‘He kissed my boyfriend on the mouth’: The comedy festival’s best moments

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For the past month our team of reviewers have immersed themselves in everything the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has to offer – from a show that attempts to cover the entirety of Greek mythology in the space of an hour, to an interactive video game that looks like it came straight from the ’80s, to a performer so charming an audience member is willing to offer up their own pants for them to wear. After reviewing more than 100 different acts, here are some of the moments and jokes that stood out the most.

Clockwise from bottom left: Jordan Gray, Garry Starr, Annie Louey, Liz Kingsman, Danny Bhoy and Leo Reich.Credit:

Best joke of the festival

While Guy Montgomery could probably fill nine of the top 10 spots on this list, it’d have to be Rosie Jones discussing with a lesbian lover what they should do for the day. Listen to Nickelback, read The Guardian or have sex. Guess what always wins out of rock, paper or scissors? – Tyson Wray

A toss-up between Jordan Gray joking that “she was taking down the patriarchy one man at a time”, Danny Bhoy’s immaculately worded joke, “It’s not our fault our music teacher got fired after a month. They found A minor in A flat”, every pun in Jennifer Wong’s show, and nearly every line of Sonali Thakker’s punchline-studded routine in Best of Comedy Zone Asia – most notably her response to her mum asking her if she was “having sex” when she discovered empty condom wrappers in her bag: “I’ve already had sex. That’s how condoms work.” – Sonia Nair

When Sashi Perera coined the term “browndaries” to classify the overbearing nature of South Asian families, using the analogy “imagine if you had a circle around you and the entire island of Sri Lanka was in it”. Casually drop that into your next conversation with your parents. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Luke Heggie’s Grot is a brutally truthful hour of sour power. Behold the savagery of these lines: “This country’s built on theft” and this one about yoga enthusiasts: “The most flexible people in this country are also the most useless.” – Mikey Cahill

Jordan Gray skewering any dudebro TERF who’s down with Bruce Wayne identifying as a bat, but can’t handle the joyous existence of trans people. – Stephen A. Russell

Nominee for most outstanding show of the Festival Jordan Gray fills her hour with non-stop zingers, but perhaps her funniest line is the climactic chorus of one song – “No-one asked for a gender neutral Mr Potato Head”. Absolute gold. – Donna Demaio

Jennifer Wong offers up pun after pun.

Most stand-out moment in a show

The entirety of Liz Kingsman’s One Woman Show is a stand-out. The lighting, the audio design, not to mention the razor-sharp writing and performance. Just incredible. If there had to be one stand-out: it’d be the finale. No spoilers. – Tyson Wray

It’s between Garry Starr emerging bottom-first out of a makeshift vagina – a Star(r) was born – or Jordan Gray materialising out of an onstage phone booth in her superhero costume. – Sonia Nair

Don’t see Garry Starr if you don’t like being picked on – he will climb over everyone else to find you in the back row. I won’t soon forget the moment my boyfriend received a kiss on the mouth because he wasn’t paying attention to the participation instructions … or was he? – Hannah Francis

The moment that a superpowered Jordan Gray let all inhibitions (and costume) fly, taking command of the often-toxic conversation around trans people’s bodies with beauty, power and pizzaz. KAPOW haters. – Stephen A. Russell

Sammy J is farewelling a host of quirky characters in his excellent sketch show Good Hustle – including Government Coach and bush poet S. J. Paterson – yet it’s his co-star James Pender’s impression of a potato/Peter Dutton that threatens to outshine them all. – Donna Demaio

Guy Montgomery’s explanation of just how much he partook in three different illegal substances (weed, acid and ketamine) before completing daily tasks is a wonderful through-line. – Mikey Cahill

In the grand finale number to Yee Howdy Rides Again, Clara Cupcakes enters dressed as a black-and-white Holstein-Friesian cow in a skintight lycra onesie. She removes the tip of each teat one by one on her pink strap-on udder, excreting liquid into a tall glass – to raucous laughter and disgust from the audience – to concoct a milkshake live on stage. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Clara Cupcakes shows off a unique technique to make a milkshake in her show Yee Howdy Rides Again.

