Laughter's the Best Medicine

Struck down with a heavy attack of the blues over a work-related matter yesterday, I took myself off to The Comedy Lounge at the Hyde Park Hotel. A friend's son Ollie Raison was on the bill, with Aussie comedian Bob Franklin as the headliner. Two breakfast announcers from a radio station were the comperes - they'd been together as an act and as partners for thirteen years, and still bounced off each other well -in a comedic sense, I mean, of course. The first act was a young man who had no timing and no microphone skills ... and very thin material - all 'dunny' humour. But he'll learn - you have to start somewhere, don't you. Claire Hooper was up next. She was very good, especially with her last item - a song sung in a classical style & - surprise surprise - she could sing! The words were the joke and we could hear every one of them. I thought by this stage that my friend's son was gunna be embarrassed if he wasn't topnotch - which, thank goodness, he was. He walked out full of confidence, with a well-devised series of sketches which sequed well into each other. Ah, his mother's face was one of the highlights, of course! Her reactions were far different than the drunken audience who delighted in any colourful joke or aside. By the end of it, she was very proud of her boy - She kept repeating 'I don't know him! I don't know that person!' He had a little cluster of fans around him later, after he came off - including a very drunk older lady who had obviously taken a shine to him! Bob Franklin was very funny - and super relaxed, as is his style. His timing and mike sense were perfect, built up over many years of performance on comedy shows like Jimoen's etc. As a final act, he read some 'poems' from a notebook - a couple to his dog were extremely funny the way he performed them - true 'performance poetry' perhaps ... They'd die on the page but came alive on stage.

But my last couple of years contact with a uni must have rubbed off on me: I kept comparing the audience with the audience in the pits at Shakespeare's plays back in merrie olde England. Theatre seems to have lost that common touch these days, but this comedy lounge certainly engaged the audience in a very Rabelaisian fashion.

Where do comedians go for work? Keep your eye out for any such show in your area. This full night's entertainment cost me a mere $15 - That's good value in anybody's book. (In fact, all my books cost more than that!)