The Adelaide International Comedy Gala

★★★★★

Adelaide. Fringe. Holden Street Theatres and Thebarton Theatre. 25 Feb 2023

A flock of galas can be seen at the Fringe but this is the biggest and probably the best. You need the 2000-seat Thebarton Theatre to fit in all interested parties - its reputation precedes it.

Emcee Eddie Bannon was a great warm-up, but there wasn’t much warming up required – the audience was pretty pumped and ready for a few laughs. I think the first thing we laughed at was Covid because so many of us wouldn’t have been in the buzz of a room like that for maybe years. Still, Bannon brightened things up even more with his jokes and repartee and by discussing menopause with a 15-year-old girl. In this review, I will plug the comedian’s Fringe show if they have one.

Damian Callinan (Damian Callinan – Double Feature) is a stalwart of stand-up and theatre. I’ve seen him in the 5 Star show, Damian Callinan – The Merger, and the magnificent The Wine Bluffs – always his material. Super funny and slick with a friendly smile. Sri Lankan-Australian Dilruk Jayasinha (Dilruk Jayasinha – Heart Stopper) was super funny – bright and witty on the cultural exchange issues with a non-stop schtick. Rudy-Lee Taurua (Rudy-Lee Taurua: “Diverse”) – when your self-proclaimed background is “gay, mixed race, First Nation, raised by a single mother on the pension, working class, anxious, clinically depressed, and domestic abuse survivor,” you have more than enough material for a laugh-fest. Rudy-Lee makes the most of the hand he was dealt. Confronting and punchy, he knows how to shock and awe with delicious irony. The first half was finished by Amos Gill (Amos Gill – The Pursuit of Happy(ish)). Amos makes a living in Los Angeles, which you might guess is highly competitive for comics. But perhaps more opportunity than the Adelaide he was brought up in and where he studied law. Gill’s style is full in your face – the ordinary is turned on its head for delicious satire.

After intermission, Bannon barely needed to re-energise the audience – everyone was heady. Next up, Ivan Aristeguieta (Ivan Aristeguieta – Citizen). Entitled ‘Citizen’ because Ivan is from Venezuela and just got his citizenship – 10 years later. When he arrived on our shores, he thought we were so funny, he took up stand-up. I didn’t think there was any funny way left to laugh at Australian lingo, but Ivan’s material was murderous. Ivan won Best Weekly Comedy Award at the Fringe last year, and was nominated for Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2021.

Fiona O’Loughlin (Fiona O’Loughlin, and Nickyboy & Queen Fee: Fiona O’Loughlin) puts on an act of being addled by alcohol but with some experience after a revealing performance incident in 2009, which she bravely and candidly discussed with ABC’s Australian Story. Dressed in hippie chic, Fiona stretches the international theme unless Yorke Peninsula separated and nobody noticed. The grandkids cop it in her act - it’s about time - they get away with so much. Fiona is an exceptional person and a beacon to all who crave to bounce back with comic timing and chutzpah.

I first reviewed Heath Franklin in 2007 doing his Chopper thing. He’s lost the handlebar mo and sunnies and the repulsive and ludicrous persona and you can see him in Heath Franklin – Out of Character being his regular funny self. From the foreign land of Western Sydney, he does a good chicken impersonation.

Another intermission and on to the third half. Carey Marx (British Comedian, Carey Marx: The Dead Don’t Heckle) won Best International Comedy Show at the New Zealand Comedy Festival, twice. And I can see and hear why. Sipping a beer and bearded, his deadpan takes are hilarious. Prince Harry lamented in his book, Spare, that he was never going to be king, saying, and Carey retorts, “Finally, here is somebody who understands me.”

Sorry, John Lynn, if you have a Fringe show on, it’s not easy to find. The luck of the Irish. John uses effective vocal effects to accentuate his lockdown story, but Carey Marx is a tough act to follow. The fulsome evening ended with James Donald Forbes McCann (The James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan Extravagan(za)!) whose Fringe show will apparently appeal to the mariner in you. Having graduated from Call Centre High, James had much to say about operations there and his lucky escape. “Don’t talk to the white guy, talk to the Indian immigrant with three degrees awaiting recognition of his qualifications.”

