The Saints may have been trounced last Thursday night, but fortunately I had a contingency plan in place a couple of months ago.

It’s Autumn, it’s April and as well as fine weather and the start of the footy season, it’s time for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Living regionally now we are confined to one weekend as opposed to popping into random shows mid-week when we lived in Melbourne.

We chose five shows over the two days so here’s a quick capsule review.

  • All Around The World @ The Elephant & Wheelbarrow. A collection of four comedians from Canada, China, Ethiopa and the USA. This format has been a regular over the decades of the festival and never disappoints. Eloquently MC’d by Terry the Aussie Pom, this is a very funny hour and great value at $25.
  • Tom Walker, My Treasures My Beautiful Treasures @ Trades Hall. We saw Tom pre-Covid doing a recording for Amazon TV at The Malthouse and he was brilliant. Sadly this was very disappointing. He talked for 45 mins about a seven year obsession with an on-line sex forum contributor. It wasn’t particularly funny and I think the majority of the audience thought so also. A real shame from someone we know is genuinely clever and funny.
  • Greg Larsen, Revolting @ Rydges Melbourne. We saw Greg last year and he was quite thought provoking to say the least. An absurdist comic, this show contained some multi-media, was manic like last year and very funny. His recollections of being in a punk band in Brisbane circa early 90s and completing a Certificate 2 in music at TAFE was hilarious. Like last year, he throws in moments of extreme grotesqueness when you least expect them that can leave you aghast.
  • The Best of British @ The Exford Hotel. Very much like the All Around The World show, this has been running for years and rotates accomplished visiting comics from the UK. It was genuinely a gut-bustingly funny hour. Again only $25 and will be back next year.
  • Will Anderson @ The Comedy Theatre. Will’s shows always have a certain formulae where he starts with something that will be revisited at the end and a middle that contains off-shoots from the original story that are very engaging. This was his 28th appearance at the festival and a nice way to end the weekend.

In between shows we filled the time by visiting a stunning exhibition at the beautiful State Library. Rennie Ellis was one of the country’s most important photographers and captured Melbourne through the 60’s, 70s and 80s like no other.

The show is running until January 2025 so there’s plenty of time see these amazing photos on the big screen accompanied by music from the respective periods. A trip to the State Library anytime is worth it.

The rest of the time was spent sticking my sizable nose into the trough of Melbourne’s superb cuisine. Such choice and atmosphere cannot be ignored.

We also walked into Melbourne Central and hadn’t before seen the huge renovation and upgrade that’s been made. It was chockers with retail worshippers and that goes for the whole of the CBD from Spencer St to Exhibition St. The city is well and truly alive again.

We entered the train just after the North v Hawks game and shared the carriage with Ballarat based North supporters looking as forlorn as I was 72 hours prior.

I gave them a consoling look and reassured them there’s always next week. I lied because North are terrible.

What a wonderful time to be in Melbourne (unless you barrack for North) and we will be back yet again for the 2025 Comedy Festival.

Here’s some photos from the weekend.