Canberra Comedy Festival lineup announced

Stevensonexperience said :

We have, in no particular order: Celia Pacquola, Mel Buttle, Kathryn Bendall, Chris Ryan, Marie Helou, Edwina Nelson, and Shiralee Hood.

Celia and Mel are two of the best comics in the country today, and we are extremely lucky to have them. Kathryn is from Sydney and will be hosting Tell Me A Story, which will also have more females in it’s line-up. The rest are local ladies who are doing great things.

Also, those lameting the lack of Tom Gibson and Jay Sullivan, we have at least 10 local shows by some great comedians. Simsim has done a great job of listing all our local shows.

I hope to see you all at a show sometime!

Excellent news! Looks to be a great series of shows. Well done.

Well that is good news, I might have to drag the missus out for a night or two on the town.

Jay had a new baby girl lot long ago, so I think he’s stepping back a bit from comedy and focusing on a more stable career. It’s a shame though, he is one lumping hilarious mans.

Masquara said :

That lineup on the link can’t be all surely? What happened to the organiser’s promise?

Stevensonexperience: ” I am on the creative team for the Canberra Comedy Festival and can definitely confirm that there will be plenty of female comedians on the line-up …”

One single female comedian out of 12 “plenty” doth not make! If this festival is funded with Centenary money, then that’s pretty poor.

Hi Masquara, in terms of female comedians we have plenty! I’m sorry if you feel misled, but this is definitely not the case, I can think of 7 off the top of my head!

We have, in no particular order: Celia Pacquola, Mel Buttle, Kathryn Bendall, Chris Ryan, Marie Helou, Edwina Nelson, and Shiralee Hood.

Celia and Mel are two of the best comics in the country today, and we are extremely lucky to have them. Kathryn is from Sydney and will be hosting Tell Me A Story, which will also have more females in it’s line-up. The rest are local ladies who are doing great things.

Also, those lameting the lack of Tom Gibson and Jay Sullivan, we have at least 10 local shows by some great comedians. Simsim has done a great job of listing all our local shows.

I hope to see you all at a show sometime!

Tripod are awesome!

grunge_hippy said :

No actual Canberra based acts? Jay Sullivan? Tom Gibson? Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing Stephen K Amos.

There’s a fair bit of canberra based acts if you go to the shows listed on the website. Things I can recognise include:

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/wed-815-the-stevenson-experience-how-i-met-your-brother/ – which is pretty obvious the Stevos were going to have a show somewhere, given they’ve been involved in organising the damn thing.

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/fri-700-irresponsible/ – I’ve heard very good stuff about Tim Noon in particular and would like to get a chance to catch him in a longer format.

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/wed-930-canberra-the-first-billion-years/ – Edwina Nelson has been doing Canberra comedy for years

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/fri-730-hamish-hudson-cd-launch/ – Hamish, ditto (for slightly more years)

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/satyros-comedy-laundromat/ – never seen them before but they might very well have stuff that is amusing

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/thu-730-capital-punishment/ – which is the Canberra-comedy-showcase that tours to Melbourne Comedy festival annually

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/sat-600-tell-me-a-story/ – this one appears to be a new approach for the festival, but it does say it features canberrans.

Plus ex-canberrans including:

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/900-sat-toby-halligan-and-mathew-kenneally-poly-gobble/

and

http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/daniel-connell-mr-personality-2/

I do think it’s odd that Tom and Jay don’t have solo shows planned but … well, maybe they have life things in the way at the moment. There are certainly a whole bunch of canberrans in there…

No actual Canberra based acts? Jay Sullivan? Tom Gibson? Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing Stephen K Amos.

One single female comedian out of 12 “plenty” doth not make! If this festival is funded with Centenary money, then that’s pretty poor.

Hey Masquara!! I’ll be performing! And so will my mate Chris. We are local female comics. Come and check out our show on 20 and 21 March. http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/events/thu-930-canberra-the-first-billion-years/

Shiralee Hood is also listed in the shows: http://canberracomedyfestival.com.au/shows/

johnboy said :

There’s no centenary money, there is an ACT Government grant, and I know I can’t speak for the gender balance of the ensemble acts.

You can’t but the organiser did promise. What a shame! I guess if a big-name female comedian declines to participate in Canberra, it’s somewhat out of the organisers’ hands … perhaps they were let down.