The Gala is great value. For a measly $28, you are thoroughly entertained with laughter, cheeks hurting and trying to remember the jokes after nearly three hours of non-stop comic heaven. Bravo!

PS Ok, Ok, I get it. You only have enough money to see one of these comics and you want to know who I recommend. Please deposit $25 to my account: BSB …. Ha, just kidding! If I had to pick one, it would be Carey Marx, and if I had to pick two, Ivan Aristeguieta. But remember, I’m just a small boat in the sea of opinion, and any of these stand-ups will have you in stitches.

David Grybowski

When: 25 Feb

Where: Thebarton Theatre

Bookings: Closed

Wilkins @ The Fringe - The Eye of Wilkins

★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Wilkins The Adventurer. Goodwood Theatre. 25 Feb 2023

Sir George Hubert Wilkins is without doubt Australia’s greatest adventurist and explorer. And you never heard of him, right? He was a pioneer of air and sea exploration, a keen recorder of scientific data and way ahead of his time on global meteorology, and as the documentary title suggests, a film and still photographer, particularly of the polar icescapes, Aborigines and Innuits, and the Western Front. These photos form an enchanting and valuable record of times long gone. Like Forrest Gump, he seemed to be at the right place at the right time for great events. Wilkins was on the 1921/22 Shackleton-Rowett Expedition to the Southern Ocean on which Shackleton died, and he photographed King George V knighting Sir John Monash on the battlefield. Monash said of him, “[Wilkins] was a highly accomplished and absolutely fearless combat photographer. What happened to him is a story of epic proportions. Wounded many times ... he always came through. At times he brought in the wounded, at other times he supplied vital intelligence of enemy activity he observed. At one point he even rallied troops as a combat officer ... His record was unique." More often, he was creating the great events with many world firsts. And he was born near Hallett in 1888, the last of 13 children, on a property on the wrong side of the Goyder Line. His birth house is still there, ready to visit, thanks to its restoration by admirer and fellow aviator, Dick Smith.

Adelaide’s Peter Maddern is a Wilkins tragic - as many people familiar with his story are - and he lovingly spent two-and-a-half years researching and creating this documentary comprising images of Wilkins in action but mostly of Wilkins pointing the camera. He takes us chronologically and faithfully along on Wilkins’s adventures in chapter-like sequences: the Balkan war, Canadian Arctic expeditions, the Western Front (in which he was wounded), post-war Gallipoli, the 1919 England to Australia Air race (in which he crashed), Shackleton’s last voyage, and Stalinist starvation in 1922. A 1923/25 survey for the British Museum of bird life in northern Australia was his undoing with Australia - his intimacy with the plight of the Aborigines and his criticism of Australian authorities for environmental degradation earned him the disapprobation that has thwarted his recognition in this country. In 1928, he and a comrade made the first flight over Antarctica. Only five months later, he flew from Alaska to Spitsbergen over the Arctic. For this he was knighted and got a ticker tape parade in New York. But wait there’s more! In 1931, he was the first to take a submarine under Arctic ice. The venture was so reckless, even Randolph Hearst ended his support. However, the US Navy thought so highly of him that they scattered his ashes at the North Pole and returned to do the same for his wife a few years later. The first US nuclear submarine was named for Wilkins sub, the Nautilus.

Maddern admits that he’s not a professional documentary film-maker. Nonetheless, I reviewed the film in the 2021 Fringe and it remains punchy and vitally interesting throughout. Maddern readily employs the Ken Burns effect to make even still photography come to life, his own narration, background scores and voiceovers of Wilkins and others.

Don’t let the weird poster picture of a seaplane coming at you out of Wilkins’s nose put you off. This is a must see for everyone who hasn’t heard of our hero, and for the fanatical fans, fantastic! Bravo!

PS There are two recent biographies of Wilkins: The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Australia's Unknown Hero, by Simon Nasht (2007) and The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins: Australia's Greatest Explorer by Peter FitzSimons (2021).

