CULTURE GODDESSES OF COMEDY FOR DUNOON SPORTS CLUB Women Like Us, Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs’s smash hit show, was a hit at Adelaide Fringe Festival where they performed two sold-out shows and garnered two 5-star reviews from festival reviewers, being officially declared ‘Goddesses’ by the Weekend Notes writer, who asserted that ‘everything they say and do is the absolute word of sacred truth!’ Glamadelaide declared the audience ‘barely had time to draw breath between the hearty laughs’ and ‘it’s not just women who love this hilarious crowdpleaser’. With over 100 shows at festivals from Adelaide to Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne, and a tour planned for New Zealand and the UK, the girls love performing on home turf, and are getting the big undies ready for Dunoon Sports Club. The show is two hours of standup, 60 minutes apiece by these powerful, tell it how it is pin up girls for what they call Real Women. ‘We want our comedy to demystify a lot of the garbage that we’re fed about being women,’ says Briggs. ‘We tell everyday stories about our struggles, our failure to parent, the beauty industry, getting fatter, strange surgeries, obsessions, frustrations, and at the end of the day, ‘who unpacks the dishwasher’. They call themselves ‘the bogan woman’s thinkitng woman and the thinking woman’s bogan’. ‘It’s not a show just for women,’ says Ellen Briggs, who appeared recently on Hughsey We have A Problem. ‘In the same way a comedy show by two men would never be seen as a bloke’s-only show. Women Like Us is about making our experiences universal rather than ‘niche’. And as it turns out, there are a lot more Women Like Us out there than we ever realised. There’s even a growing tribe of Men Like Us too!’ Mandy Nolan is a columnist for The Byron Shire Echo, and writes regularly for Mamamia – and she is the host of their new podcast The Split. Ellen Briggs is a national finalist for RAW comedy and winner of Foxtel Comedy Channel’s Be A Comedian. The two women have well over 30 years of comedy experience between them, and this year they released their book Women Like Us nationally. Women Like Us is standup at its best, where Ellen and Mandy talk about housework, chickens, love, big undies, disappointment, resentment, sex when you’re drunk, fit bits, yoga farts, and being a menopausal woman dealing with teenage angst. They’re overworked, overweight and over it… It was perhaps the 27-year-old reviewer from Adelaide Fringe who really got what Women Like Us was all about! ‘I’d be offended if they weren’t considered pioneers of comedy, because they know their shit and do that shit damn well!… Heck, it should be part of a woman’s right to be able to be blessed by Briggs and Nolan!’ Dunoon Sports Club on Saturday 1 June. Tickets $35 at the Club or online at womenlikeus.com.au. Doors open at 7pm – show at 8pm.
BIG BLOKES GIG
REAL LIVE RADIO DRAMA: MYSTERY IN THE AIR
Having headlined and emceed all of the major comedy clubs around Australia as well as regular corporate engagements and cruise-ship bookings, Mark McConville has comfortably become known as ‘one of the most reliably funny comedians in the business’. As a storyteller Mark can keep an audience enthralled as he peppers them with punchline after punchline littered throughout real-life true stories from his own experiences. Mark has been seen on all of the major commercial TV channels, and radio stations haven’t escaped his attention either, where he’s been heard around the country under the Home Grown Humour banner, but to be fully appreciated, he has to be seen live. Mark also holds a genuine belief that the comedy industry has a significant role to play in regard to helping reduce the current rates of societal stress, anxiety, depression, and suicides. Mark is joined by Alan Glover as support – a man who has been referred to as one of the ‘elder statesmen’ of Australian comedy. He’s been performing standup since 1983 and he’s not about to sit down. Alan’s act includes a variety of sound effects, silly voices, physical humour, and some very clever one-liners! John Knowles from Drum Media says ‘His material just keeps getting better’. This month the Big Gig will be hosted by S Sorrensen, the funniest man in a sarong for well over 100 kilometres. Please note that owing to ANZAC Day’s falling on the same day as the Big Gig would have been on, the BIG GIG is on Friday. 8pm. Free.
