MICF 2019 - The Male Gayz

Sunday 14th April 2019 - 4:30 pm, European Bier Cafe

I was already heading to the city to see two other comedy shows and was looking around at what else was on in the city and saw on Twitter that this was going to be on.

It was in the same room as The Little Dum Dum Club live podcast was held, although the audience was much more...compact.

It was kinda nice seeing a live podcast that was much more intimate with fewer people. I wouldn't say I've been seeing the Little Dum Dum Club live since they started doing live podcasts, but certainly seeing them in much smaller venues with much more intimate crowds in the audience. It's a much more raucous affair now that they've headliners of an international podcast festival.

The Male Gayz is a podcast where friends Eli Matthewson and Chris Parker have a chat. I like listening to it because it's funny and kinda calming, they're both New Zealanders and I kinda quite like their accent, it's nice, like being wrapped in a vocal hug.

This episode they were joined by Rhys Nicholson, who brought on with him a bowl of chips he'd been eating. I mention this only because he requested a table for the chips and was provided a stool, but did not eat any of the chips once he was provided with a stool for them.

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All drinking white wine. Bowl of chips on its own stool.

This live recording was nice, funny, a little sad in places. Full of remembrances of growing up. Of white wine, parents and being caught watching porn. 

There's podcasts aplenty of the podcast and also video versions on YouTube that follow the same format as the podcast.

I think seeing live podcasts is a great way to see comedians during the festival unrehearsed, just chatting about stuff. It's a great and cheap way to get a sampling of them, without committing to go to a whole show.

MICF 2018 - Little Dum Dum Club (2)

8th April 2018 - 3 pm

European Bier Cafe, 120 Exhibition Street, Melbourne

I didn't go to the first Little Dum Dum Club that happens to take place during April and is not connected to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (I gather there's monies exchanged if there's a link, be it web, verbal or otherwise). It was over the Easter break and I wasn't feeling amazing, after this week I caught a cold, so this was the only Dum Dum show I went to during the MICF.

This episode they had the audience fill out a survey when you came into the room, but aside from a couple of mentions never actually addressed the survey or anything that was written by the audience. Typically Dum Dum.

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The guests on the show were: Hamish Blake, Dilruk Jayasinha and Brett Blake.

Dilruk was looking surprisingly svelte, supposedly weighing in under 100kg as a result of a wager on $1000.

Hamish Blake sported a beard.

Brett Blake recounted his recent journeys into court for 6 offences from jay walking to running a red light in a truck carrying a diesel generator.

MICF 2017 - Little Dum Dum Club (4)

Sunday 23rd April 2017 - 3:00 pm
European Bier Cafe

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I decided not to stay for the Little Dum Dum Club Drunkcast, having been to the last few years’ Drunkcasts (2016 & 2014) I decided not to attend. They are fun, but as the Little Dum Dum Club begins at 3:00 pm that means there’s over 7 hours to kill, and as I’d seen all the comedy shows that I really wanted to see I decided not to remain.

But onto the final Little Dum Dum Club which took place during though no a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2017.

The guests were; Nick Cody, Stuart Goldsmith and Nick Capper.

What I learnt from this podcast is that Nick Capper takes forever to tell a story. I’m not sure I ever want to hear him tell a story, ever.

Like many new guests to the podcast Stuart Goldsmith seemed a little taken aback by the adversarial nature of the live podcast environment. The gentle ribbing that Tommy and Karl give each other, the audience and their guests.

I’d not heard of Stuart Goldsmith and his podcast before, but it certainly sounds interesting, with him speaking with comedians about their craft and how they write.

In general it was a good episode of the podcast, Chandler didn’t read anything from VIPFAQ, but both he and Tommy did mock the blind and handicapped, so that’s another feature in the podcast’s cap of mocking marginalised people, all in the name of rifffing and comedyyyy.

One revelation during the podcast recording was that for the Drunkcast there was going to be costumes sourced from a costume shop in Airport West, so that should be interesting for those going to the Drunkcast, especially given the amazing musical number that last year’s Drunkcast had.

MICF 2017 - Little Dum Dum Club (3)

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Sunday 10th April 2017 - 3:00 pm

Tom Gleeson, Nazeem Hussain, Guy Montgomery. The guests this week on the Little Dum Dum Club, a live podcast not registered nor part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2017.

