Sydney Comedy Festival
Sydney’s annual LOL-fest is turning 12 – and throwing a month-long party at Town Hall.
This year, their 12th, Sydney Comedy Festival are adding Sydney Town Hall to their list of venues, and giving the top bit over to a raft of international comedians – including festival favourite Ross Noble – and the bottom bit over to a kids’ comedy program ( see p24). At night, however, the Lower Town Hall becomes an adults-only late-night club, with a program of comedy, cabaret and music. Sydney Comedy Festival’s line-up is always smaller than the behemoth Melbourne International Comedy Festival (which opens a month earlier) and the show runs are shorter. The advantage for Sydneysiders, however, is that any comedians who do both will arrive in Sydney having honed their material over a long run of shows – we’re talking weeks rather than days. Below we’ve highlighted five comedians doing different and awesome things with comedy – in April. Find the rest of our recommmendations, for April and May, at www.timeout.com/sydney/comedy.
01 ALICE FRASER Fraser, who famously ditched law for stand-up, had her breakthrough in 2015 with her show Savage, about the death of her mum. Having sharpened it over the previous 18 months around Australian festivals, she took it to Edinburgh and had The Scotsman raving about “a truly extraordinary show” with “wonderful chunks of musical surrealism, feminism, religious philosophy and tragedy.” Fraser’s new show, The Resistance, is, if not rooted in tragedy like Savage, then certainly not lightweight. It’s about moral complexity in an online world, her grandmother, and her weird upbringing.
Enmore Theatre Thu-Sat 9.30pm. Sun 8.30pm. $22.65$26.95. Apr 28-May 1.
02 AXIS OF AWESOME The musical comedy trio are back with a show that’s same same – and just a little bit different. According to our spies in Adelaide, their new show Won’t Ever Not Stop Giving Up is more of the same AoA action that their legion of YouTube and live comedy fans know and love. Well, with some more girl power. Get up to speed with their new album Viva La Vida Loca Las Vegas, or just rock up and enjoy the magic of three people who perform comedy as well as they write spoof songs.
Giant Dwarf 7pm. $30.08-$36.91. Apr 28-30. The Concourse 9pm. $35.27-$39.35. Sat May 7.
03 COREY WHITE The Queensland comic is bringing his awardwinning debut show back to Sydney Comedy Festival – and that’s lucky for you, because it won the Best Comedy award at the 2014 Sydney Fringe and the Best Newcomer award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2015. The Cane Toad Effect draws on a rich seam of personal adversity – drug addiction, abuse and suicide – and somehow makes it funny.
Sydney Town Hall 9.30pm. $25. Apr 23-24. Enmore Theatre 9.30pm. $25. May 10-14.
04 DEMI LARDNER Our Melbourne spies (ie Time Out Melbourne) say this fresh talent kills a short spot, we’re keen to see what she does with a full hour. She’s making her Sydney Comedy Festival debut this year, having won new talent comps Raw Comedy in Australia and So You Think You’re Funny? in the UK, and done the Edinburgh Fringe and Montreal’s Just for Laughs.
Enmore Theatre Thu-Sat 8.15pm. Sun 7.15pm. $25-$28.50. Apr 28-May 1.
05 NAZEEM HUSSAIN Waleed Aly Matt Okine Nazeem Hussain is a funny guy – but the comic and activist is also a pretty important new voice in Australia’s predominantly white media, with his sketch comedy show Legally Brown scoring a Logie nomination. His last comedy show sold out around Australia and overseas, and scored a Helpmann Award nomination – so he can afford to casually drop a single date of stand-up at the Enmore like it’s no big deal. Catch him before he gets more expensive.
Enmore Theatre 7.15pm. $30-$35. Sat Apr 30. Sydney Comedy Festival www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au. Apr 18-May 15.