Day two involved a combination of strolling through the main street of Sephamore (super super cute shops, cafes and even an old school style movie theatre), buying groceries and filling myself with garlic, onion, veges and anything else I could think of to finally nuke the heck out of this damn cold I can’t kick.
Suitably armed, I headed into the city to do Titters, only to discover with some hesitance that the crowd was quite markedly older. As a whole. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that…” but I suddenly started having flashbacks of a gig many moons ago, where I performed “One Night in Labour” to one table of white-haired folks. When I finally got to the bit where I am “born”, I realised that they were sitting there in shock and…dead silence. Which for some reason, struck me at that moment as utterly hilarious, and I found myself literally chuckling out loud while emerging from the birth canal. I believe my exact thought process was: “I’m being a vagina in front of old people! And THEY HATE ME!”
Anyhoo, I prepared myself for the worst, yet I actually ended up having a pretty good time. Maybe because I was prepared for the worst. Anything beyond that was a bonus.
Afterwards I was met by my fellow Brisbanite (well formerly, now Radelaide resident) comedian Darren Brinkworth, who I hadn’t seen in about four or five years! The plan was to stroll down to check out The Garden of Unearthly Delights, which, for some inexplicable reason, I’d assumed was a cosy little venue.
Oh how wrong I was.
More than a dozen performance venues including dome tents(!), characters a plenty spruiking their shows, beer gardens, lights in trees, stalls, show-rides and games…it was like Woodford meets the Ekka.
After I’d had my fill of completely spinning the festival-buzz out, we headed up to see fellow Queenslander Lindsay Webb’s show, “Pundamonium”, which has now quite infamously been awarded a one star rating in Adelaide’s “The Advertiser.”
However…I have a funny feeling this might be the best thing that could have happened. Troops have rallied behind him and it’s created something of a buzz. He certainly hasn’t let it get in his way: the show last night was absolutely rockin. Truly. Madly. Deeply. Obviously I’m a massive improv fan and no moreso than when people have the kahunas to go up there and improv solo. It’s a sad fact of being a comedian that you find yourself laughing a lot less. You get too analytical. And desensitised. But with improv, I still laugh. I don’t know exactly why. Maybe it’s cos you know that moment will never be repeated, so, you know, if you’re gonna enjoy it you’d better do so now! Whatever the case, last night Lindsay’s stuff was around 80% improv (though I’ve heard in some shows he’s done close to 100%) and I laughed. A LOT.
Hung out afterwards in the bar of the Rhino Room, where amongst others, finally caught up again with the very funny and highly affable Tom Gleeson. Before he became mega-massive in Aussie TV land, I had a very serendipitous meet’n’greet with Tom over in LA-LA land (you can read the details here). He reminded me of how he and his brother were so chuffed that they’d managed to get away with the whole trip without car insurance, only to have us rock up at the airport and one of us (was it me?? AGH!) open the convertible door just a tad too early and nearly take it out. Hehe.
Then off to see the Rhino Room’s late show line-up, which was JAWSOME. I hadn’t heard of any of the comics before, but man oh man, the standard was ridiculously good. Personal enduring fandom goes to Janey Godley, who I was in awe of in terms of her complete and utter honesty and letting it all hang out, no matter how shocking. This woman is comedy divinity.
In short, so inspired.
And so TIRED!
*Images courtesy of The Garden of Unearthly Delights on facebook and TalkFringe