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This wrap of shows across the Melbourne International Comedy Festival includes performances by Douglas Lim, Tom Ballard, The Listies, Lauren Bok, Jay Wymarra, Ting Lim and more.

Best of Comedy Zone Asia
Arts Centre Melbourne – Fairfax Studio, until April 23

Showcasing comics from Malaysia, Singapore, India and Indonesia, Best of Comedy Zone Asia is a meticulously curated mix of emerging and seasoned talent that lays bare cultural differences while highlighting the universality of certain experiences.

Best of Comedy Zone Asia is on at Arts Centre Melbourne until April 23. (From left) Fakkah Fuzz, Sonali Thakker, Douglas Lim, Anirban Dasgupta and Sakdiyah Ma’ruf.

Effortlessly funny and assured, host Fakkah Fuzz of Singapore warms the crowd up for the “platter of different varieties of Asians” with jokes about being a bad Muslim, entering one’s 30s and well-crafted punchlines that – though only someone who grew up in Singapore or Malaysia would understand the context – elicit laughter across the room.

It’s a laugh a minute with the wry Mumbai-based Sonali Thakker, who delivers punchline after punchline about being constantly surveilled by her “cool mum”, practising judo to win the approval of her dad, and being the toxic one in a relationship. Her style is conversational as her keen eyes sweep across the room.

Mumbai-based Anirban Dasgupta has an endearing habit of chuckling good-naturedly at his own jokes. Touching on how hard it is to do comedy in India – “India is so funny already” – Dasgupta jumps between topics like working from home, being a new father and drinking too much, while delving into cultural and socio-political specificities of life in India.

Indonesia’s first female Muslim stand-up comic, Sakdiyah Ma’ruf, takes a mirror to her conservative upbringing, paralleling the global experience of a pandemic to growing up in a strict family. She’s unafraid to poke fun at either herself or her community in a self-deprecating manner, with her voice climbing to a crescendo when she’s elucidating her points.

Headliner Douglas Lim expertly works the room, true to his moniker of “Malaysia’s king of comedy”. Stoking the fire of Malaysia and Singapore’s rivalry before launching into topics as multifaceted as Michelle Yeoh, corruption, and Hong Kong serial Square Pegs, Lim roams across the stage with an irrepressible energy and congenially goads the crowd into performing a memorable chant.
Reviewed by Sonia Nair
Note: No star ratings are applied to group shows

Tom Ballard | It Is I
Victoria Hotel, until April 23

It Is I is on at The Victoria Hotel until April 23.

It’s no secret Tom Ballard loves to skewer the powerful, the rich and the right wing, having been cancelled by the ABC more than once for being, well, offensively leftist.

If nothing else it’s been a brilliant branding exercise. His audience knows where to find him and what to expect – a very strong hour of acerbic comedy with a socialist bent.

From Rupert Murdoch’s jowls to the “high-society hippos” running Australia’s economy, he’s putting them all in a bin fire and dancing on the ashes. The late Queen Elizabeth II comes in for a particularly good roasting.

There’s a little less anger and darkness here, a little more glee and levity than in some previous shows, and it is welcome. Perhaps he’s happy about his new TV comedy special and the release of his debut book: I, Millennial – One Snowflake’s Screed Against Boomers, Billionaires and Everything Else. That should give you a clue as to the show’s content too, if you hadn’t got it by now.
★★★★
Reviewed by Hannah Francis

The Listies | Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark
Arts Centre Melbourne, until April 15

Zombies? Nuns? Ninjas? Dinosaurs? This kidult comedy gives us a Hamlet like nothing you’ve seen before. It’s a wild introduction to theatre for kids – always vocal in their enthusiasm for The Listies – and a hoot for parents too.

Hamlet: Prince of Skidmark is on at Arts Centre Melbourne until April 15.

Richard Higgins and Matt Kelly are a classic comedy duo. Their dynamic mirrors and lampoons the adult/child binary – the former the straight man, the latter, a rambunctious buffoon.

Here, they appear as two ushers at a production of Hamlet. Due to a smelly backstage crisis, the ushers stop ushing and perform the play themselves, with their stage manager (Olivia Charalambous) stepping in as Ophelia – and rewriting one of Shakespeare’s more anaemic female roles.

Purists needn’t worry. Pretty much everyone onstage still dies, and the curated chaos delivers a potted version of the plot, teasing youngsters to explore Shakespeare later on, while going all out on visual gags, bad puns, dad jokes, toilet humour, and hilarious physical clowning – all the anarchic antics that make The Listies so much fun.
★★★★
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

Chris Parker | Lots of Love
The Westin One, until April 23

Full marks for exuberance. Chris Parker is a bundle of energy, bouncing around the stage in a sweat-inducing frenzy, all the while dropping jocular observations.

Lots of Love is on at The Westin One until April 23.

Parker, a mighty fine storyteller, brings physicality and fun to tales of woe and low-level despair. Eternally ebullient, he launches into a cheery litany of modern-day observations, including life’s quirks and dealing with millennials. Parker ponders driving skills, extreme sports, tow-truck drivers, weddings and the end of the world. Masterful ad-libbing ensues after a brief audience interaction. The crowd is in stitches at every turn.

