Film & Theatre Reviews Hits and misses on the silver screen and the bareboards around town. Club) it just feels right. MC Paul Hancock â€“ an energetic, sharp and supremely confident performer with a really good Dirty Dancing joke that got far less from the audience than it deserved â€“ introduces headliner Tommy Dean, as â€œone of the greatest comics in the country.â€? â€œCountry?â€? Dean retorts. â€œSurely you all were hoping for one of the greatest comics on the planet. For those in the audience from outside this country, I just became less exciting.â€? In a recent Brag interview, Dean said, â€œthe way I think about things seriously, when worded the way I word things, makes people laugh.â€? True of tonight, Dean discussed Masterchefâ€™s carrot mousse, his kids, chicken schnitzel as a symbol of humanityâ€™s place at the apex of the food chain, and supermarket conveyor dividers â€“ at times prompting sighs of satisfaction at the end of strings of expertly connected jokes. Not just anyone can rock a tee emblazoned with baking tips, but Dean is not just anyone. Into the gig, Dean reveals his tee slogan, â€˜Donâ€™t Screw the Cutterâ€™, is a scone making footnote. Pop the cutter down, then up, and donâ€™t...well, you know, because that makes them flop. Dean is like a perfect scone: light, well rounded, and entirely satisfying. Peter Neathway â– Theatre A QUIET NIGHT IN RANGOON Until Sept 10 / New Theatre Something Iâ€™ve become very aware of recently, perhaps because of my frequent watching of The West Wing, is how writers can create action out of characters explaining concepts. This is important in The West Wing all the time, as the show often deals with congressional rules or international policies that are unknown to the average viewer. In Rangoon there is a similar problem of how to explain the Burmese situation without having a character deliver a monologue detailing its troubled history. ac^^]`bSR Pg THE PANICS RAIN ON THE HUMMING WIRE ALBUM TOUR E7B6 A>317/: 5C3ABA l 53=@57/ 4/7@ /D/:/<163 17BG B E=::=<5=<5 l C<7 0/@ Writer Katie Pollock has found some interesting solutions this problem. Apart from the usual conversations between central characters, she has also introduced the internet as a character that the protagonist Piper (Kathryn Schuback), a young Australian journalist, interacts with. As well as offering information, this also helps set the mood, with the internet being just as untrustworthy as some of the other people Piper meets. D3B <3E1/AB:3 l :3/5C3A 1:C0 D3B AG2<3G l ;3B@= B63/B@3 Rangoon sees Piper travelling to Burma on a personal quest, before quickly becoming embroiled in the troubles as her editor at home asks her to write about the protests. She seeks help from a young blogger who in turns puts her in touch with a monk and an injured protestor. However, the situation soon gets very complex and she is left unsure of who to trust. 0=F =44713 '## !$$$ l EEE 3<;=@3B63/B@3 1=; /C EEE B7193B39 1=; /C The play is ambitious, moving from what is ostensibly a political thriller about the 2007 â€˜Saffron Revolutionâ€™ to a more personal story of those caught up in it. Unfortunately, the play gets to a point where there are too many balls in the air, and as a result, they all drop. Rather than any one character or subplot having their story heard, we only get snippets of each and it becomes hard to stay invested in every story. Henry Florence <3E /:0C; Âľ@/7< =< B63 6C;;7<5 E7@3Âś =CB <=E =< 23E >@=13AA Street Level With Asher Treleaven during my circus training. My comedy tends to be a combination of socially responsible rhetoric and cock jokes. Youâ€™re currently at the Edinburgh Fringe at the moment with Matador; what thatâ€™s about? Matador is a show about racism and xenophobia in Australia. The show has been going wonderfully â€“ lots of great reviews and lovely crowds. Itâ€™s been excellent discussing Australian racism in the UK because there is an inherent understanding of Aussie culture in Britain. T he annual Gangstersâ€™ Ball celebrates everything swing, cabaret and vaudeville, transforming the Metro Theatre into a wonderland part gaming den, part dance hall, part cocktail lounge â€“ and 100% playground for molls, flappers, gangsters and glamour-pusses. This yearâ€™s Ball will be hosted by awardwinning comedian and vaudevillian Asher Treleaven, who will do his best to manage a lineup that includes troublemaking burlesque babe Gypsy Wood, acclaimed acrobatics troupe This Side Up, master illusionist Cath Jamison, and aerial artist Melise Avion. We caught up with Asher this week, in-between his crazy schedule of shows at the Edinburgh Fringeâ€Ś Youâ€™re a Byron boy â€“ do you think thatâ€™s affected your career and/or style of performance? I discovered circus and performance in Byron and I think it left an indelible mark on me. And Iâ€™ll always be a little off-centre â€“ Byron has that effect on people. What was your training in performance? I learnt most of my performance skills in London on the street at Covent Garden and touring with Robin Inceâ€™s â€˜Book Clubâ€™, a cultish new wave comedy crew in London. NICA was a great experience, but I always wanted to get into doing stand up comedy and comedy is one of those skills you have to learn via performance. Does your circus background feed into your comedy material? Right now I donâ€™t use any circus in my stand up shows, as they tend to be pretty issue heavy; however I am a very physical comic, which is something I learned Any particularly hairy incidents â€“ or lessons learned? No hairy incidents yet â€“ just long days and endless nights. Iâ€™m also performing a night with my burlesque lady Gypsy Wood called Comic Strip in the Assembly Rooms, which has been selling out and giving us no end of ha-has and ta-tas. Which past era would you choose to have a night on the town in? Iâ€™d choose Berlin in the summer of 1924. The Weimar scene was in full swing and National Socialism was just a twitch in the far rightâ€™s eye in Munich. The cabaret scene was the very definition of modern liberalism; men were women, women were men, and the champagne flowed freely â€“ it sounds wunderbar to me, darling. IGHT 0 - $25 N Y A D Shows $2 y m l p n 0 o SATUR 1 m Fro 8pm & CHRIS WAINHOUSE SAT 27 AUG !! ! " # Brisbane News. MATT OKINE $" % &' ( ) DAVE SMIEDT * + # Joan Rivers. SAT 3 SEPT BRAD OAKES ,+- . &/ " ( - * RAY BADRAN * 0 ! " BEN DARSOW ,* . 1 2 ! ! # The Messenger. Sartorially speaking, do you have any dress-up fetishes? I dress in a vintage style somewhere between the â€˜40s and mid-â€˜50s â€“ and itâ€™s how I dress in my everyday life, so to me itâ€™s not a costume. SAT 10 SEPT TAHIR 3 4 ) 5 6 % 76 " 8 99 % 3 : ; * % 6 BRUCE GRIFFITHS ! ! % " ) : 4% < ! % = > 7* " JAMES ROCHFORD 0 ? : @A@ What will your performance at the upcoming Gangstersâ€™ Ball involve? My role as MC is to keep the energy pumping, keep the crowd loud and attentive, and frame the acts on the lineup. Iâ€™ll be doing a few acts during the night but most of my work is about pumping up the crowd! SAT 17 SEPT What: The Gangster's Ball When: Saturday September 3 Where: The Metro Theatre More: gangstersball.com.au FIONA Oâ€™LOUGHLIN ! ! ! 2 " % " % > ! # The Age " BCB# JEREMY KEAST 0 " D 7- 4 STEVE PHILP 3 " &/EE 3 " ( F !GG D 4 H happyendingscomedyclub.com.au " 154 BROUGHAM ST, CNR WILLIAM ST, KINGS CROSS BRAG :: 426 :: 22:08:11 :: 23