THE OTHER WOMAN - film

This chick flick with Cameron Diaz at the helm is predictable and lame.

As the woman sitting next to me said as she left the cinema... "What a pile of crap".

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Tegan Higginbotham in 'Game changer' - MICF show

Tegan's a young Aussie comic, this is her third MICF show. I saw her first show as there was a bit of buzz around how good it was and I thought she was great that year. Unfortunately this show doesn't live up to that for me. It's not without laughs and she has a commanding stage presence with great capacity for physical comedy and amusing facial expressions but her show last night just didn't fire. There was quite a few jokes that were a bit niche and clearly went over heads. I got the Harry Potter stuff but jokes that required knowledge of Star Wars, Dr Who and even some about AFL passed me by. I felt for her, it was a small and tough crowd including one rather unhelpful guy who kept checking his phone even after she'd called him out on it who also chimed in with a couple of attempts at humour of his own. She didn't let it derail her too much but I think it just added to the awkward feel of the show. At $24 for a ticket, I'm afraid I'll have to file this under 'give it a miss' this time around but I'm confident she'll be back with great shows in future.

Justin Hamilton in 'Johnny loves Mary forever 1994' - MICF show

This show is beautifully done. Justin in an Australian comic who, though not overly well know, has been at it for about 20 years. You don't have a career that long if you're not any good at your craft! This show is in large part about Justin's experience performing comedy for soldiers in Afganistan. A review of it that I read made the observation that though it's a nicely crafted show, the subject matter just isn't actually that funny so I actually went in not expecting to laugh all that much but I was pleasantly surprised - there's plenty of laughs.
Happily recommend this but it's probably not quite up there with my favourite shows this year such as David O'Doherty and Celia Pacquola.

Tommy Little in 'Middle class gangster' - MICF show

Tommy is just delightful. I challenge any of you to see this show and not like him. The show got funnier and funnier as it went along. Chatter with the audience is high risk territory but he does it effortlessly. Some material on sheet thread counts really tickled my funny bone in particular. Middle class indeed. 

The pedant in me couldn't help but be a teeny bit disappointed by a joke at the expense of the older people in the crowd referring to them going home to watch The Bill. The Bill hasn't been on TV for almost four years! It's such a small thing it seems silly to even mention it but it just took the sting out of that little bit of the show for me. Doctor Blake or Foreign Correspondent or something would've worked better. 

With a 4.5 star review from the Herald Sun, I doubt you'd be disappointed by this.

David O'Doherty in 'David O'Doherty will try to fix everything' - MICF show

David is an Irish comedian who's been visiting the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for many years now and I think this is about my fifth year in a row seeing him. I try to mix it up when the festival rolls around and see different people but the fact that I see this guy year after year speaks volumes. He's one of my favorite comedians, I would never hesitate to recommend him as he is reliably damn funny. Traditional stand-up mixed with some really witty songs where he accompanies himself on a small plastic keyboard make a killer and unique combination. This show has received a 5 star review in the Herald Sun.

What more do you need?! Go see this guy.

Em Rusciano in 'Divorce the musical' - MICF show

Loved this. As the name makes clear, it's not a stand-up comedy show, it's a very funny musical show chronicling Em's journey to divorce and ultimately the show she's performing before you.

Some of you might remember Em from an early series of Australian Idol. I'm not an Idol watcher so I hadn't seen her sing before this and HOLY MOLY, the girl can hit those notes! That alone is worth the ticket price. She's accompanied by her dad who's a handy little guitarist and back-up vocalist. If they were ever to release an album, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

If you love a good show, the bells and whistles kind with OTT costumes, fun songs, high kicks and plenty of laughs, then this is for you.

Dave O'Neil in 'Back in my day' - MICF show

Dave is a classic stand-up comic. No bells and whistles, just a guy with a microphone telling funny stories. And funny they are! I'd happily recommend this though not for the young folk... As the name of the show suggests, it skews towards people 30+.