Comedy

Vidya Rajan’s gift for absurdist comedy has led to a career spanning everything from avant-garde internet performance to mainstream theatre.

The real treasures of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival are its local acts.

Cult comedy I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson asks a simple, recurring question: how far might one go to save face?

Anchuli Felicia King’s play White Pearl explores the complex subtexts of the Asian obsession with skin-whitening cosmetics.

Although the spectre of Covid-19 hangs over this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival, it demonstrates the resilience of live Australian performance.

With a Netflix show and a headline at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the surreal troupe Aunty Donna has come a long way from their Ballarat days.

On the verge of international stardom, Rose Matafeo combines supremely confident ambition with deep personal doubt. “Seeing yourself on screen is the fucking worst thing ever. Your perception of yourself is the best version of yourself that you perform in the mirror, and that is not what other people see.”

Susan Provan has been director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for 27 years, taking it from strength to strength. So, the decision to cancel this year’s event – for the first time in its history – was no laughing matter. “We were in a position where we had to move quickly. We were literally building venues. We needed to minimise the fallout.”

After charming both critics and viewers with Please Like Me, Josh Thomas made the move to Los Angeles. He speaks about the series he made in his new city, Everything’s Gonna Be Okay – a show that breaks ground in its portrayal of young autistic women. “I think having teenage girls in a show forces you into sweeter territory. The conceit of the show is so sweet, so I guess the story and the characters and the situation kinda made that decision for me.”

Almost two decades after the wild success of Black Books, Dylan Moran returns to Australia with a new stand-up show, Dr Cosmos. He talks about finding his place in the world and what a Charlie Chaplin film has to say about modern life.