I love a comedy festival and the 2024 Perth Comedy Festival is going to be a pearler. Fresh from the Perth Comedy Festival Gala last night, here are my tips for this year.
Last night I went to the Perth Comedy Festival Gala. These evenings are always brilliant. You get to watch around 10 comedians struck their stuff. The trick is you have no idea who’ll turn up. Yes, there’ll be people you know but you also get to try out new acts who could be on the cusp of greatness. This year I couldn’t get over the caliber of comedians who appeared on stage.
With Bob Downe as host, it was already off to a good start with the audience singing along to his show tunes. Then onto the first act … Ed Byrne! What?! The international comedian Ed Byrne? Yes that’s right Ed Byrne.
Ed Byrne. What a hoot to get to see him in the flesh and he didn’t disappoint. His insights into parenting were brilliant. Just go see him.
Sean Woodland. I hadn’t heard of him before but his insights into the younger generation and how their efforts to solve world unrest by changing their profiles, was spot on. One to check out for sure.
Dan Rath. We strapped ourselves in for a rapid-fire word-play journey into neurodiversity, gentrification and loads more. What a fun ride, with very clever insights. You’ll want a copy of his set so you can sit and ponder the intricacies later. Very clever. I’ll be looking him up.
Felicity Ward introduced us to Chicken Karaoke something I didn’t think I needed but now can’t live without.
Luke Heggie is always good. His insights into everyday life presented in a seemingly unconscious monotone stream, are priceless. Like how men with lots of muscles are usually in jobs that don’t need them, cough Real Estate. Do not look away.
Tom Ballard spoke about love. Did he mention that he had a young gymnast lover, I can’t recall?
Chris Ryan took us on a journey through self love, onto how people who should hate themselves don’t and a night at Pour and Paint.
Schalk Bezuidenhout. To be honest his South African accent was enough but add in his take on foursomes and how Canberra became the capital of Australia were priceless. I’ve already jumped on and bought a ticket to his show this morning.
Connor Burns. With my ears switching to a Scottish accent, Connor showed strong local knowledge, like Fremantle where a mugging by a gender-fluid vegan was not like he was used to at home. He also showed he was adept at the difficult Aussie accent. So many get it so wrong.
Dave Thornton. This much-loved comedian rounded out the evening chatting about the Perth versus Melbourne Qantas Club patrons.
And that was just one night. I’ll also be seeing Stephen K Amos. Fresh from I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, where he learnt to swim, his show will have an added dimension.
And then there’s always: Rhys Nicholson, Lloyd Langford, Peter Helliar, Guy Montgomery, Melaine Bracewell, Nazeen Hussain and Wil Anderson. It’s going to be a busy time.
For more information go to Perth Comedy Festival.
-
overall
