In just under a month, the behemoth Sydney Comedy Festival hits town. With 150 events to tickle your funny bone, offer a laugh a minute and give you the best kind of belly ache, the festival’s ninth edition is the biggest yet. To celebrate the onslaught of international humourists, we’ve put together our top ten must-see acts.
Arj Barker
The lights dim. The music fades. The audience applauds with anticipation. Or they just get alarmingly quiet. It's go time!
Since his last Australian tour in 2011, Arj has been touring constantly, both solo and with his old pals, The Flight of The Conchords. He returns to the Sydney Comedy Festival with his brand new show, Go Time. According to Arj, Go Time is both "what audiences expect from me AND the last thing they expect from me, which if my calculations are correct, will make for a great show."
Arj Barker is arguably Australia’s favourite American comedian. In recent years, he has spent more time in our country than his own and has come to understand our culture perhaps better than we understand it ourselves. His stand-up is both insightful and pointed, like a mind-reading thumb tack, if there was one of those.
Details on Arj Barker’s Sydney shows.
Danny Bhoy
Letters. Funny old things? They can make you laugh. They can make you cry. They can make paper aeroplanes. This show features some of the letters you never got round to writing because you thought life was too short. Well, I think life is just about the right length, so plenty of time to write to these arseholes. Crusade is not the right word, but join me on my crusade to effect real change in this broken world. This is a stand up show with some sitting down.
“Has the audience simultaneously weeping with laughter and nodding in agreement” - Herald Sun
“His routines have the mark of those which are quoted from, for years to come” - The Herald
“One of the most sparkling wits in the world” - Montreal Gazette
Details on Danny Bhoy’s Sydney shows.
David O’Doherty
Having toured the world last year with the saddest stand-up comedy show in the history of entertainment – it was about crippling depression that ended with a (mouse) murder – David O’Doherty is ready/delighted to unleash the next episode. Seize the David O’Doherty (Carpe DO’Diem) aims to fix everything that’s wrong in the world. Seriously, everything.
Irish Comedian Of The Year 2010. Winner Best Show Award 2008 Edinburgh Fringe.
Details on David O’Doherty’s Sydney show.
Imaan Hadchiti
A stand-up/storytelling show in which Imaan unravels his experiences of entering the performance world at the age of 15.
Hadchiti and his sister Rima Hadchiti are the only two known cases of "Rima Syndrome", a genetic condition causing small-stature yet retaining normal proportions. Hadchiti stands 107 cm (3 ft 6 in) tall.
In his Sydney solo debut Imaan discusses the evolution of thoughts, freedoms, religion and his comedy.
Details on Imaan Hadchiti’s Sydney shows.
Margaret Cho
Last in Australia in 2011 with sold out shows at the inaugural Just For Laughs At Sydney Opera House Festival, the undisputed queen of transgressive humour and not-so-subtle subversion, Margaret Cho, returns to Australia with an all new stand up show, Mother.
Mother offers up an untraditional look at motherhood and how we look at maternal figures and strong women in queer culture. It’s probably her edgiest show to date, filled with riotous observations on race, drugs, sexuality – gay-straight-everything in between, celebrity, culture, politics – nothing is sacred – least of all this Mother.
Details on Margaret Cho’s Sydney show.
Randy
Randy's back, and this time he's on the wagon.
In this razor sharp, hour of stand-up comedy, everybody's favourite felt-faced raconteur casts his acerbic, ping-pong ball gaze on the world around him.
As seen on ABC's Warehouse Comedy, this is Randy. Solo. Sober.
Details on Randy’s Sydney show.
Paul Foot
Following last year’s sell-out seasons at Melbourne Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe, the man who speaks a comic language from a galaxy far away heads to Sydney.
Mr Foot will delight and amuse connoisseurs and newcomers alike with a show he personally describes in the following manner: Deep within the sinking sands of the perspex jungle of youth, in the forgotten nebula of nothingness, comes an objet d'esire: a trombone fruit. Needless to say, it's another warm year.
“His routines are like jazz clusters, loose hammocks, choked to the brim with jokes and ideas." - Noel Fielding (Mighty Boosh)
“Inspired, surreal and incomprehensibly funny.” – Chortle
Details on Paul Foot’s Sydney show.
Ross Noble
Ross Noble, the demonic scarecrow himself, is back doing what he does best with a new live tour. Famed for his fiery and fluid free-wheeling style, Noble creates comedy gold from tiny particles of random nonsense. This is your chance to see one of the world's most critically acclaimed stand-ups in a hysterical night with the Mindblender.
Details on Ross Noble’s Sydney show.
Superwog and MyChonny
Get ready for a night of non-stop laughs as two of the superstars of YouTube comedy unite to present a hilarious live show!
Superwog and Mychonny are YouTube sensations with an incredible 110 million video views and more than 700,000 subscribers between them, and regularly top the YouTube Comedy Charts.
Combining their talents for the 2013 Sydney Comedy Festival, Superwog and Mychonny Live On Stage promises to be one of the biggest comedy events of the year.
Details on Superwog and MyChonny’s Sydney show.
Tom Ballard
As heard on triple j breakfast. As seen on The Project and Can of Worms.
Tom desperately craves attention and validation. That's why he does comedy and radio and TV. But sometimes he desperately craves attention and validation so much that he gets kicked out of a home and is labelled a rape apologist.
Details on Tom Ballard’s Sydney show.
The Sydney Comedy Festival runs from April 22 to May 11 2013.