David Grybowski

When: 25 Feb

Where: Goodwood Theatre

Bookings: Closed

The Beep Test

★★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Neylon & Peel (WA). Holden Street Theatres. 25 Feb 2023

The “Beep Test” is a “thing” familiar to most school children. It is a crucial fitness measure which is counted in their overall school achievements.  A lousy showing in the beep test can bring down the school dux. Such is the premise of this fast and furious home-grown Aussie musical.
Thus does Sandra (Jo Jabalde), the top student of Year 7C, struggle against the odds of the sports-star students to keep her high marks and, importantly, to please her demanding but demeaning mother.

She is up against Zach (Josh Reckless) and  Jane (Sara Reed) who are super sporty rivals desperate to come out on top. There is also hapless Cooper (Jack Keen) who, with his interest in computer gaming, is the outsider and general victim of school teasing. Shamelessly favouring his footy-mad pet, Zach, the PE teacher (Lachie Hewson) pushes the cause of fitness with the hero-worship of champions. For anyone who is not a school sports fan, this psychology rubs in a very wrong direction. But, Naylon & Peel have squeezed a goodly dose of humour out of it, as well as an old fashioned tale of compassion and moral values. Yep, it is cornball. But it is irresistibly high energy and fun-filled, the cast, when not jogging through songs, performing some very creditable dance routines. The choreography is extremely slick and good looking and the cast members are fit as proverbial fiddles and very well-rehearsed and able as hoofers, especially Hewson as the hulking big coach fellow. For all his muscular bulk, this young actor moves like a dream. He’s a very expressive actor, too. Indeed, all characters are clearly and compassionately evoked. It’s an extremely competent production all round.

Connor Neylon and Jackson Peele are products of WAAPA. The Beep Test is not their first musical and one hopes not their last. It is an appealing show, impeccably enhanced by the obviously formally-trained cast and a fabulous accompanist.

The production has been earning five-star reviews wherever it has been performed - and here’s five more.

Samela Harris

NOTE:  Programs available only by QR codes on the phone are the critic’s nightmare. One cannot and must not look at them during performance and definitely not take notes on them.  Dropbox is an app. For heaven’s sake. Accept cookies. QR programs are odious and detract from a good impression of a young company.

When: 25 Feb to 5 Mar

Where: Holden Street Theatres

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au

Horse Country - A Surreal Comedy

★★★★★

Adelaide Fringe. Flying Bridge Theatre Company (UK) via Joanne Hartstone. The Bally, Gluttony. 24 Feb 2023

They tout it as “a surrealist comedy”.  It is far more. It is like a deep dive into Beckett, Sartre and Kafka. Written by American satirist C.J. Hopkins, it is absurdist, existential, satirical, and deliciously manic with a nod in the direction of Laurel and Hardy. Most importantly, it is a rivetingly good piece of theatre superbly performed in impeccable American accents by a couple of ace actors from a Welsh theatre company. 

Here, just to add to the descriptive melange, it is presented in a seriously cute round tent called The Bally set beneath trees on the verdant slopes of Guttony in Rymill Park.

Tousle-haired Sam in denim bib-overalls is the innocent hick parrying with sleek straight man, Bob, who wears shirt and tie. Both are lost in torrents of verbiage, sometimes puzzled, sometimes combative, sometimes political. Ostensibly, they are sharing a bottle of bourbon after a game of cards which was abandoned because of the loss of the nine of diamonds. Their subjects segue in discursive circles touching on seals and fishing, capitalism and crime. Yes, even horses. They are anarchists who hate anarchists. They express the best and worst of American nationalistic sentiments. They talk ceaselessly, incessantly, desperately, furiously. They are trapped in frenetic, meaningless discourse bringing to mind the predicaments of Godot and Endgame and NoExit. 

But these are the prisoners of Horse Country, performed with peerless vociferance by Daniel Lllewelyn-Williams and Michael Edwards and directed by Mark Bell,.

The play’s humour is lateral with surprise throwaways. The audience concentrates to keep up. This is not hard, since it is rivetingly intense - but only for 65 breathtaking minutes. 

It was a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe and it is destined to be a hit here. 

A sensationally satisfying dose of transfixing bafflegab.

Samela Harris

When: 24 Feb to 10 Mar

Where: The Bally, Gluttony

Bookings: adelaidefringe.com.au