With so many performances venues still gathering dust, Comedy SOS rounds up seven of our most chucklesome celebrity gag-spreaders and streams a care package of never-before-seen live performances right to your home/funny bone.
Recorded live to packed crowds in the Beforetime, the laugh-out-loud shows star Kitty Flannagan, an irrepressible presence on ABC shows The Weekly with Charlie Pickering and political comedy Utopia, American stand-up Arj Barker, rising star and proud Indigenous woman Steph Tidsell, Irish import Jimeoin, curly locked Englishman in Melbourne Ross Noble, nurse-turned comedian Georgie Carroll, and Lawrence Mooney.
Tidsell tells Time Out that it’s her small way of helping out right now. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve been more stressed while simultaneously super-bored and uncertain during this time. Laughter is exactly what we need right now and I’m so, so happy that I’m part of something that is all about spreading joy.”
Picking up what she’s putting down, Barker adds, “Laughter is so important right now because it provides a welcome break from crying.”
Noble agrees. “My wife says it’s feeding our children but she is not a raging narcissist who has been deprived of the adulation of theatres full of people hanging on her every word. That’s the worst thing about this pandemic it has made us lose perspective on what is normal.”
Mooney chimes in, “What an unprecedented time in the history of the world, when people can’t access live comedy. This is as safe as we can make it and still provide vital laughs. It’s an essential service.”
Carroll says it’s the least they can do to spread some fun. “I can’t watch anything dystopian at the moment, and normally I love me a Hunger Games or The Handmaid’s Tail, but I am more of a Moana or Keeping Up Appearances kinda girl currently. Anyway, you know how sometimes you watch comedy and even that is miserable? Well my special isn’t that. It looked amazing and felt electric. I don’t think I've ever been that funny all at once for that long. Honestly, if you don't split your sides watching my special there is probably something wrong with you, get yourself checked. Its top shelf Georgie.”
As a nurse, Carroll knows a thing or two about funny bones, so follow medical guidelines and book now. Tickets are $25-$35 per show, or $99 for the lot. The Comedy SOS gigs will be streamed weekly from Saturday, August 8, at 8pm.
