The first thing to note is that Headliners has moved from the Hifi Bar as listed in the Festival Guide, over the road to the Lower Town Hall, probably what was going to be the venue for Janeane Garofalo & Greg Behrendt. Unfortunately Janeane cancelled, but we still got to see Greg as part of Headliners.
When you go along to an all American comedy night you sort of expect it to be full of loud, shouty Americans, but this was not like that at all. I got the impression the performers here were chosen specifically with the Melbourne taste for comedy in mind. The first performer was the Todd Barry, who I enjoyed seeing last time he performed his own show in Melbourne. He was probably the furthest from that overbearing style, of the three comedians who performed Headliners the night I saw it. He was a very quiet and gentle New Yorker with a deadpan delivery. I wondered if he was maybe too low key to get a night of comedy underway with an expectant, excited crowd. He mostly found humour in his travels and apartment hunting and did a bit of flirting with an audience member that bordered on the creepy. His style was pretty old fashioned, which is fine by me, but he didn’t really have any strong material that stuck in your mind after he left.
Next up was young John Mulaney a current writer on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and more interestingly ‘Important things with Dimetri Martin’. He was a lot brighter and cheerier than Todd. But being a New Yorker he started by cracking jokes about violent crime and crime TV shows such as CSI and Law & Order. I don’t watch them but still got laughs from his impressions of the clichéd characters that keep popping up and how real New York barmen cannot be as observant as the ones on TV who always remember what the suspect looked like and what time they were in the bar. He got the whole audience onside with his talk of possums and the Possum Man. Then he moved on to movies and his advice to James Cameron about what to do with the $500 million that was spent on Avatar. John ended with the most memorable tale of the night involving a juke box and the song ‘What’s New Pussycat’.
Greg Behrendt was the final act and he was a more powerful and friendly presence on stage, but his style of anecdotes did not vary much from that of the previous acts. He won us over immediately by telling us he only wants to work in Australia to meet the Hoodoo Gurus, ‘I’m old’. He worries that he’s too old too rock, now he has to have a nap before heading out to see The White Stripes perform. He spoke of the stupidity of the alpha male and the changing of masculinity and bodily functions, and it was all very genial, and entertaining, but really nothing to write home about.
The problem with the acts in the line up that I saw was that they were all too similar in style. I had been quietly hoping to see Garfunkle and Oats, ladies who sing and play the ukulele, but it’s pretty much pot luck with Headliners. Still I can’t imagine that you’ll have a bad night at Headliners and it’s great to get to know some accomplished comedians from the United States for a change. If you want to have a relaxed enjoyable laugh with your mates, this is a pretty safe bet.
Headliners runs until April 18th. Visit the comedy festival website for bookings and further details.