“Mythical Mayhem” indeed!
May 11th
Thanks to everyone who came along to the Mythic Creatures Comedy Tour on Saturday; it was a whole lot of fun! We managed to get a little press coverage, including a piece in the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader.
There were some cameras present for the event, so hopefully I’ll get to post some photos soon; and with any luck, this won’t be the last time Museum Comedy will visit the Australian National Maritime Museum. However, there won’t be a repeat of the Mythic Creatures tour – the creatures themselves are heading off to other shore in only a couple of weeks, so if you’ve not seen the exhibit yet, get down there now!
Big thanks to Scott Andrew and all the staff and volunteers at the ANMM, and especially to my fellow tour guides, Dave Bloustien and Amanda Buckley. We had a kraken great time!
Mythic Creatures Comedy Tour update
May 3rd
It’s the week of the Mythic Creatures Comedy Tour at the Australian National Maritime Museum, and we have an important change to the program! We’re now doing one show only starting at 6PM (for complimentary pre-show drinks) on Saturday, May 8 – so if you want to come, you’d better book!
If you want to join Ben McKenzie, Dave Bloustien and Amanda Buckley for an hilarious take on some of the most iconic creatures of myth and legend, plus some of the treasures to be found all year round at the Maritime Museum, you’d better look!
Tickets are still $20 for Maritime Museum members, and $25 for non-members, and you can book by calling the Museum on 02 9298 3655. More information about the Mythic Creatures exhibit is still available at the Maritime Museum web site.
MICF wrap-up and Mythic Creatures Comedy Tour
Apr 20th
Well, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival has come to an end for another year; congratulations to Museum Comedy guest performer Hannah Gadsby on winning the Festival Director’s Award!
But just because we’re done in Melbourne for another festival, don’t think we’re resting on our laurels – in just a little over two weeks, we begin the Mythic Creatures Comedy Tour!
Creatures out of legend from air, land and sea have invaded the Australian National Maritime Museum – and now’s your chance to experience them in a whole new way! Join the Man in the Lab Coat and Museum Comedy founder Ben McKenzie (+1 Sword, Planet Nerd), 2009 Moosehead Award recipient and Good News Week writer Dave Bloustien (A Complete History of Western Philosophy) and Impro Australia and Beaconsfield: The Musical star Amanda Buckley (The Ultimate Board Game: Unscripted) for an after-hours trip through one of the twelve coolest museums in the world and be introduced to a mix of creatures and maritime treasures!
The Mythic Creatures Comedy Tour is presented by the Australian National Maritime Museum and runs for three shows only from May 6 to 8. Numbers are limited, so be sure to book by calling the Maritime Museum on 02 9298 3655. Tickets are $20 for Museum members, and $25 for non-members.
You can find out more about this visiting exhibit at the Maritime Museum web site.
Last week of Museum Comedy @ MICF 2010!
Apr 13th
It’s the final week of Museum Comedy in Melbourne for the 2010 Comedy Festival, and we’re going out with a big bang! As the last week of the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour heads towards being a sell out – see our calendar for booking details – we’re bringing you a cracking line-up for the last of our Lunchtime Comedy gigs:
- UK-based Australian comic Yianni Agisilaou (96 and one half things that !@#$% me off) brings us the facts of black matter and its associated physics;
- UK comedian and storyteller James Dowdeswell (My grandad was a clown and those are big shoes to fill) speaks on a subject close to his heart (and nose): the history and modern usage of wine;
- Author, comedy historian and stand-up David Smiedt (Introducing Dave Smiedt) educates us on the history of racism; and
- one of Tasmania’s greatest exports, Hannah Gadsby (The Cliff Young Shuffle, NGV Comedy Tour) uses her Fine Arts degree to great effect, bringing us a social history of the impact of photogaphy on art with reference to impressionism.
As usual, you can get your tickets via comedyfestival.com.au, Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 or at the door on the day. This should be our biggest one yet; we’ll see you there!
Tour still selling out!
Apr 8th
Just a quick update today – the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour is now sold out for both tonight and tomorrow night! There are still some tickets left for this Saturday and all three shows next week, but if you’re thinking of coming down, don’t wait – book now!