Michael Veitch is back doing what he is loved for – original comedy. Simon Oats joins him onstage as the perfect matinee idol rogue, dashing former Squadron Leader, Tony ‘The Ace’ Hamilton. Set in a 1940s radio station, the original radio plays Flash Gordon and The Wax Works Museum are performed, but there are even more dramas onstage from the shenanigans. Sharply written intelligent comedy that crosses politically correct boundaries but manages to hold the audience by their heart strings. A much-loved fading star is feeling the heat from a dashing newcomer. Talent versus stability, old versus new… the drama doesn’t just go live to air – the laughs come from everywhere! This is without a doubt a terrific night of entertainment with big laughs at a cracking pace. Don’t miss out – one performance only of Mystery in the Air! Byron Theatre, Wednesday May 1st | 7.30pm | $25/30
OPEN STUDIOS Ever wondered what goes on inside an artist’s studio? All over our region potters, painters, sculptors, and makers devote themselves to their craft. It’s a real revelation to see where artists work, what they’re working on, what inspires them, and what they’ve achieved. Once a year Open Studios allows the community into these creative sanctuaries. Open Studios is a weekend for ‘non-commercial’ galleries and showings and means many commercial galleries are excluded from the trail. The idea is to show the public what’s possible in a home, shed, or garage studio. All the artists are happy to sell their own work! It’s a bit like the thrill of buying milk directly from the farmer! All artists have been asked about their artwork, ‘How do you do that?’ Open Studio’s Art Trail: Ballina, Byron and Beyond: 27 & 28 April and 4 & 5 May. Find out more about this artistic adventure ON Facebook. facebook.com/OpenStudiosBBB/
The inaugural
DANCING ALICE There is nothing more evocative I think than Alice in Wonderland. It’s a children’s story, but is it? The curious symbology of mushroom-eating hookah-smoking Alice is seared into my memory. I remember that topsy-turvy world of childhood, that dreamlike state where I tried to make sense of the adult world. Of good and bad, of right and wrong. When I felt too big. Or too small. When I couldn’t work out which side of the mushroom would make me ‘just right’. And whom to choose for one’s allegiance? Nothing is ever as it seems! It’s darkly twisted, and I think all great children’s stories are. I detest the feelgood moral tales of ones that aren’t. A classic children’s tale introduces children to our dark side – to our eternal battle with who we are and how we think. Two of Australia’s leading choreographers, Melbourne City Ballet’s Michael Pappalardo (artistic director) and Brendan Bradshaw (artistic associate), collaborate to pay homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland with a ballet complemented by a Tchaikovsky arrangement. Join the White Rabbit, Queen of Hearts, and the Mad Hatter as Alice ventures through Wonderland. This all-new ballet is perfect for all ages and is a magical portrayal of the classical story, over a year in the making. Melbourne City Ballet is set to entertain across Australia and New Zealand and bring a smile to both ballet audiences with its exquisite choreography and non-ballet audiences through its dynamic storytelling. With 40 unique costumes and newly designed tour-able sets, this ballet is sure to be a colourful and playful rendition on this story. In true Melbourne City Ballet fashion the company brings a feast of movement to the stage. Byron Theatre on Sunday at 1.30pm and 5.30pm. Tix are $42–36 at byroncentre.com.au.
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ŽůůĞĐƚ ďƌŽĐŚƵƌĞ ĨƌŽŵ ůŽĐĂů dŽƵƌŝƐŵ KĨĨŝĐĞƐ͕ ƌƚ 'ĂůůĞƌŝĞƐ͕ KƉĞŶ ^ƚƵĚŝŽƐ Θ DĐ'ƌĂƚŚ ZĞĂů ƐƚĂƚĞ &Žƌ ŵŽƌĞ ĚĞƚĂŝůƐ͗ ǁǁǁ͘ŽƐͲďďď͘ĐŽŵ
April 27 – 28 May 4 – 5 10am – 4pm daily Follow us on Facebook: Open Studios - Ballina, Byron & Beyond
Enquiries: Paul Button 0418 909 203 | Maria Heaton 0438 867 564
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żſĶō ǩǫǽ ǩǧǨǰ The Byron Shire Echo 43