Tom Gleeson was either quite hot, quite sweaty or did not like the lights, because he seemed to be turning quite read and sweaty whilst giving Tommy and Karl a bit of a roast while on stage.

There were fewer visual jokes this week, so at least the audio version of the podcast will work. There was further exploration and attempt to nail down who the ‘New Zealand comedian who shit his pants and stole some at a comedy gig’ was.

But really, it was an hour of funny comedy which hadn’t been rehearsed and was all over the place.

MICF 2017 - The Little Dum Dum Club (2)

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Sunday 9th April 2017- 3:00 pm

The podcast began with a rather dark, but touching tale of a man who faced with visiting the Westgate and doing a June Northern turned to a mistaken email chain which quite possibly saved him.

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White wine with ice

The guests were for this episode: Hamish Blake, Peter Helliar and Kitty Flanagan.
Kitty Flanagan was the only one who wasn’t aware of the podcast before coming on and I feel spent a lot of it on stage just in stunned awe.
From where I was sat, basically the same place as last week, maybe one more to the right (stage left) as she settled into her stool I could only see her shoes and her hands / mic for most of the time she was on stage.

"Andy Lee"

There were some stories, some role playing and a guest appearance of “Andy Lee” (Greg Larsen).

Sunday’s live podcast was a little more tame, (relatively, for the Little Dum Dum Club) a bit more suicide, a little less racism than last week.

MICF 2017 - Little Dum Dum Club (1)

Sunday 2nd April 2017 - 3:00 pm

Nine minutes of a remix from the podcast of the two dickheads saying “dumb cunt”.

That’s how the podcast began, which meant that they got onto the stage nine minutes late.

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The guests were: Wil Anderson, Dilruk Jayasinha and Stephen K. Amos, plus a last minute appearance by Xavier Michelides for “Xavier’s Corner”.

Live podcast recordings, no matter which one are usually really good value, amazingly so. You’re at least getting three, usually more than that on stage for an hour. It’s unscripted, unwritten and really quite good. It’s often a bit unexpected and kinda like a TV show you need to listen to a few episodes back before seeing it to get the in jokes.

Such as the Koh Samui International Podcast Festival, for which you could buy t-shirts to support, also known as Karl Chandler’s excuse to go on (another) holiday to Thailand. Supposedly 75 people have said they would be going, I am not one of them.

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The stage awaiting the arrival of the "dumb cunts"

While I’ve titled this as being part of the MICF 2017, it isn’t, well, not technically, it’s not listed on the comedyfestival.com.au website and it’s not promoted as being a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. It just happens to be taking place during April which coincidentally is when the MICF is on. I imagine it’s a cost thing, the MICF would charge cash to be listed on their website, to go in their little booklet etc.
In previous years I know it was, but this year, with the season passes selling out and the room looking pretty packed I would imagine that there’s enough word of mouth for them not to need to be within the MICF’s guises.
You can book through the Little Dum Dum Club website they use TryBooking rather than Ticketmaster, for the Little Dum Dum Club and for Tommy Dassalo and Karl Chandler’s own shows, again I gather from their diatribe on the Little Dum Dum Club this is a cost thing with Ticketmaster taking a fairly sizeable chunk.

The Little Dum Dum Club - Live Double Comedyyyy Extravaganza

First recording of the Little Dum Dum Club

12th November 2016
6:30 pm
European Bier Cafe - 120 Exhibition Street, Melbourne

Voting for whether they should do a live show in Thailand greeted me when I walked in. I voted “no” just to be contrarian, and because Chandler’s Thailand fascination deserves to be reigned in.

Second recording of the Little Dum Dum Club

The show was pretty good value, going from 6:30 pm (ish) through to around 11 pm. They recorded two episode of the podcast and then ended with a selection of deliberately bad character standup at the end.

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Greetings, Comrades!

Of this show, and especially the last portion with the bad standup in it, is part of the reason why I think I like the Little Dum Dum Club so much. It’s like listening, and going and seeing an ongoing...thing. It’s like a series of in jokes that you need to have listened to the past episodes to understand. Not just things like Rad Dad, but June Northern, but also the ‘door story’, duck sandwich, the pyjamas, mousse and all the other in jokes and references. The Little Dum Dum Club has its own canon, its own body of work told over 300 plus episodes.

