Melbourne International Comedy Festival review
After 12 months in which so many previously passive and apathetic Australians became crusading news junkies, the always politically minded Tom Ballard may have delivered one of his best, and most urgently relevant, efforts.
It s hard to believe Ballard is only 31, having been active in comedy for the best part of a decade, evolving from an occasionally provocative self-described attention-seeker to full-on righteous fury merchant, breaking difficult-to-digest topics down into relatively palatable comedy hours.
A noble – and consistently successful in terms of sales and name recognition – effort, but it has made him susceptible to being dismissed as a Debbie Downer, screaming at a choir of the converted about topics the average punter would happily rather ignore.
The week s best comedy on TV and radio
The week’s best comedy on TV and radio…
Sunday April 4
IAITH AR DAITH: In this show - whose title translates as Welsh Road Trip - Kiri Pritchard-McLean learns Welsh with the help of Maggi Noggi, a farmer on her native Anglesey. ‘I am at my happiest and most relaxed when I’m in Wales,’ the comedian says. ‘I moved back to Wales because it was always the plan, really. I should have said that out loud to my boyfriend when we first got together! When I wanted to start a family, this was the first and only place on the list, really. And now she wants to polish up her language she never mastered. I want to find my confidence in Welsh, she said. I’m very confident [But] I don’t feel funny in Welsh – my dream would be to do stand-up in Welsh.’ Which is exactly what she gets to do in this programme, which shows her performing on stage in Llangefni.
Melbourne International Comedy Festival review
Right off the top, Zoë Coombs Marr warns us this is a silly show, and for those accustomed to her subversively self-referential, all-conquering efforts of recent years, this is comparably the case.
A notably chill Coombs Marr seems to be thoroughly enjoying a reversion to more traditional stand-up stylings, and rather than aggressive absurdism there’s heaps of goofy wordplay and so many dick-related jokes she feels obliged to acknowledge it and apologise.
Multimedia still has a role, but after briefly threatening to turn this into a deconstruction of the art form (or at least a reminder for rusty audiences of how this is all supposed to work), we settle into a personal story about Coombs Marr’s formative memory of nailing a music recital in her youth and that moment of triumph and pure presence she’s been seeking ever since.