The Local has a baby brother…or is that sister…sibling anyway. Starting August 30 The Giggle Club will happen at Revellers Bar, 274 Chapel St, Prahran (opposite Blockbuster Video) and continue every Wednesday, 8.30pm, $5 entry.
The Helpmann Awards for live performance have been announced with Lano & Woodley taking out the award for Best Comedy Performer for their show “Lano and Woodley – Goodbye”. Casey Bennetto won the award for Best Original Score for “Keating! A country soul opera”.
Science Week is embracing comedy in a show that includes Andy Muirhead, Greg Fleet, Janet McLeod, Lawrence Leung and Adrian Calear. It’s happening on Friday 18th August, 6 pm at Melbourne Museum, The Age Theatre, 1 Nicholson Street, Carlton. Entry is free but bookings are essential. For bookings ring 1300 130 152 or for more info check the website
The Overload Poetry Festival is celebrating comedy again this year. The Comic Poets night will feature Ed Burger, Panman, Lish, Gemnastics, Michael Reynolds, David Prater, Crazy Elf, Esteban Dos Santos and Ben Pobje. Go to www.overloadpoetry.com for details. To check it out go to Pony, 68 Little Collins St, Melbourne. Tix $5/$4, 8pm, Wednesday 16 August.
In festival news the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is reporting a record year for 2006. Festival organisers are reporting ticket sales of $7.6 million and attendance figures of 415,000 over the three weeks, claiming in their press release to now be the world’s second largest comedy festival, second only to Edinburgh Fringe Festival (even though the Montreal “Just for Laughs Festival” hosts over twice as many shows and is reporting attendances of nearly two million punters for 2006).
MICF director Susan Provan said “we’re mighty pleased that our years of planning to develop strategies to make sure Australians remembered the Comedy Festival was coming straight after the Commonwealth Games has paid off”. Earlier this year the MICF reported a loss of $100,000 due to the cost of an advertising campaign designed to offset the impact of the Commonwealth Games.
AS