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Baby Bogan Dassalo

To begin the afternoon / evening was another in Tommy Dassalo’s Fiverr erotic fan fiction summaries of his and Chandler’s day.

For the first recording Tommy and Karl were joined by Tom Ballard, Dilruk Jayasinha and Adam Knox.
For the second recording Tommy and Karl were joined by Fiona O’Laughlin, Joel Creasey and Nick Cody.

With line ups like that, $41 is a pretty good price given the nearly four and a half hours (minus breaks between) of comedy on the night.

The final part of the show was the “horrific stand up show” featuring various bits of character standup from Tom Ballard, Tommy Dassalo, Fiona O’Laughlin, Dilruk Jayasinha and Karl Chandler.

First up was Karl Chandler in his notorious pyjamas, doing jokes from one of his first sets, as mentioned in a previous podcast.

June Northern and her vacuum

Next up was Comrade Tom Ballard, the socialist left’s comedian for those who wanted to feel guilty about asylum seekers and being white and...stuff like that.

After that was the Baby Bogan himself, filling out a nappy was Tommy Dassalo with some very interesting jokes about babyhood and life.

Dilruk and his taxi

Following that was a fantastically interesting performance from June Northern herself, mentioning Fiona O’Laughlin and starring the vacuum cleaner that once tried to end it all.

Then was racially diverse in the worst possible way, Dilruk Jayasinha, as an Indian taxi comedian.

Intense Chook

Finally, everyone’s favourite comedian, loved by RSLs everywhere, Gary Chook. The audience chanted ‘Chook, Chook, Chook,’ as he made his way on stage. Karl Chandler had left the building to be replaced by Chook, a man who looked like he was ready to pick a fight with anyone who disagreed with his politics or humour.

It was a strange end to fantastically funny, but odd night.

June Northern demonstrating her vacuum

MICF 2016 - The Little Dum Dum Club DrunkCast™

Sunday 17th April 2016 - 10:30 pm

There’s an episode of Married... With Children, which according to the Married... With Children Wiki is called “Take My Wife, Please”, it featured the main cast dressing up as The Village People and singing YMCA over and over again.

That episode was what came to my mind upon seeing Tommy Dassalo, Karl Chandler, Josh Earl, Nick Cody and Dilruk Jayasinha walk out onto stage.

Karl and Tommy had supposedly prepared for 2 days prior to get costumed and write lyrics, or rewrite lyrics to YMCA.

They performed the song more than once, and it was only after multiple listens did I actually hear most of the lyrics. In the lyrics there was mention of Karl Chandler’s phone number, chocolate mousse the phrase ‘Hey Mates’. Both his phone number and the ‘Hey Mates’ was in place of the YMCA part of the song.

Before the DrunkCast got started proper the crowd was already quite raucous, but I was glad that I had a seat, it was on the isle and that it was padded (the seats 2 years ago weren’t and my arse was sore near the end).

The start of the DrunkCast™

The DrunkCast was somewhat (very) shambolic, it was very much a case of all the comedians letting go.

Around maybe half of the way through the DrunkCast Dilruk tried to take over hosting duties, as he appeared to be one of the least drunk comedians at the drunk cast. It was also something of a sausage fest, the only two female comedians present were Demi Lardner and Celia Pacquola.

The beginning of the end of the DrunkCast™

Around 3/4 of the way through things began to take a somewhat raunchier tone.
Mostly a lot of nudity courtesy of Nick Cody (exposing a testicle) and Daniel Sloss, wearing a kilt the way a Scotsman should; with nothing underneath. Revealing, at one point all to the crowd.

The end of the DrunkCast™

Then, after that point nearing the end, things took an even more raunchy tone.
It was kinda like, if someone was writing slash fan fiction involving a variety of comedians and then just got bored and said ‘and now they kiss’. There was lots of man-on-man kissing, it all looked unexpected, but very...theatrical. Except with lots of tongues.
Also Tom Ballard got underneath Daniel Sloss’ kilt.
At the very end everyone was trying to dack Karl Chandler, Adam Richard seemed to succeed, though I only realised this after reviewing my photos from the night.

The final end of the DrunkCast™ with Adam Richard succeeding in dacking Chandler

MICF 2016 - The Little Dum Dum Club (4)

Sunday 17th April 2016 - 3:00 pm

The final recorded live podcast of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival of 2016.

