Observer

OBSERVER: MICF comedy for young people

Friday, March 14, 2025

Pilot’ is comedy by young people, for young people at the 2025 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.‘Pilot’ is bringing together six of Australia’s most promising up-and-comers to headline their first ever Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows.Producers Ethan Gallagher and Dylan McBurney come from comedy and performance backgrounds, and saw a gap in the festival’s youth programs…

OBSERVER: OK Column with John O’Keefe

Actor-musician Rick Springfield has announced a MRI scan revealed he has lingering brain damage caused by a fall on stage in LA some 25 years ago. At the time of his fall Rick thought he had hurt his wrist and that cured itself. Onwards and upwards for Rick, aged 76, is keeping up his concert…

OBSERVER: The Arts with Peter Kemp

Presented by The Signal Curators Group, the show Unreal is concerned primarily with the relationship between perception and reality.Within this overreaching concept lies a particular focus on the politics of perception and reality, system of knowledge and their particular basesexplored, the question “who benefits from this message of the truth” presented by viewer to interrogate.The…

OBSERVER: Louise Lovely’s Labassa

The National Trust property Labassa in Caulfield North presents Louise Lovely’s Labassa on Friday, March 21 from 6pm-7.30pm and 8pm to 9.30pm.Film pioneer Louise Lovely was Australia’s most successful actress in Hollywood’s early silent era, and also Labassa’s most celebrated resident of the 1930s. Visitors are invited to delve into Miss Lovely’s extraordinary life story…

OBSERVER: Stand Up For Seniors

Tasmanian comedian Daryl Peebles is bringing his stand-up comedy show Stand Up for Seniors … but not necessarily on the bus to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from March 26 to April 6 at 6pm at Wheat, Wine and Whisky, Collingwood.Describing himself as an ‘elder-comic’ entering his ‘final quarter in the football game of life,’…

OBSERVER: A Day With James Joyce’s Ulysses

Bloomsday in Melbourne presents A Day With James Joyce’s Ulysses – The Infamous Circe Episode on Sunday, April 6 from 10am to 4.30pm at 3ZZZ Melbourne Ethnic Community Radio, Brunswick.Presented by Associate Professor Frances Devlin-Glass, the Artistic Director of Bloomsday in Melbourne and Dr Steve Carey, this event is a fundraiser for Bloomsday in Melbourne,…

OBSERVER: Adele Cliff

With the longest show title in the MICF, British comedian Adele Cliff (UK Pun Champion in 2020) presents Adele Cliff: Adele, Adele, Adele … Cliff It Isn’t The Consequences Of My Own Actions from March 26 to April 20 at Tasma Terrace.Adele uses her gag-heavy style to tackle the topic of lying and why we…

OBSERVER: One for the record books

Melbourne-based designer, content creator and comedian Julian O’Shea’s 2025 new one-man show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is titled One For The Record Books, being presented from March 29 to April 20 at 6.25pm at the Doubletree Hilton on Flinders Street.The show tells the true story of Julian O’Shea’s adventures (and misadventures) in trying…

OBSERVER: Passion Play

The 26th Melbourne Passion Play has started recruiting cast and crew, but more people are urgently needed.Rehearsals for the performances take place every Sunday afternoon leading up to Easter at the Catholic Regional College, 380 Sydenham Rd, Sydenham.Lunch is served at 12 noon, prior to the rehearsals.In case of inclement weather, the College has a…

OBSERVER: The Big Hoo Haa

he Big Hoo-Haa, Melbourne’s longest-running weekly improv comedy show, is being presented on March 22, April 26, May 3 and May 10 at 8.30pm at The Motley Bauhaus, 118 Elgin St, Carlton.The cast ‘flies by the seat of their pants’ as there is no script. The Big Hoo-Haa ensemble fuses quick-witted improvisation with live music…