Riskiest joke or performance

Tim Key’s show is a tough sell on paper – a whole hour of how hard it was in London lockdown performed to Melbourne audiences, aka the world champions of Locky D? Rrrrighto mate. Thankfully, the UK eccentric tightrope-walks the line between empathy and epiphany in Mulberry, which incidentally should have been nominated for most outstanding show. – Mikey Cahill

Jordan Gray joking about Hitler and dogs to a slightly uncertain room, but going on to quip with a wicked grin that it’d only offend audiences if they were “dogs” or “Nazis” – to guffaws from the audience. – Sonia Nair

My spine tingled when He Huang recounted performing to a woman in the front row, whom she believed to be from the Chinese embassy. I’m not sure which was more risky: that, or the pegging jokes – if her parents ever got wind of them. – Hannah Francis

Anne Edmonds letting loose with a pant-pooping revelation, leaving enough of a trail for folks to figure out which Sydney Coles Local staff got more than they pants “Down Down” bargained for. – Stephen A. Russell

Jordan Gray deserves another mention. Her exceptional and introspective show Is it a bird? reveals all – literally. Gray disrobes, performing totally in the buff to make her point. – Donna Demaio

Jordan Gray is the myth-busting superhero we all need.

Prize for most heartwarming moment

A character Steen Raskopoulos was playing in his solo sketch show had coffee spilled all over him and needed someone in the audience to give him not only a new shirt, but a new pair of pants – exemplifying the title of the show Friendly Stranger. An obliging audience member named Tim took off his shirt to offer to Steen and when no one volunteered their pants, Tim offered up his pants too. A beautifully funny moment of gentle audience interaction that only someone like Raskopoulos could bring about. – Sonia Nair

When on a review gig, I tend to keep myself as anonymous as possible, but when Cal Wilson asked for advice on how to keep cats off the kitchen counter I somehow found myself spilling the beans on how my beautiful kitty Chilli lost a leg to cancer and is no longer the best jumper. Wilson’s genuinely lovey response was the biggest soul hug of the fest for me. – Stephen A. Russell

Towards the end of her show Gold, Annie Louey sits on a stool and emotively details how her father passed away having a heart attack in the family car, which she now owns and drives. Subverting audience expectations, she cleverly turns the ending into a punchline, remarking “Not all Asians are bad drivers, some of us are dead!” – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Dr Brown’s twinkling eye connection with his audience climaxes with an embrace between himself and his willing (?) suitor at the end of his show. Beturns is the group hug we all wanted but were too meek to ask for. – Mikey Cahill

Josh Ladgrove’s Baba, but the entire show. Imagine quitting comedy before a global pandemic, then being locked down while caring for your nonagenarian Ukrainian grandmother. Sadly, she passes, but is the reason you return to the stage. – Hannah Francis

The final 10 minutes of Joshua Ladgrove’s Baba, speaking of the unequivocal love for his late grandmother. It left me misty-eyed and calling my own mother the moment I left the room. – Tyson Wray

Annie Louey cleverly subverts audience expectations in her show Gold.

Most interesting example of crowd participation

Best joke of the festival and most interesting example of crowd participation, you say? First there was Tim Key’s pre-show eye contact: “He hasn’t said anything yet and he’s bloody hilarious,” my plus-one quipped. Later, it became a spicy, blink-and-you’ll-miss callback. But the moment my sides split: making use of a large stage prop, an absurd request (fulfilled, mind you) for an audience member to pick him up and “pop me on the fridge”. – Hannah Francis

Greece Lightning by Garry Starr was a favourite among the reviewers.