The guests were Wil Anderson, Anne Edmonds and an American comedian, who heckled Karl’s show the previous night, who Karl hadn’t seen for 2 years prior to that point.
I’m sure his name will be in the podcast when it comes out and I’ll fix this post then, but I do not recall what his name was.

Wil Anderson arrived on stage wearing one of the Dum Dum Club’s “I’m Aware of the Little Dum Dum Club” hoodies.

This podcast they decided not to do the thing, which every other show they’ve done, and that’s to get the guests to move along one seat, which always seems to confuse everyone. Probably because Tommy and Karl don’t explain this.
The way it should happen is that each new guest ends up sitting next to Tommy and everyone moves to the stage left (audience right) by one seat, this time they were all seated in the way they came on to stage.

One thing that was discussed, brought up tangentially by Wil was that how at some point in the future when someone searches for the Westgate Bridge, the Little Dum Dum Club comes up instead of the website for the Westgate Bridge. In the same way that now if you search for ‘tofo-‘ TOFOP comes up rather than TOFOG Russell Crowe’s band which the podcast is named for.
For that to happen, I think both Tommy and Karl and the fans will have to work a little harder to make that happen.

End of the fourth Little Dum Dum Club MICF live recording 2016

During the podcast recording it looked like Tommy, Karl and Wil all got through 2 pints of beer each.
I’m not sure how they’re about to put away that much beer than a few hours later do a show, just the remembering stuff and what to do must be a little bit taxing after a few beers. Or perhaps not, maybe in the comedy environment you learn how to carry your alcohol.

MICF 2016 - The Little Dum Dum Club (3)

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Dolls watching over the audience

Sunday 10th April 2016 - 3:00 pm

I got there a little bit late to get a front and centre seat, still front, just side, which meant I couldn’t see the last stool on stage.

Supposedly there was a judge from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival at the show. Because Dum Dum is a registered show at the MICF it meant that it could be nominated for something at the MICF.

Dave Anthony was on the show this week. I wonder if he’s just doing the rounds of all the live podcasts at the MICF?

Nick Cody was also on the show along with David O’Doherty.

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Somewhat compromised view of the stage

If there was a judge there this afternoon...I’m not sure what they thought of it. Going into The Little Dum Dum Club live is a little bit like going into a TV series midway through the season. It’s got its own language, in jokes and references. Most of them offensive and inappropriate, even with context.

MICF 2016 - TOFOP Live

Saturday 9th April 2016 - 10:15 pm

I jumped and grabbed tickets within an hour or two of the tickets for this going on sale. Last year the tickets sold out **really* quickly, so I wanted to get a ticket to TOFOP live.

Crowd outside Comedy Theatre

Unlike The Little Dum Dum Club or I Love Green Guide Letters, both those podcasts are on in the early afternoon. TOFOP live was on at 10:15 pm. It started around 15 minutes late it and went on until a bit past midnight.

Scrum of people outside Comedy Theatre

When I arrived around 10 minutes early there was already a group of people inside the foyer drinking and waiting. I went in, looked around and thought ‘this smells of beer and BO’ and decided to wait outside on the footpath.
By 10:10 pm there was already a crush of people waiting outside on the footpath and it just got worse from there.
By this point people were really trying to cram into the foyer, I saw a woman in a wheelchair either coming in or going out and people were pushing in front of her to get in.
TOFOP Live was a ticketed and allocated seat event, which means it didn’t matter if you were the last one in, you were going to get your seat.
Perhaps everyone was just gagging for a drink, I don’t know, I’m not a huge drinker, and drinking in that foyer with that many people would have been like a sauna rather than any sort of pleasant drinking establishment.

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TOFOP Live stage with Jen Kirkman "hologram"

When I actually got inside and got to my seat I realised that it was actually quite a good seat. I knew I’d got one close to the stage, but just under the dress circle, which I thought meant I was far back, but it wasn’t that bad. I had an isle seat, which is always a desired thing for my self. I like to have somewhere to put my legs and stretch out, especially as I knew that TOFOP, like all live podcasts would overrun.

The guests joining Wil Anderson and Charlie Clausen were: (surprise international guest and guest Charlie number one) Dave Anthony who’d snuck into the country to do a live podcast recording, which was surprising. Felicity Ward (who wasn’t a surprise because I saw her outside getting tickets for some mates). Celia Pacquola, Daniel Sloss, Lindsay Webb, Justin Hamilton and a British comedian whose name I didn’t hear because the people next to me decided to leave after Daniel Sloss finished on stage.

