Online Comedy

Is Hannah Gadsby’s Douglas as good as Nanette? Yes!

Where do you go after you’ve done the most-acclaimed stand-up show in years? Many comedians would be tempted to try and do it all again – same style, similar issues – but Hannah Gadsby, wisely, has taken her new show Douglas (now on Netflix) in a different direction to Nanette. This has turned out to... Read More »

Comedy in Lockdown (again)

The world has changed rapidly in the last two months and it’s perhaps sad that just as comedians are starting to understand how to produce comedy online or at home or remotely or at a social distance, that the country’s starting to open up again. Or maybe not? Because let’s face it, this is going... Read More »

Danger: Stereo adventures

Remember Danger 5, SBS’s period spy spoof series where a group of secret agents had to kill Hitler? There were two series of Danger 5, the 2012 series set in the 1960s and the 2015 series set in the 1980s, and since then, nothing. Now the team are back with Danger 5 Stereo Adventures, an... Read More »

Judith Lucy vs Men (and dying)

A lot of stand-up shows have been filmed for streaming services in recent years but Judith Lucy vs Men (available now on Amazon Prime) is, as you’d expect, a cut above the rest. No one, absolutely no one, can sell material like Judith Lucy. As with Barry Humphries, you might have seen some of the... Read More »

Can Australian comedy survive the coronavirus?

Humanity has always needed a laugh. Even our monkey ancestors probably had one or two amongst them who would stand-up, while everyone else was sat around the fire of an evening, and bust out a tight 10 about how there’s always someone in every camp who can never be relied on to light a fire... Read More »

Overwhelmed & Dying

Judith Lucy didn’t conceive her new podcast Overwhelmed & Dying in the age of coronavirus, but it’s a welcome salve at a time when people are literally fighting each other for packs of toilet paper. Overwhelmed & Dying is a sort of follow-on from Judith Lucy Spiritual Journey and Judith Lucy All Woman and is... Read More »

Black comedy narcissus

The web series How to Know If You’re Dating a Narcissist was one of five shows given funding by Screen Australia in November 2018. Amongst the other shows announced were Content and Sarah’s Channel, which weren’t exactly amazing. So, is How to Know If You’re Dating a Narcissist a better show? Er, sort of. We... Read More »

The future is now

Wherever the exciting future of Australian comedy is, it may not be at the ABC. For a certain type of comedy at least. Appearing on a panel recently at Screen Forever, “Australia’s premier event for screen industry professionals”, Rick Kalowski, Head of Comedy at the ABC, is reported to have said: “It’s your responsibility as... Read More »

Still Hungry

Everyone likes it when the cast and crew of a favourite old TV show reunite for a one-off special, right? But was a reunion of those responsible for the Andrew Denton-produced current affairs/comedy hybrid and new talent initiative Hungry Beast (2009-2011) something anyone apart from those involved with Hungry Beast asked for? We’re going to... Read More »

In case you missed it

In the past month ABC Comedy and ABC iView have released three new web series: Halal Gurls, billed as the “World’s First Hijabi Comedy Series”, Nightwalkers, a story about vampire slayers set in Sydney’s Western Suburbs, and Carpark Clubbing, a show about young women hanging out in a donut stand carpark. All received funding from... Read More »