At a time when most of the Melbourne comedy scene is undertaking a period of post Festival hibernation, Tim McMillan has made the bold move to start a comedy room. Taking up residency at a bar called ‘Spleen’ (located at the top end of Melbourne’s Bourke Street), it fills the void left by the recent departure of a couple of long running Monday night rooms.
The venue itself is a long narrow room that is located next door to Spleen’s bistro. A bar manned by friendly bar staff is located not far from the entrance with a small stage at the far end. A random assortment of seating and tables are arranged before the stage, in fact a rather large number considering the size of the space, giving the place a cozy but not too claustrophobic feel. The small size of the room also had an affect on the atmosphere in the venue as the night progressed with it becoming rather warm and smoky (at least it will be for the next month or so until the new anti-smoking laws come in). The loos are located upstairs along with a lounge filled “chill out room” and another stage.
A basic sound set up, consisting of a large guitar amplifier atop a chair on the stage, gives the impression that this stage doesn’t see a lot of amplified music. It does the job but performers need to be careful of where they pace about the stage lest they want to give the audience a ear shattering burst of feedback. The other minor problem is the distortion of the sound when the comedian projects their voice, so a shouty style of comedy would run the risk of being unintelligible to the punters. I did notice that the upstairs stage seemed to be equipped with a better sound system, but they must have a reason for basing everything downstairs.
The structure of the night consists of two brackets featuring two or three performers in each with an MC holding proceedings together. With the small number of acts in comparison to some other rooms, each act is given about ten to twenty minutes to work their magic. The brackets are separated by a half hour interval, the perfect opportunity for the punters to stretch their legs, refill their glasses and get a spot of fresh air. The night ends at about 10:30, a reasonable time for a Monday.
At Spleen’s second night of operation the audience consisted of a lot of comedians, many of whom were probably checking out the vibe of this new room. The crowd’s intimate familiarity with most of the comic’s material gave the evening a relaxed feel with plenty of warm encouragement, even when the jokes didn’t generate belly laughs. Not everyone was there specifically to see the comedy, the loud chatting of a number of patrons at the bar was a distraction at times. A couple of that night’s performers were able to silence these talkers using a combination of volume and interesting material, a testament to their brilliant ability to hold an audience’s attention.
Comedy @ Spleen was an enjoyable night of stand up. With several of the regular rooms on extended hiatus, this room takes up the slack by providing another Melbourne venue for you to get your weekly comedy fix.
Comedy @ Spleen happens every Monday at Spleen (41 Bourke St, Melbourne, Phone(03) 9650 2400). The Show starts at about 8:30 and entry is free.