The other star of the show was John Deeks.
Who was amazing.
He also had a laundry trolley full of mystery numbered beer.
John Deeks was almost like Kryten to Wil and Charlie’s Lister and Rimmer.
That’s what I thought basically, TOFOP as a big live Red Dwarf episode. There was just something about Deeks, Wil and Charlie’s performance on the night that made me think like this.
The show did over run, and as the evening went longer the guests had less and less stage time. Daniel Sloss I think was the last guest who was on stage for any normal amount of time (normal for a live podcast where they’re usually trying to manage their guests against banter on stage). By the time Lindsay Webb and Justin Hamilton showed up, they were on stage for perhaps 5 minutes, maybe no more than 10 minutes.

TOFOP guests getting a selfie with the audience

It was amazing to see a live TOFOP, in person, rather than listening to it. Especially as I didn’t get to see the first one (which is also the lost live TOFOP because of a corrupted memory card). Last year’s I heard.
I did wonder if maybe having it in a venue as large as the Comedy Theatre mean that some of the intimacy of a podcast was lost.
All the podcasts I’ve seen in the past have been in small to medium-sized venues, Steele Saunders has even had a live podcast or two in his apartment.
Small and intimate, is really a podcast’s area rather than theatre-sized spectacular. It made it a bit more show-like, without any of the preparation or organisation. Which is very typical of TOFOP really.

MICF 2016 - The Little Dum Dum Club (2)

Sunday 3rd April 2016 - 3:00 pm

The mic problems continued this week.

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The dolls on stage

Someone cancelled on The Little Dum Dum Club, which means that Dilruk was called in again. He’s evidently Tommy and Karl’s substitute go-to whenever something happens.

The guests for this, the second live podcast were the aforementioned Dilruk Jayasinha, Hamish Blake and Nazeem Hussain.

There was some follow up from Karl Chandler’s 40th birthday and guest Hamish Blake gave Karl his Nando’s black card, which it turns out is expired and has no credit left on it..

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All the guests

There were significant microphone or speaker issues around 3/4 of the way through the show, where upon you could only hear extremely deep tones through the speakers. Which was fine for everyone except Tommy who couldn’t get his voice down that low.
So from that point on, they were just seemingly trying to project, while still using the microphones where were supposedly still recording, or rather the equipment was registering the sound.
Which was fine from where I was sat in the front row, but I did wonder how much the people in the back rows could hear.

Greg Larsen was the fourth guest, um...playing the racist Nando’s CEO Garry Nandos from Moorabbin, who supported apartheid and child slavery. It was at this point that the mics stopped working. Possibly it was a sign.

Pints of beer consumed by Tommy, Karl and Hamish

Live podcasts are fantastic value for money, even if there are 10 minutes of whale noises. No where else at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival are you going to be able to see comedians just chatting and being funny. Yes, it is inconsistent. Yes there’s sometimes problems. But it is hilariously funny. It’s unrehearsed, yet Tommy Dassalo and Karl Chandler still manage to steer the comedy boat. It might take on water occasionally and threaten to whack its mast against the Westgate Bridge, but it’s an amazing voyage.

MICF 2016 - The Little Dum Dum Club (1)

27th March 2016 - 3:00 pm

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Things got unexpectedly political and unexpectedly slapstick.

The first Little Dum Dum Club Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2016, is now in a decidedly nicer venue the European Bier Cafe on Exhibition Street, which is a so much nicer venue to walk into than last year’s which was near the Maccas at the Flinders Street end of Elizabeth Street.

Tommy Dassalo looked much more rosy cheeked than the last time I saw him which was for the Little Dum Dub Club Christmas show last year.
Or maybe it was just that I was sitting in the front row.
I certainly panicked a little bit when Karl Chandler threatened; glass in hand; to stage dive into the crowd.

They’re the hosts of the Little Dum Dum Club podcast, of which this was the live version, I perhaps should have lead with that, but there’s other reviews where I do introduce them.

