MICF: forget the stars

Melbourne International Comedy Festival is full steam ahead!

Try this

Each newsletter I’ll respond to readers’ requests to match them with comedy shows. This week I had two fun challenges:

Alex asked “I can’t watch another white guy with a microphone. Can you recommend some dude-free international comics for me?”

This made me laugh. Luckily you’re spoilt for choice this year. Charlene Kaye has come from the USA with her show Tiger Daughter. It’s one I’ve had my eye on and hope to make it to. NZ comic Abby Howell’s show Welcome to My Dream should be on your list if you like quirky fever dreams from a truly unique brain. From India, Urooj Ashfaq’s clips online have me curious to check out their full show, It’s Funny To Me. I’ve been hanging out to see Danish treasure Sofie Hagan come back to Australia and this year they are bringing us their show Banglord. My final recommendation is another American, Chanel Ali and her show Relative Stranger. The description gives every indication this will be a satisfyingly meaty show.

Rachel asked: “I want to try some show that are not regular stand up. Where should I start?”

A good shortcut to finding shows with a more creative bent is to look at the program at Malthouse Theatre. They curate some exceptional shows which are almost always theatrical. I particularly enjoy the fact that they mix locals of different levels of experience and some excellent internationals. From the UK Elf Lyons’ Horses has great buzz, and from the local crop Gary Starr’s Classic Penguins is also getting great reviews. If you like cabaret, Reuben Kaye is one of my personal favourites and his show The Kaye Hole is on for two nights only.

Outside of the Malthouse offerings you can find wildcards like David Correos with their show Noise Zealand, described as “blending comedy, rave and possibly low level violence into something no one’s bothered to try before”. Or try Rama Nicholas. She specialises in character comedy and her new show Friends With Monty looks excellent. I have no idea how she manages to come up with these characters, let along make them feel so real. Lastly, Circus Oz always put on fun shows and they have a limited run of their show Non Stop happening.

Comedy reviews

Lots of reviews up on The Age now. A quick taste of some of mine:

Alex Ward Clip Clop Don’t Stop

“This is a neatly structured show which takes satisfying sidetracks, entertaining diversions and clever callbacks. The audience keeps up a steady rate of laughter throughout. It takes skill to make it look this easy, which Ward does.” - Three stars

Queerly Beloved

“Queerly Beloved, we are gathered here today to enjoy a 100 per cent queer comedy night. In fact, to the delight of the performers, it’s also a 100 per cent queer audience as identified in a poll taken by charismatic host Maddy Weeks at the outset. In this explicitly queer space, there’s a shorthand, a knowing wink, a sense of freedom. No need for explainers, these performers just let loose. Praise be.” - Four stars

Suren Jayemanne There’s a World Where My Head Ought Be

“It’s the kind of smart comedy brave enough to bring big questions into the room and rely on the gravity of the story to bring the humour. The result is a satisfying show with something to say.” - Three stars

Laura Davis Despair is Beneath Us

“Despair is Beneath Us follows two exceptional comedy festival shows from Laura Davis and continues their strengths in blending humour and pathos to tackle weighty topics.” - Three stars

Hayley Edwards Shitbag

“The title should set expectations of the raw material, but if not the extensive subject warnings at the start of this show will elucidate. Shitbag is about literal shit, metaphoric shit, graphic shit. But not gratuitous shit.” - Four stars

Emma Holland Don’t Touch My Trinkets

“Don’t Touch My Trinkets artfully combines physical comedy, props, audience engagement and PowerPoint presentation. Holland has many strings to her comedy bow and plays them to perfection, eliciting delighted laughter from the audience.” - Four stars

On the subject of ratings

See all those reviews with star ratings above this? The least favourite part of my job is applying a star rating to my reviews. I don’t think we should put much stock in them.

A prime example of this jumped out at me from reviews in The Age. John Bailey reviewed Holly Bohmer’s show Don’t Let Me Eat My Babies, describing it as “body horror, Lynchian surrealism and cosmic absurdity”. That’s intriguing and appealing to me. Am I concerned that it only scored three stars? Nope. It’s the vibe I want a good read on, and Bailey has painted a picture I like. Stars are a blunt instrument, in my opinion. Thus far I’m yet to give any 2025 shows a five star rating, but I have had a great run of shows that I’d be happy to recommend to other people (depending on their tastes, as per my first newsletter which talked about the fun of trying to match people to the right show).

Back in 2013, respected arts critic (not to mention Medal of the Order of Australia recipient for his services to the arts and Victorian community) Richard Watts wrote what I consider a concise and excellent summary of the purpose of a review, and the case for including a star rating as part of the review. As he notes, publications are often pushed by festivals, publicists and performers to use them because a five star review on a poster is a very quick, very simple endorsement. It speaks volumes to punters looking for something with a seal of approval.

Sure, it’s understandable, but can’t truly do a good job of identifying which kind of audience members will also find it five stars. My editor at The Age, Elizabeth Flux, has a useful, clear set of instructions on what constitutes each rating. It’s not following this guide that is the problem, it’s the misconception that only a five-star show is worth going to, or that a five-star review must mean that everyone will love the show.

There are many aspects of a comedy show that can come together to make it soar, or can miss the mark. Sometimes the excellent material is let down by a shaky structure, or an over-complicated staging takes away from the performance. More than other artforms like theatre or dance, comedy relies on the interrelationship between audience and performer, and some nights the two don’t gel no matter how technically adept the show is or how well-prepared they are. I’d argue a good performer can win over a crowd, but even on nights where the crowd is quiet and the laughter seems subdued it doesn’t necessarily follow that a performance couldn’t be five star.

Are star ratings ever a good tool? I think in the case of a small team of consistent reviewers they can be used effectively - think Margaret and David with their movie reviews - when an audience knows the writer well enough to identify if they usually agree with the reviewer, or if the aspects a reviewer focuses on are things they particularly care about. There are certain cultural critics I follow and use their analysis to make decisions on what work I want to engage with based on their reviews and criticism; Alison Croggon, Cameron Woodhead, Jane Howard, Mel Campbell, Richard Watts, Thuy On, John Bailey, Steve Bennett and Sonia Nair for example. It has taken years of reading their work to build a rounded picture of their practice. I may have wildly different opinions from them in some instances, but I know how our tastes overlap or differ. I can make fairly accurate assessments of what my own reaction to a work may be based on their ratings and reviews.

What does it matter if we rely on star ratings? If the primary goal of a review is to inform potential audiences which shows may be enjoyable for them, frustration and disappointment may follow if they pay to attend a five-star rated show that they don’t like. This erodes trust, and makes them less likely to take a chance on a show in the future. Alternatively, a three-star show may be skipped over in the mistaken belief it isn’t very good. In fact, three stars is an indication that a show has plenty to offer. The shorthand of ‘stars’ often means audiences don’t take the time to read reviews in detail and gauge whether the description sounds like something they will connect with. I think we do a disservice to both artist and audience by putting star ratings on reviews, especially in an era where column inches are shrinking (yes, even online reviews need to be kept short).

The rest of the fest

I’ve also managed to catch a few shows I haven’t had to review: Janty Blair, Maddy Weeks, and Zoe Coombs Marr. I won’t review them in detail, but I can say that Maddy Week’s show was beautifully constructed, a personaal show with an incredibly satisfying emotional arc. Janty Blair charmed her audience with ease, she’s a natural storyteller with more entertaining stories than you could possibly fit into one show - her problem is trying to contain all the funny sidetracks. Zoe Coombs Marr had another excellent show this year, shoutout to the ADHD material that landed particularly well for this neurodivergent writer.

I hope you’re having a great festival.

Lefa