Comedy Chats

This is the final COMEDY CHAT! Well, until the next comedy festival rolls along. Or maybe just until I want to talk to someone funny. Who knows? It's a moveable feast. What a note to end on: I talk to Mark and Shenoah about their Melbourne International Comedy Festival show "Pterodactyl Nights," their worst gig ever, KickStarters, Breaking Bad, writing a sitcom, Aunty Donna, nerves, and what you do when you can't squeeze a sofa into a theatre. Bellissimo.

After some initial awkwardness where I told Kyle I didn't enjoy some of his material (my fault not his), we got back on track and had an enlightening and hilarious chats about gout, why tragedy is hilarious, how to put together an hour of comedy, advice from Louis CK, racing pizzas, being a roman emperor, avoiding political humour, and Sam Simmons smashing tacos. Kyle's show at Melbourne International Comedy Festival is "Terrestrial Woes" and despite my wooziness about his doctor material, I bloody loved it.

I always love chatting to Paul Foot and spending time in his brain. Today in there we saw, and spoke about, some bats, David O'Doherty, a wall called Kenneth, my walking style, more bats, Tim Vine, and talking gherkins. Paul's show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is called "An Evening With Mr Paul Foot".

Yes I realise that the last episode was mislabelled as "Episode 5" but hey, what are you gonna do. This is definitely episode 7 and it's a double header - Sarah Pascoe and Nish Kumar with one of the best chats yet, about the unique life of a comedian, handling online haters (well-intentioned or otherwise), and what it's like backstage at the Gala. You can see them both at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sarah in "Animal" and Nish in "Long word… Long word… Blah Blah Blah… I’m So Clever."

David and Dan bond over a love of sneakers until Dan accidentally insults David about his weight. Then the chat pretty much turns into a non-linear history of David's many careers, leading up to this very moment: his two shows at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival: "Danger is Everywhere" and "We Are All In The Gutter, But Some Of Us Are Looking At David O'Doherty" (the former for children and the latter, adults).

Dan and Nina Conti discuss what it's like improvising an entire ventriloquism show with up to 11 audience participants at once for an hour; something Dan can only imagine, but Nina does every night, in her show "In Your Face" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Simon Munnery has been in this business that we call show for thirty years, which I guess is how long it takes to come up with his latest jape "And Nothing But", which as you will have figured out by now, is his current show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. In this chat, we talk reviews, the Can Can, building ridiculous props, and a little bit of theatre trivia from Adam Hills.

Scottish comedian Larry Dean is appearing in "New Order" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, so we chat border security, Adelaide, writing on tour without stealing jokes off other comedians, and why Australia is full of spiders, ex-cons, and right wing fascists (and W

Joel's show at Melbourne International Comedy Festival is called Conquer - so we chat conkers, conquerors, the fine line between creepiness and seduction today and in the olden days, the worst Tinder date he's ever been on, and our high school nu metal cover bands, which were both AWESOME.

Jen's show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is called I Know What I’m Doing & Other Lies I Tell Myself: Stories From A Life Under Construction and right at the start of the interview Dan screwed it up because it is quite frankly far too long. Dan and Jen discuss earthquakes, spiders, sex, writing books, September 11 and, eventually, her show.