Fast becoming a huge event on Hobart’s cultural calendar, the Big Finale saw a capacity crowd witness a very special night of comedy. The action took place at Hobart’s historic Theatre Royal, the oldest working theatre in Australia. For a 800 seater that was surprisingly intimate and beautifully decorated.
Damian Callinan was given MC duties for the evening. Despite only having arrived in Hobart several hours earlier he was clued in to many local events and references, especially a series of articles printed in the Hobart Mercury on Tasmania’s top 200 movers and shakers. This extra effort endeared him to the crowd even more. Damian also warmed up the audience with a bit of banter and some old material. He ended the introductory set with a piece by his schoolboy alter-ego Nathan Houlahan. His Choose Your Own Adventure story on the history of Tasmania brought the house down. When he returned after the intermission, Damian performed part of last year’s MICF show “Spaznuts”.
The audience was next given a sampler of Tasmanian stand up talent. Kevin Kopstein delivered a solid set that had gone down well all week at “Tassie Stands Up” and tonight was no exception. Ryk Goddard appeared as his character “Cecil Brown”, performing his wonderfully geeky Brown Rap. Josh Earl performed several delightful songs all to a backing track and even included an old visual gag, complete with an oversized prop for the benefit of the people in the nosebleed section. Peter Helliar wrapped up the first half with a healthy dose of his cheeky larrikin humour.
In the second half we were then treated to stand up from three more local comedians. Gavin Baskerville , Andy Muirhead and Hannah Gadsby performed slightly truncated versions of the sets they had been performing all week. It was interesting to see how all the local performers went about modifying their material to suit the larger audience of people who were essentially familiar with only the interstate visitors. All three went down a treat with the Finale crowd.
Next up was Judith Lucy whose set was mostly from her last MICF show “I Failed” but she threw in some very old material that hadn’t been seen in many a year. Judith had the audience in the palm of her hand with her amusing stories delivered in her trademark droll manner.
Just before the Umbilical Brothers were set to take the stage as the final act, Damian broke the news that Dave had twisted his ankle and would not be appearing. On that bombshell, Shane took to the stage alone, apologizing for his limited stand up skills. Just when the crowd thought that they would not witness any physical Umbilical entertainment, Shane introduced a special guest who would try to fill Dave’s shoes. When Carl Barron strode onto the stage, the applause was deafening!
To get into the role of “Dave”, Carl tried on a number of silly wigs before settling on one that suited and was coaxed into wearing the Umbilical uniform (ie a singlet). Under Shane’s instructions Carl attempted to perform some of the standard mime routines, but anarchy kept shining through with Carl frequently breaking into his stand up bits. After five or ten minutes of limited success of keeping Carl on a short leash, Shane was killed via mime and dragged off the stage, leaving Carl to do what he does best. The majority of his stand up set was material from last year’s Melbourne Fringe show and delighted the crowd.
The Big Finale was definitely a night to remember. It certainly lived up to it’s advertising of being “the best line up of comedians ever seen in Tasmania at one event”. With Dave’s injury, a possible disaster was turned into an almost spontaneous event that is unlikely to be seen again. Here’s hoping that next year’s Finale can live up to this year’s.