If you miss out on the tour this week, all is not lost – we still have tickets left for Saturday’s Lunchtime Comedy show at noon, where Sarah Bennetto (The King & I), Dave Bloustien (Puppy Fight Social Club), Stella Young (two-time Raw Comedy state finalist) and Rod Quantock (The People We Should Eat First (And How to Cook Them)) will all be regaling us with factual comedy you won’t see anywhere else – not even in their own shows! It’s a smorgasbord of intelligent, nerdy humour, all under the direction of science comedy veteran Ben McKenzie. So come on down!
Tour selling out; Lunchtime going off!
Apr 6th
True to form, the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour is starting to sell out, with this Thursday night already full. If you’re planning to see the delights of Melbourne Museum after hours with DeAnne Smith, Alexis Dubus, Andy Muirhead (on Thursdays and Fridays) and Kent Valentine (only on Saturdays), we recommend you book! Check out comedyfestival.com.au, or call Ticketmaster on 1300 660 013.
Meanwhile, our first ever Melbourne Museum Lunchtime Comedy session was a big hit! Audience members’ brains were regaled with Roman history by Andrew McClelland, filled with Phar Lap (in Indonesian!) by Penny Tangey and philosophy by Dave Bloustien, and then tickled with tales of Vikings, computers and bizarre behaviour by Dave Callan.
This weekend we’re doing it all again, and it’s a stellar – sorry, Stella – line-up!
- Dave Bloustien (Puppy Fight Social Club) gives us a second helping, this time on ancient Greek history;
- tale-teller Sarah Bennetto (Storyteller’s Club, The King & I) is unscrambling the history of the world’s favourite word game, Scrabble;
- two-time Raw Comedy state finalist and frequent Political Asylum guest Stella Young will be educating us on the secret life of animals, including the sex life of ducks; and
- cannibalism advocate, comedy historian and living national treasure Rod Quantock (The People We Should Eat First (And How To Cook Them), In The Beginning: A Walking Tour of the Birth of Melbourne Comedy) takes a break from preparation for the coming apocalypse and instead claims he’ll be talking about “Pre-Columbian art between 11.45AM and 8.15pm BC”.
Come and join us at noon on Saturday April 10th! Tickets $18/$12/$14 groups (six or more) from the usual places: comedyfestival.com.au, Ticketmaster on 1300 660 013 or at the door on the day.
Museum Comedy begins in Melbourne this week!
Mar 30th
We’re a week in to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and both the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour and Melbourne Museum Lunchtime Comedy kick off this week!
The Comedy Tour is now in its third year, and we’re very happy to have the outstanding talents of DeAnne Smith (Ballsy), Alexis Dubus (Marcel Lucont – Sexual Metro) Andy Muirhead (ABC’s Collectors, A Night at the Library; Thursdays and Fridays only) and Kent Valentine (Fablemonger; Saturdays only) showing off the Melbourne Museum after hours! Tickets are selling fast, so book to make sure you don’t miss out – we sold out last year! Tickets are $18 full, $12 concession and $14 for groups of six or more from comedyfestival.com.au, Ticketmaster 1300 660 013, or at the door, if there are any left.
Plus, this Saturday, we’re launching our new show – Lunchtime Comedy! Fill your Saturday lunchtime as top local and international thinking comedians bring you comedy lectures on their favourite history and science topics. Our first show on April 3rd – this Saturday! – is jam-packed, with Moosehead Award winner and author Penny Tangey, piratologist and Roman scholar Andrew McClelland (Andrew McClelland’s Somewhat Accurate History of the Fall of the Roman Empire), Triple J late-night host Dave Callan and, just added to the list, philosopher, improviser and Good News Week writer Dave Bloustien (Puppy Fight Social Club)! All MC’d by the Man in the Lab Coat himself, Ben McKenzie (+1 Sword, Dungeon Crawl) assisted by comedy trivia queen, Janet McLeod. Tickets are $18 full, $12 concession and $14 for groups of six or more from comedyfestival.com.au, Ticketmaster 1300 660 013, or at the door.
Lunchtime Comedy line-up for April 3, 2010
Mar 27th
We’re pleased to announce the final line-up for our first Lunchtime Comedy show, coming up on Saturday April 3rd! Yours truly – and it’s Ben McKenzie here, in case you weren’t sure – will be your MC, while Janet McLeod will be and introduce our three guests who’ll be delivering the mix of fact and funny for which Museum Comedy is known!
