Patrick Horan

The inveterately political Tom Ballard has delivered many ‘urgent’ comedy shows in his time, but none more timely than this offering inspired by a referendum that is now just days away. In fact, this show is not entirely about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice vote but concerns itself more with the strikingly miserable success rate of referenda in Australia.  If you’re as across your constitutional history as this reviewer is (i.e. not at all), it turns out that this country does not like change. Not one bit. A derisory amount of suggested amendments that have been put to the people have succeeded, and if it happens to be a Labor government asking the question, the answer has almost always been: ‘Nah’.  The show’s title does not lie: this is a lecture. A now clichéd criticism of a comedy show that employs multimedia aspects is that it resembles a TED talk. This is not that (I haven’t watched them all, but I don’t think you’re treated to many images of niche erotic acts or animal penises in a TED talk), but it’s not as far away as a comedy fan might hope.  At the risk of offering what sounds like the faintest praise imaginable, Ballard is an excellent user of PowerPoint, as demonstrated in his barnstorming 2021 Comedy Festival show that breathlessly covered the pandemic, Black Lives Matter and climate change in the space of an hour.  This does not have anything like the breakneck pace of that show as Ballard attempts to make some extremely dry government machina

If your show is powered by unashamed exhibitionism and unapologetic silliness, you'd better be all in. Garry Starr is certainly that and, considering how little clothing he wears throughout the course of this show, all out too.  In Greece Lightning, Starr (the stage name of Damien Warren-Smith) runs the gamut of Greek mythology with clowning of the highest order, cerebral enough for those steeped in the stories but entirely accessible to everyone else.  His superpower is his sincerity, delivering aren’t-I-clever wordplay about the classics while flexing a remarkable physique yet somehow keeping the crowd on his side throughout. His vulnerability and inimitable oddness add delight when playing lascivious characters.  It also makes one wonder why he feels the need to employ babytalk and malapropisms while loosely framing the show as his effort to get people to visit ‘Greek’ as it struggles with its "ergonomic progression", a bum note in an otherwise sharply written hour. Wordplay plays a significant role, and Starr has the charm and energy to make even groan-worthy gear worthwhile while also nailing some vaudeville ‘who’s on first?’-type material. The show moves at a cracking pace too, with some sketches blink-and-you’ll-miss-them or entirely - and impressively - physical.   Props are handed out early in the piece and there is quite a bit of audience interaction, but all are relatively gentle and in good fun. If you’re in any way amenable to this type of idiocy you’ll have litt

An underfunded aged care facility might not be the most likely setting for a musical, but renowned comedy writer Tom Gleisner’s first foray into the art form – produced by the Melbourne Theatre Company – manages to find the necessary tonal balance to deliver an exuberant, joyous and thought-provoking experience.We enter Pine Grove alongside Rose (Evelyn Krape), a reluctant new resident, and Finn (Slone Sudiro), a slacker music student who responds to an ad that offers free board in exchange for some ‘light duties’ – aged care qualifications not essential. There they meet put-upon staff members doing their best to give a small group of charmingly dotty residents the care they need despite sub-standard facilities, food and activities that are the direct result of maniacal cost-cutting by the facility’s heartless manager Mrs MacIntyre (Anne Edmonds).It should come as little surprise that the new arrivals shake things up, fomenting rebellion against the facility’s constraints and challenging perceptions while forging a connection of their own. Krape does an excellent job with Rose, imbuing what might have otherwise been a rote elderly ‘free spirit’ character with genuine depth. The character of Finn, on the other hand, is a little thin and despite newcomer Sudiro’s best efforts, rarely feels like he has a life outside the story.This is very much an ensemble piece though, with all characters very intentionally given the chance to shine. One of the key messages that resonates throu