Recent years have seen the arrival of several major comedy festivals around Australia, all running in the lead up to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This year sees the addition of the inaugural Brisbane Comedy Festival, produced and curated by Brisbane’s Josh Thomas.
Although still acheingly young, Josh Thomas is fast becoming a veteran of the comedy scene. He first entered the national consciousness in 2005 when he won the Grand Final of the MICF’s country wide RAW competition at the tender age of seventeen. The following year saw him selected for The Comedy Zone, a Comedy Festival showcase of four of the hottest young comedians in the country. The rollercoaster continued in 2007 with Josh’s inaugural one man show Please Like Me earning both critical praise and the MICF Award for Best Newcomer. Josh has appeared at both Edinburgh and Montreal in the only two comedy festivals in the world that are bigger than Melbourne and in the mean time he has also instituted a regular comedy room in Brisbane, showcasing some of the freshest and most exciting acts that the comedy circuit has to offer.
I asked Josh about this ambitious new event on Queensland’s cultural calendar.
What inspired you to start a comedy festival in Brisbane?
It is long overdue, Brisbane has more comedy gigs then any other city and is producing some solid comedy. We need something like this to complete our comedy landscape. Plus festivals are so much fun, great comedy minds come together and cool stuff happens. Why not?
Who can punters expect to see appearing in the line up?
It is way too early to mention any names, or even hint at names. I know who I want to come and perform and I have been talking to some awesome acts, but it is way to early to even think about thinking about locking them in.
How are you coping with the challenge of curating this festival when you are a) so young and b) preparing for your own show at MICF?
I always get surprised when people mention how young I am, I think 20 is old. It’s the oldest I have ever been. Everything is just too exciting at the moment, I am so excited that this festival has finally been announced. Comedy at the Brisbane Powerhouse is so well respected, I grew up watching comedy there and I did ‘Class Clowns’ there, being able to work with them is just nuts. I am really anxious to see if anyone will actually like my new show ‘The Adventures of Josh Thomas and the World’s Greatest Love Machine’ at the Adelaide fringe and MICF. I can’t sleep.
You have four different venues. For those of us not familiar with these venues how do they differ in style? Is it difficult to juggle the different venues?
We have the Powerhouse theatre, the Visy Theatre, The Turbine Rehearsal Room and the Turbine Platform. The Powerhouse theatre is the biggest and will be home to some pretty impressive names, as well as the opening night Gala. The Visy Theatre seats around 200 people, I did my show there last year it is such an awesome space. I am really excited about the Turbine Rehearsal Room, we are offering it to Brisbane comedians for free, with some free marketing. There will be a bit of an application process for them, it is kind of like a grant, but more casual. It is such a great opportunity for local acts. and the Turbine Platform would be familiar to people who come to our free weekly comedy show ‘Livewired’ it will be the home of free late night parties, and free comedy debates.
Like many festivals around the country you are putting yours on during the lead up to MICF. Why is this important? Do you think Australia as a whole is starting to develop a ‘comedy season’?
There are so many festivals starting up, it seems like everyone I talk to is starting a festival. MICF is the biggest festival and it brings out the most names, we put our festival before theirs in the hope that we can pick up some of the International comedians that are hanging around. I think we probably are starting a ‘comedy season’ there is such a huge run of back to back festivals now with Adelaide, MICF, Sydney Cracker our festival and some others.
Can you tell me the dates of this festival? Where do people go for info?
Info is fairly scarce at the moment, there is a page up at brisbanepowerhouse.org about it. Pretty much all I can say about it is ‘It’s on in March 2009, it will run for 2 weeks, it will be funny. It will have national and International acts and it will support local acts. It is the first thing like it Brisbane has ever seen and if I don’t stuff it up it will be the most exciting 2 weeks of comedy we’ve ever seen’
For details on the Brisbane Comedy Festival go here. To check out info on Josh’s Melbourne Comedy Festival Show click here.
Many thanks to Josh Thomas