Tim Key opens a beer and gets an audience member to hand him his refreshment every few minutes. Cut to Key reprimanding him for being too slow with the beverage: “Bit faster!” – Mikey Cahill

Everything in Garry Starr’s show, from him throwing out squeaky soft toys in the shape of steaks – and calling everyone a “stakeholder” when they threw the steaks back on to the stage – to performing a theatrical masked dance with an obliging audience member, to seeing himself as Narcissus reflected in the sunglasses of an audience member and growing more and more in love with himself. – Sonia Nair

Sonny Yang’s Incredibly Stupid Adventure Game is an interesting study in how a group of strangers work as a collective and combat groupthink in a choose-your-own-adventure style journey. In a rare moment of intervention, Sonny hilariously gesticulates that the crowd should choose to abort the mission and flee the country – the best way to resolve life’s problems. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

When queer Jewish comedian Leo Reich asked if there were any other Jewish people in the audience and was surprised one guy piped up, having experienced radio silence every other night. Without missing a beat, the wryly witty audience member suggested that might have something to do with Reich’s unfortunate surname. – Stephen A. Russell

Charming clown Steen Raskopoulos enacts many silly skits in his show. The best one is convincing an audience member to self-dack then swaps trousers with him. – Donna Demaio

Daniel Kitson deftly manages hecklers.

Strangest (or best) heckle

Daniel Kitson replying to one heckler by directing attention to another previous one and stating that he must be devastated to be misquoted. Comedic ability out of this world. – Tyson Wray

Woah Alyssa! go meta in their show and have one of their stars, Colwyn Buckland, positively heckle former lover Filip Lescaut from the crowd halfway through the set. Buckland mocks “safe” stand-up comedy material by sarcastically endorsing it. – Mikey Cahill

An audience member in Suren Jayemanne’s show answering one of the questions he posed with a throwback joke from Jayemanne’s own routine, to which the comedian answered: “that’s better than my answer”. – Sonia Nair

Akmal is rambling and ranting in a most entertaining manner when a woman shouts an unintelligible heckle. The comedian responds, “I think you’ve mistaken this for a conversation”. – Donna Demaio

Told second-hand by Jordan Gray – apparently one audience member in a pub back home in Britain thought her jokes at Hitler’s expense were a bit too on the nose. It really sums up where we are with the Nazi revival right now (a worrying recurring theme in shows this year). – Stephen A. Rusell

Not a live audience member heckle, but a previous heckle repurposed into a joke about body hair. Thanks, Brodi Snook, for enlightening us as to you why you won’t go back to Queensland in a hurry. – Hannah Francis

And here are a few other bests that didn’t fit neatly into any other category:

Best pre-show deal

Not many know this but everyone with a valid Comedy Festival ticket for that day can drop into Meat Maiden to enjoy a divine free cocktail and entree – a five-star start to your night. – Mikey Cahill

Best musical comedy chops

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not great at watching musical comedy acts, but Michelle Brasier is something else. Go just for her impression of an early 2000s pop princess. – Hannah Francis

Coolest comedy festival costume

Alice Tovey totally slayed it in her Scream-adelically good leather corset and tulle Ghostface-inspired dress, whipped up for her show Not Like the Other Ghouls. Drew Barrymore could never.

Biggest in-joke

In what has to be the biggest in-joke broadcasted on Australian television, in his gala spot Douglas Lim made it three-from-three in referencing his “nice jacket” in his introduction. Watch the start of his 2018, 2019 and 2023 spots. It’s incredibly stupid – I love it so much. – Tyson Wray

Best song or dance number

Samantha Andrew and Mel O’Brien’s song-and-dance number detailing how watching your partner accidentally shitting in an IKEA display loo is an indicator that “lesbians don’t get the ick” is unforgettable. – Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Best props

Tim Key proves his sublime poetic/comedic chops in a show that includes perfectly dealt playing cards and the prime positioning and use of a freestanding door and fridge. – Donna Demaio

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is on now until April 23. The Age is a festival media partner.

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