A singular frustration is missing potential laughs, when a few phrases are too garbled to decipher. The hour rounds off with Parker deducing that about 80 per cent of the audience is from New Zealand. “Tell an Australian to come to the show,” he implores.
★★★★
Reviewed by Donna Demaio

Michael Shafar | Well Worth the Chemo
The Toff in Town, until April 23

Michael Shafar needs to viciously cut down the first 10 minutes of his latest hour.

Well Worth the Chemo is on at The Toff in Town until April 23.

Beginning with anecdotes about the domestic minutiae of newly married life, it’s meandering at best. At worst, it seems like an utter waste of time once he hits his stride with perforating cultural and societal material.

Be it juxtaposing the levels of evil between Hitler and the Queen or Pauline Hanson, the physical experiments that a cisgendered male must undertake to prove their heterosexuality, or the difficulty in recognising Australia’s colonialist past, Shafar is far from politically correct but never derogatory or disrespectful.

He walks a tightrope deftly. For a lesser comedian, a misstep here could see them fall into the oblivion of being cancelled (or worse, roped in with adolescent shock-jocks such as Isaac Butterfield or Alex Williamson).

The strong implementation of a red pen would see this show rise a half-star.

(A final sour note: be it the fault of performer or venue, beginning 15 minutes late will ruin the evening for punters who have stacked multiple shows upon themselves. A definite festival faux pas).
★★★½
Reviewed by Tyson Wray

Lauren Bok and Jay Wymarra | An Evening With The Wymarra-Boks
Melbourne Town Hall – Backstage Room, until April 23

Lauren Bok and Jay Wymarra open the show as a subversive 1920s aristocratic couple hosting a dinner party, the audience being their unexpectedly punctual guests.

An Evening With The Wymarra-Boks is on at Melbourne Town Hall until April 23.

The comedians have distinct styles – Bok is expressive and adopts the physicality of her characters while Wymarra is a storyteller, always quick to return with a dirty retort.

They’re still ironing out the rough edges of their solo ,components with Bok referring to her cheat sheet on occasion and Wymarra stumbling at times while ad-libbing. There are parts that run for longer than necessary, including the introductory faux couple bit and Bok’s demonstration of her varied MC styles.

Bok’s confidence has grown in the last few years. Her performance is strongest when she’s bouncing off Wymarra, a compatible scene partner who sets up her best improvised lines.

Wymarra, a foul-mouthed yet articulate Tolkien fan with a tropical Far North Queensland twist, is simply divine.

A fun appetiser to an evening of comedy.
★★★
Reviewed by Vyshnavee Wijekumar

Ting Lim | Every Ting or No Ting
Greek Centre, until April 23

Festival trends can set knees a-knocking, so know that the easel-bound giant notebook that greets you at Ting Lim’s hour doesn’t result in the kind of instructional hand-drawn whimsy that was on-trend 15 years ago.

If anything, Lim harks back to the nights of Melbourne standup in the ’90s, when comedy was synthesised from all over the globe into something new.

Every Ting or No Ting is on at Greek Centre until April 23.

Lim left Singapore for Queensland 14 years ago and found her stand-up feet in Brisbane. It shows. The comedy scene there is newer than Melbourne’s and instead of our chin-stroking it tends to be both more provocative and forgiving. Like many in the Brisbane scene, she’s in-your-face while remaining on your side.

She’s not here to educate, though. You might learn a bit about krav maga and Singapore noodles and cat-walking in passing. Her finest bit concerns a doctor’s visit to ascertain problems with certain fundamentals. There’s no takeaway, or even a resolution, but you’re in good hands all the while.
★★★
Reviewed by John Bailey

Melissa McGlensey | The Briefing
Campari House, until April 23

Love fake news. Fake news is great … when it aligns with your values. Take this press conference with Sarah Huckabee Sanders (Melissa McGlensey). Total fakesauce. You can tell because the real Sanders held fewer pressers than any White House press secretary since the internet became a thing.

The Briefing is on at Campari House until April 23.Credit: Maddie Royce Photography

Plus, the Trump apologist, former Fox News talking head, and current Governor of Arkansas has been too busy to head Down Under. She’s got her hands full facilitating an erection – a planned monument at the Arkansas Capitol building, commemorating all the foetuses aborted during the Roe v Wade era.

Uh-oh. That paragraph is all actual bona fide fact-checked real news.

Which raises the question. When conservative politics in the US is already such a tragic farce, how do you make satire from it?

McGlensey’s answer combines keen impersonation (not inferior to Alec Baldwin as Trump on SNL), outright mockery (including below-the-belt sexual invective), and unscripted audience involvement. Acting as a press corpse – uh, corps – spectators provide amusing gotcha moments. Sanders responds with slippery improv, clutching her power pearls to defend the indefensible.
★★★
Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is on now until April 23. The Age is a festival media partner.

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