The guests for this first show of the MICF were; Dilruk Jayasinha, Ronny Chieng and Daniel Sloss.
Dilruk was looking surprisingly svelte. Ronny too was looking much more lithe.
There was a surprising amount of discussion by Ronny about the size of Daniel Sloss’ penis.
Which only left me with questions.
Mostly about how Ronny Chieng came upon the “aftermath”.

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The fourth guest was unexpected, unexpectedly political and unexpected that a politician would be a fan of the Little Dum Dum Club. Enough to buy a tshirt and be a Patreon supporter.
Sam Dastyari, or more correctly Senator Sam Dastyari is member of the Australian Labor Party in the Australian Senate.
Apparently also a fan of the Little Dum Dum Club, enough to make some references to various things that have been in The Little Dum Dum Club podcast.

While Dastyari was on stage it seemed the microphones chose this point to stop working, or at least one of them did, which lead to some interesting, almost slapstick-like work to try and get them working by Ronny Chieng and to a lesser amount Daniel Sloss. But mostly it was Ronny Chieng, who at one point, to see (or more to the point hear) if the microphone was working held the microphone up to his ear.

Apparently BuzzFeed was also at the live podcast show. Supposedly they contacted Dastyari and said they tried to contact Tommy or Karl to confirm things and were met with the level of incompetence and dickheadery that is the podcast in general. And therefore weren’t even sure if there was even going to be a podcast / show on today.
I do wonder what they made of the content of the first Little Dum Dum Club live podcast of the MICF 2016.

MICF 2015 - The Little Dum Dum Club (4)

3:00 pm - Sunday 19th April 2015

The stairs up to The Joint were working, albeit only the ones that led up to the venue, not the ones that lead down.

For the first time I didn’t get a seat in the front row, but managed to get one in the third where I could get a clear view of the stage for the most part, next to the sound desk.

This was the final recorded show of The Little Dum Dum  Club podcast for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2015, although there would be the DrunkCast™ later in the evening.

Today’s podcast was epic for its guests and why everyone should be buying season passes to podcast shows at the MICF. I had bought a season pass for $60 which means each show cost $15, plus a ticket gives you access to the DrunkCast™ should you wish it.

On Sunday joining Karl Chandler and Tommy Dassalo were; Wil Anderson, Hamish Blake and Adam Hills. Plus Dilruk Jayasinha dropped in near the end.
Wil Anderson’s show sells for $35 plus alone. Yes he’s not performing his show at The Little Dum Dum Club. Instead what all the guests are being is improvisational, being comedians, in front of an audience.

Also included in the price of any ticket is entry to the DrunkCast™, the final unrecorded Little Dum Dum Club. I went last year. I elected not to go this year.
In part because it’s freezing tonight in Melbourne. I also had no other shows to see tonight so didn’t fancy the 6 hour wait between when the Dum Dum Club finished and around 10:15 pm - 10:20 pm when the DrunkCast™ would begin. Also where The Joint is isn’t the nicest part of Melbourne, the bottom end of Elizabeth Street isn’t entirely nice during the day.
There’s also my dislike of roudy drunk people. I am a person who can drink maybe 2 ciders and think ‘yep that’s enough for me’.
Plus having driven up to the city I’m not going to get drunk.
Also, by the end of last year’s DrunkCast™ it began to feel like a comedy hostage situation with Gary Chook holding everyone in to tell his racist jokes to.
From what @DumDumClub have tweeted it seems they’ve hit the limit for people going to the DrunkCast™ anyway, so me not going gave one extra person the ability to get in, while I’m sat at home with my feet in ugg boots and my hands wrapped around a mug of tea.

The final recorded podcast of the MICF was amazing, super funny, and brilliant just to see that many comedians together.
Being dickheads.

MICF 2015 - I Love Green Guide Letters (4)

4:00 pm - Saturday 18th April

For the final I Love Green Guide Letters for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2015 Steele Saunders guests were;

• Dave O’Neil
• Chrissie Swan

and

• Merrick Watts

All except Dave O’Neil pictured in the photo, Dave is obscured by someone’s head in the front row and I didn’t want to move to try and take another photo for this.

This week probably won’t need too many edits or <Mr Black>s needing to be added by Steele when he’s editing and post producing this episode.

At the beginning there was some relatively insightful discussion of ‘where did everyone go to school’ and which other famous people went to their school. Steele didn’t answer however.