- Penny Tangey is a Raw Comedy state finalist and recipient of the Moosehead Award for her 2006 show, Kathy Smith Goes to Maths Camp. Last year Penny published her first novel, Loving Richard Feynman. Penny’s subject is everyone’s favourite dead horse, Phar Lap.
- Andrew McClelland is best known for his Fairly Accurate History of Pirates and collaborations with Lawrence Leung, the latest of which – Time Ninjas - won the Jury Award at the 2009 Sydney Comedy Festival. This year Andrew performs his Somewhat Accurate History of the Fall of the Roman Empire, and his lecture will be on the same subject.
- Dave Callan has a pretty safe claim on the title of Australia’s hairiest comedian. He’s worked on Rove and is best known for his work on Triple J where he presents the late-night Graveyard Shift show. He’ll most likely be speaking about Vikings and Computers, possibly at the same time…
- Update, March 30! We’ve added philosopher, improviser and Good News Week writer Dave Bloustien (Puppy Fight Social Club), fresh from the debut of his new show, Dave Bloustien’s Complete History of Western Philosophy, at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. He’ll be talking about philosophy!
Come and join us for our first set of comedy lectures next weekend, on April 3rd! Tickets are still available via the Comedy Festival web site, from Ticketmaster on 1300 660 013, and you can also buy them at the door.
See you at lunchtime!
The good news and the Good Friday news
Mar 9th
Sometimes things don’t work out quite how you plan them, and in this case, we were planning to run the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour on Good Friday (April 2nd). Unfortunately this has proved logistically infeasible as, though the museum opens on other public holidays, they are closed for Good Friday so we’ve had to cancel that performance. But never fear! There are still eight other nights on which you can sample the after-hours delights of the Science and Life galleries! Check our events calendar for more details.
It’s not all bad news, though: line-ups for the Lunchtime Comedy programme are very nearly finished! While we’re still finalising the details and a few names are still only written in pencil, we can reveal a few of our confirmed guests:
- On April 3, musical historian, piratologist and Roman scholar Andrew McClelland!
- For April 10, national treasure, raconteur and “eat people not the planet” advocate Rod Quantock!
- And on April 17, NGV tour conductor and one of Tasmania’s finest exports, Hannah Gadbsy!
Hopefully we’ll have the complete line-ups finalised for you in the next week or so, so check back here soon. Tickets should be on sale by the end of the week, too, so make sure you don’t miss out!
The Comedy Tour line-up for 2010!
Feb 13th
Museum Comedy tour wranglers Ben McKenzie and Janet McLeod are pleased to announce the line-up for the 2010 Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF)!
DeAnne Smith is one of Montreal’s top comedians. She’s been bringing her particular brand of hip, smart sexy librarian comedy to festivals in Australia for the last couple of years, and we’re very pleased to have her on board during her MICF premiere, Ballsy.
Alexis Dubus made a splash with his first solo show at the 2009 MICF, the superb comedy lecture A Bl**dy Brief History of Swearing. He won’t be swearing on the tour, but he will be bringing the same enthusiasm and wit! He’s back in town to show off his acting talent in his first solo character show, Marcel Lucont – Sexual Metro.
Andy Muirhead returns to the tour this year, having first guiding patrons around Melbourne Museum in 2009. He’s best known to Australian audiences as the host of ABC’s Collectors, but he’s been a stand-up comic for many years. When he’s not in the museum this Comedy Festival you’ll be able to find him in another cultural institution in his show Saturday Night at the Library.
Kent Valentine is our Saturday night man (while Andy is at the library), and we’re very happy to welcome him back to the tour. Kent has been living and working in comedy in the UK for several years, but regularly returns to Melbourne to treat us to a new solo show, the all new Fablemonger. In 2008 he was part of the very first Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour, and ended up with a stick insect on his head; no doubt he’ll be just as unpredictable this year!
So it’s a great line-up, and we can’t wait to find out what these lovable, enthusiastic nerds have in store for us. If you can’t wait either, be sure to book; the show sold out last year! Tickets will be on sale soon.