from Victoria. The main award for the night, and the trip to Edinburgh went to Hannah Gadsby of South Australia.
Overall the standard of these performances was really high and sincerely impressive. Apart from the aforementioned sound glitch, this is a really well produced show. The RAW Comedy final is the arrowhead of a competition that has proved itself, over the years, to be an inordinately profitable thing for anyone in Australia who cares about the future of comedy. Next year, see this show, and see the lead up heats. It truly is a journey of discovery.
NB: The final was being filmed for ABC TV so keep an eye on your guides to check out when it’s being televised.