Merrick Watts observed the Athenaeum Theatre space that the podcast was being recorded in resembled a beer hall / Nazi party meeting meeting. I thought when he began he was going to make a Hogwarts comparison, but no. Nazis.

That led to a rather interesting discussion of the World War II and how Australia was to have been divvied up had the Germans one. Supposedly they’d have grabbed Tasmania for themselves while Japan took the lion’s share of our country.

This conversation dovetailed into World War I chats and Watts’ appearance on the Book Club on the ABC. Broadcast on Sunday, I think I missed it as I was driving home from the city.

There was some interesting insights into Swan’s time on “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here”, including some truly fascinating information about farts.

Steele also managed to get through several letters about the guests and some letters from this week.

All up it was a great fun, interesting, insightful, honest and funny show and a great end to the MICF run of live podcast recordings.

MICF 2015 - The Little Dum Dum Club (3)

12th April 2015 - 3:00 pm

Fat jokes, racism, the Westgate Bridge and Tommy’s parents were in the audience. Welcome to the Little Dum Dum Club. I’ve taken to writing notes and ideas in a little notebook, which also means reading my hand writing after the event. That’s basically what I wrote in my notebook in order to remind myself when I came to write this up. It’s not a lot, annoyingly I’m sure I recalled more after it. Or perhaps not. Laughter is an involuntary act. It goes through and is processed in a different way.

The guests for today’s club were:

Celia Pacquola

(who had to leave early),

Dilruk Jayasinha

,

Nazeem Hussain

(who subbed in for Celia) and

Dave Anthony

. Also

Gareth Reynolds

came on half way through. I found Celia’s accent notable, very though not quite entirely English accented. Still recognisably her accent of Australia, though quite influenced by an English accent.

There was a performance of Australia’s longest running and most professional podcast-based comedy series based on a Target catalogue audition “Rad Dad”. Nazeem gave quite a creepy performance as the police detective. Anthony was somewhat disappointed by his lack of lines and professionalism on the part of Tommy and Karl.

Rad Dad scripts under stools

There was more talk of Karl Chandler’s show which still sounds like an awful nightmare performance which I don’t know how he manages to do every night. Just the thought of that much heckling and contention in the room is enough to put me off from going.

I’ve always thought that everyone who’s at a comedy gig is there to have fun, to enjoy themselves. But Karl’s description of his show and the antics of the crowd it most certainly doesn’t sound like that.

Aside from this breakdown of Chandler’s most recent performance there was general random chats that were full of hilarity...along with some of the Dum Dum trademark ‘hanging shit on Dilruk’. Some of it seemed to shock / surprise Celia.

There’s one show left, plus the drunk cast. Get tickets, arrive early. Enjoy the sticky floor of the first floor bar while queuing for entry into The Joint. There are lifts if you’re curious about access that doesn’t involve stairs.

MICF 2015 - I Love Green Guide Letters (3)

11th April 2015 - 4:00 pm

This live podcast was rambling, it was crazy and it was...less funny than last week.

It was still ridiculous, still random, still...strange. More letters were covered.
Yet I was left feeling somewhat underwhelmed.

Possibly because I had the beginnings of a headache that brewed throughout the evening.

Today’s live podcast seemed more like a random piece of performance art, funny and insightful rather but lacking something some how.

The guests were Dave Anthony, Ed Kavalee and Ash Williams.

Kavalee seemed to want to dominate proceedings, it was...I don’t know, he seemed to wish to interview and direct the interactions between Anthony and Williams.

The show ran over time, as it has in the previous weeks. This time I had to leave early as I had bought a ticket to Wil Anderson’s 5.45 pm show. So I didn’t get to see how long the show went on for. Although from the tweets I saw while I was sitting waiting for Anderson’s show to start I think had I waited till the end I wouldn’t have got to Anderson’s show.

I have seen Kavalee and Williams before on I Love Green Guide Letters, but at the more intimate location of The Public Bar, which had really uncomfortable seating but a more intimate location than the Athenaeum Theatre is.
That intimacy and closeness to the audience worked for Williams especially and his interaction with the audience.

Basically, today I just didn’t lock into the comedy or the discussions that were being had today. So much so I took a moment to take a photo, something I have not done previously because I have been enjoying it too much.

