The Comedy Zone is the comedy festival’s showcase gig for up and coming comedic talent. Pulling heavily from the ranks of Raw Comedy with two 2007 grand finalists, and a grand finalist and semi finalist from 2006, there’s a great mix of experience levels and styles on show.
The MC for the night was Tom Ballard, an 18 year old comedian from Warrnambool (The MC spot is rotated between comedians throughout the course of the season). With some great opening material about being the only Victorian on the bill, Tom quickly had the audience on side and ploughed through his very literary set. Focusing almost exclusively on examining and questioning the meaning behind phrases, there was some great laughs. The lack of variety in the set did start to wear thin as the set progressed, but stopped short of getting boring. His set was given an extra boost by striking audience gold with an old lady in the front row who seemed more than happy to participate in banter. Tom’s thinking on his feet let him milk the relationship throughout the show for consistent laughs and created a strong audience bond.
Next up was 17 year old Jack Druce. With material on Dyslexia, religion, planes and movie titles, Jack initially seemed to lose the audience’s concentration with his opening, but quickly gained confidence as his set progressed. In contrast to Tom’s maturity, it’s clear that Jack is still quite inexperienced on the stage – which is quite excusable for a high school student. There’s a great deal of really well thought out material but he delivers his lines like he’s making in-jokes with friends, often laughing through the punchline and stifling the laughs. There’s also a couple of sections where he carries on the joke beyond the major punchline, leaving him without a big laugh to get him through the next setup. That all said, once Jack is old enough to gig on a regular basis to improve his confidence on stage or perhaps even as the festival progresses, he’s got the writing chops to make audiences laugh.
After another brief segue from Tom on dog and cat owners, Lila Tillman took to the stage. With material on her boyfriend, trivia, and the experiences of being overweight and African-American, Lila has a negative tone to her delivery that doesn’t seem justified by her material. Lila also has a slightly awkward stage presence, though her’s seem to stem more from bad habit than inexperience. Her stop-start style of speaking and the way in which she would occasionally phrase her setup material with the tone of a punchline, left the audience with little clue as to when their responses were appropriate, giving her less laughs than some of her material deserved.
Following another very funny interlude from Tom on the tough sell of immunisation, Jacques Barrett takes to the Stage. Covering fairly well worn topics such as the Melbourne-Sydney rivalry, troubles with women and a homophobic and racist parent, Jacques brings a fresh take with some great laughs. He projects an air of confidence that allows him to plough through his material with barely a break in the laughter. He even manages to pull off writing and performing ‘in the style of black comedians’ without the groan-worthy racism that such material could easily inspire. Jacques is effortlessly talented, commanding the absolute command of the stage and attention of the audience. While Lila and Jack come fresh from Raw Comedy and are still finding their feet, Jacques has a couple of years experience under his belt and has really hit his stride.
This is a great mix of new talent, and with three Sydney based comedians on the bill, is a great opportunity for Melbourne punters to see what’s been brewing in the North.
View the “comedy festival website”:http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/season/2008/specialevents/thecomedyzone/ for bookings and further details