Festival City: A run down of the Fringiest acts at MICF, YIRRAMBOI and Midsumma

Melbourne’s lighting up with a bunch of our (second) favourite festivals! The Melbourne International Comedy Festival has kicked off, and YIRRAMBOI and Midsumma have just announced their programs. We’ve got events in Fringe Common Rooms across all these festivals – take a look here. We’ve pulled together a list of some of the Fringiest acts these fests have to offer, so have a read, buy some tix and support Melbourne’s artists!

Melbourne International Comedy Festival

MICF is coming to Common Rooms! They’re running rooms all over Trades Hall, including Common Rooms’ beautiful ballroom, with Fringe regulars like Kit Richards, Completely Improvised Shakespeare and more. Check out everything that’s on at Trades Hall, and we’ll see you there (we’ll be the ones pouring the drinks!)

Plus, here’s a list of some other must-sees at MICF. How do we know? These hilarious legends are Melbourne Fringe regulars, award winners and nominees.

• Alice Tovey: Doggo – Through her unique, musical and provocative lens, Alice blends elements of musical comedy, experimental performance, burlesque and immersive theatre to create an hour of pop bangers, sketch and sizzling satire that will leave audiences begging for more. BUY TICKETS
• Anna Piper Scott: Queer & Present Danger – Anna Piper Scott is one of Australia’s most exciting comedians – an aggressive, charming and fabulous trans woman with talent to spare. Nominee Best Comedy 2019 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS
• Bella Green is Charging For It – Join Bella for an hour of stand-up in the surprisingly mundane but always hilarious world of sex work, where the heels are high, the carpet is sticky and the customer is probably wrong. Nominee Best Comedy 2018 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS
• Casting Off – The return of the Melbourne Fringe 2018 Best Circus winner. A disarming, hilarious show about living on the edge and talking about it; and how it’s easier done than said. Circus that makes you laugh and cry simultaneously! BUY TICKETS
• Dazza and Keif Go Viral in Space with Ya Mum – This award-winning drag duo presents high-energy dance nostalgia, hyper-masc homoeroticism and a record-breaking number of dick jokes per minute. Nominee Best Comedy 2020 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS
• Hot Department: Open For Business – Masters of sketch comedy, Honor Wolff and Patrick Durnan Silva deliver to you their exclusive brand of surreal and twisted humour. Nominee Best Comedy 2019 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS
• Lou Wall: That One Time I Joined The Illuminati – Multi-award-winning comedian Lou Wall takes you down a rabbit hole into the darkest and strangest corners the internet has to offer. Winner Best Cabaret 2020 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS
• Patrick Collins: I’m Not a Mime – What does it mean to be a mime in today’s world? Patrick wouldn’t know because Patrick is not a mime. Winner Best Comedy 2020 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS.
• Scout Boxall: Good Egg – A handy little genre-defying sketch-clown-stand-up-drag multitool, Scout Boxall brings their unique brand of low-fi, prop-heavy absurdity to the stage in their raw first solo hour. Winner Best Emerging Artist 2019 Melbourne Fringe, Nominee Best Comedy 2019 Melbourne Fringe. BUY TICKETS
• Takashi Wakasugi: Farm Backpacker (Subclass 417) (JPN) – Japan’s quickest comedy export, Takashi Wakasugi returns to Melbourne with his brand-new show after a sold out season at the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. BUY TICKETS

YIRRAMBOI

The YIRRAMBOI program is out and it’s stacked with truly phenomenal First Nations art. You can catch free and low cost events all over the city in May – browse the full program here. We picked out a few Fringe-related events below to get you started on your ticket-booking journey.

• Crazy in Love – At our very own Fringe Common Rooms! Powerhouse pop performer Garret Lyon’s set list of crowd favourites and originals explores his experiences of love: love for his family, friends, falling in and out of it, and finding it within himself. BUY TICKETS
• Bighouse Dreaming – This incredible 2018 Deadly Fringe commission and Best Performance award winner is back. Combining the rhythm and cultural force of hip hop with theatre, Bighouse Dreaming is a provocative and urgent performance that holds an unflinching lens to the justice system, youth prisons and Australian masculinity—black and white. BUY TICKETS
• Coconut Woman – A Torres Strait Islander led production, Coconut Woman explores disconnection and the challenges of navigating the choppy waters of reunification. Of finding a way Home. BUY TICKETS
• Considerable Sexual License – Led by proud Wiradjuri man Joel Bray, Melbourne Fringe board member and 2017 Deadly Fringe artist, this provocative performance blends cabaret, comedy, and choreography. BUY TICKETS

Midsumma Festival

Fringe Common Rooms is popping off this April and May with some of the best queer events around town, as part of Midsumma Festival. The events below are the ones within our (beautifully curtain-draped) four walls, but there’s excellent queer art all over town – check out the full program here and play a game of “spot the Fringe artist”.

• Get Bent Fest! – An 8 hour gala extravaganza flashing you a delicious line-up of Melbourne’s finest queer acts including Fringe faves Dazza and Keif and Lou Wall. BUY TICKETS
• Lemon Comedy: Pride Edition – A special Pride Edition of Melbourne’s favourite inclusive comedy night. Hosted by radio duo ‘Annie and Ando’ from JOY94.9, Australia’s only LGBTQ+ radio station. BUY TICKETS
• Queer-aoke – Led by the incomparable Bae Marie and featuring some extra special guest performers, Queer-aoke is a rambunctious late night karaoke party celebrating music’s biggest queer names. BUY TICKETS