MICF 2015 - The Little Dum Dum Club (2)

3:00 pm - 5th April 2015

4 stools & 4 mics for 5 comedians

Sunday’s Dum Dum Club felt like a debrief for Karl Chandler’s comedy festival show. I don’t really like Chandler’s comedy in the general sense, I’m not a fan of one liners or things like that. I like narrative comedy, which is why I saw his show last year. But have no intention of seeing his show this year.

From his tales of what he does; that he gets audience and special comedian guests to heckle him it sounds...not like my sort of show.

The guests today were again why everyone should see live podcasts; because you’d never get to see comedians like this in a room as intimate as this during the comedy festival. Talking randomly.
Tommy Dassalo and Karl Chandler were joined on The Little Dum Dum Club by Dave O’Neil, Dave Hughes and Nick Cody with special guest addition Dave Thornton.

Notable from this show was the impressions, especially Dave Thornton’s impression of Dave Hughes.

MICF 2015 - I Love Green Guide Letters (2)

The guests for Saturday’s live podcast were Greg Fleet, Fiona O'Loughlin and Lawrence Mooney. With Steele Saunders trying to get a letter in here and there.

I’m not really sure what I can say regarding Saturday’s podcast.

Only two letters were read. One was about Shane Warne and drinking and the other was about Top Gear and Jeremy Clarkson.

Fleet mused that while he dislikes Clarkson there is something notable about him and also James May in that they are honest in what they do and say. While (according to Fleet) Hammond is a bit more two faced about things.

I think of Top Gear they are all performers and anything that’s seen on Top Gear is a performance. A heightened reality version of their own personalities, so anything seen on screen on an episode of Top Gear is a hyper-real version of their personalities. Engineered for entertainment.

Greg Fleet, Fiona O'Loughlin and Lawrence Mooney

Mooney and O'Loughlin mentioned something....Catholicy. Some sort of prayer or something for Jesus.
Or god.
Something like that.
And also there was talk of wine and how Jesus likes in. Or maybe it was wine being good to be drunken.

This episode really showed why you need to go to the I Love Green Guide Letters live podcast recordings. Because Steele will very likely edit a lot of the stuff that was said during the liver recording out. Or it’ll appear in a somewhat edited form at the end of the podcast. Or if Steele puts it out without much editing there’ll be lots of <Mr Black> inserted into the podcast censoring out the people’s names or whatever.

There are few live shows were you’ll get to see people like Greg Fleet, Fiona O'Loughlin and Lawrence Mooney sharing a stage together just chatting about random things.

MICF 2015 - The Little Dum Dum Club (1)

3:00 pm - 29th March 2015

This was the first live podcast recording of The Little Dum Dum Club

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at The Joint Bar on Elizabeth Street.

Approaching it I wasn’t sure what to think, this end of Elizabeth Street is not really the nicest part of Elizabeth Street, with its 24 hour pizza place and 24 hour Maccas.

But, inside The Join Bar it wasn’t that bad, rather surprising when I actually got up there.

I managed to get a seat at the front and on the end which was nice, it meant leg room. Something I don’t quite obsess over, but sitting for an hour I like to shift my legs around a little bit.

The guests for today were

Ronny Chieng , Fiona O'Loughlin and Josh Earl.

Like I said in my commentary, musings and reflection on the live podcast recording of I Love Green Guide Letters this podcast is also an opportunity to see three different comedians each time and two same comedians (Tommy Dassalo and Karl Chandler) each time. For what is a small amount of money compared to some shows. $20 a ticket or $40 for the season pass.

With The Little Dum Dum Club you also get a bonus show at the end of the comedy festival the now famously infamous “DrunkCast” right at the end of the festival which you can only get into if you’ve got a ticket to the previous show on that day.

Unlike the I Love Green Guide Letters live podcast there is less format to The Little Dum Dum Club so everything’s a little more free flowing and random. There was a performance of “Rad Dad” Australia’s longest running comedic serialised audio production based on a Target catalogue and a failed audition.

It’s always an amazing spectacular which Dassalo and Chandler manage to keep controlled most of the time and they always have fantastic guests which you would pay a lot more to say. As I think Dassalo said at the end venue (the Joint Bar) is probably the smallest venue you’re likely to see any of their guests in and that they usually get guests that are much bigger than themselves.

It’s really worth it and it’s early in the day so there’s enough time to go and see them and do some shopping or grab a really early dinner or late afternoon tea before going and seeing some more comedy.