People of Sydney can have a good laugh for the next few weeks as the Sydney Comedy Festival has started and runs until May 19. Gala shows were held at the Sydney Opera giving fourteen acts five minutes each to showcase the amazing talent that has assembled in Sydney. These artists will be performing their full shows in various venues during the festival and there will be comedy to suit a wide variety of tastes.
English comedian Joe Lycett hosted the event and joyfully harassed the front row of the audience. Joe thought the audience member who said he was employed as a service advisor was giving a vague answer and was probably a drug dealer. Venzuelan born Ivan Aristeguieta was grateful that Australia had given him a visa because his country has severely deteriorated since he left. He only wishes that the English he studied before migrating had focused more on Australian English. Scottish comedian Fern Brady squeezed a lot into her five minutes including her battles with homophobic Scottish politicians, smashed avocado and fellatio.
I suspect Phil Wang needs more than five minutes for his style of humour but he had some good observations about accents, forgiving the Japanese and Australian cities. Canadian Mark Forward has a brilliant, understated delivery and has a clever device to get the most out of his jokes. The joys and horrors of raising teenagers is explored by Georgie Carroll. Host Joe Lycett dropped into the program a few times with his charm and witty observations. He kindly warned us when he was going to be repulsive and also threw in some enjoyable audience participation.
As is in the nature of comedy galas the acts and the laughs kept on coming. Tom Ballard lampooned ScoMo and baby boomers, Sean McLoughlin is a surprising friend of Google, and Lauren Pattison has some real issues with her family. The Chaser’s Charles Firth and The Shovel’s James Schloeffel tried to explain the upcoming Federal election. Just as American late night television hosts have difficulty satirising Trump it is hard to be funnier than our politicians. They have already said so many ridiculous things. Tahir (previously seen in Fat Pizza) had hilarious gags about race relations, parenting and Michelle Corby. Larry Dean had some great physical humour and surprising twists about looking tough and gay in Glasgow. Tom Allen did a funny and frenetic routine about schoolteachers and Phill Jupitus finished an excellent evening with his tales of Scottish wildlife, village life and Brexit.
This performance of the Sydney Comedy Festival Gala was at the Sydney Opera House, 25th April, 2019.
The Sydney Comedy Festival has started and runs until May 19. The performance at the Gala indicates that Sydney is in for a fun month.
Photographer credit Ben Sanford