I‘ve just had the pleasure of viewing the Carl Reiner film The Jerk. Starring Steve Martin, this 1979 comedy charts the life of lovable fool Navin R. Johnson from his poor black family‘s roots in the deep South to power and riches in California. I found the below scene absolutely hilarious and so have edited it out of the film so that you might enjoy it too.
Born in New York as Alexander Jacob Gutman, Austen Tayshus is a comedian from New South Wales. Well known for his dry, black humour riddled with local colloquialisms; he achieved success in 1983 with his Australiana video/music single/sketch piece. Although an advocate for the Jewish religion (his family are Hasidic Jews), and the state of Israel throughout his youth, his comedic career satirises this culture and often includes bizarre, anti-semitic tirades. He ran for the House of Representatives in Sydney during the 2010 Federal Election as a candidate for The Sex Party, and also in the 2011 NSW State Election with the Outdoor Recreation Party.
Intolerance is an engrossing, witty, and ultimately brilliant comedy short film. It was the winner of Tropfest in 1998 and I‘d still classify it as Austen Tayshus‘ best work (even compared with Australiana). The short was directed by Paul Fenech (creator of Fat Pizza) under the pseudonym Laura Fienstein, and was edited by David Rudd. Austen Tayshus also appears in the films Holy Smoke and Strange Planet.
For 3 nights only, early next week, witness Aaron Southgate: Live from Ben Elton‘s Grave.
Spear-heading this unofficial Fringe Festival comedy show, Aaron presents a wry form of comedy in his debut stand-up performance. The gigs are on at The Word Bar, 14 Goldie Place in the City (Near Cnr. Lonsdale & Queen St), and tickets are available online for $15. Aaron takes the stage on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. Go to www.aaronsouthgate.com for full details and tickets.
This evening myself and a couple of close friends attended a stand-up performance at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The man we were fortunate enough to see was Tim Vine; an English comic from UK television programme The Sketch Show. The act was a riot! It consisted of a seemingly endless onslaught of cheap gags, described as “An inspired medley of out to lunch one-liners” by The Guardian.
Mmr. Vine (pronounced with two m’s) came out with such beauties as “I saw a woman giving birth to a baby in the snow the other day… -she said the weather brought out the child in her” and “I went swimming with the dolphins -and we just clicked” Then, after taking out an X and Y graph as a prop and cutting in in half: “I love the smell of freshly cut graphs” Sheer banal ridiculousness and a laugh a second, as the jokes were moving almost too fast to comprehend the punchline/s. A definite hoot, all for the tidy sum of $25.
A must see for those with a taste for banal humour in all its glory.
From last year’s festival:
-Rock The Boat
I recently regained a grubby grip on this film masterpiece. Emir Kusturica‘s depiction of the charm and chaos between a sprawling Balkans family consisting of rival ‘gypsy gangsters‘ never ceases to amaze. The film consistently cements itself in any respectable top 5 favourite film lists. The film opens on the banks of the Danube, with the seminal techno classic ‘(I‘m a) Pit Bull Terrier‘ -a track crafted from the minimalist group Zabranjeno Pusenje, long before downtempo anthems bum-rushed the Eastern European dance music scene. However, this is just an opening sequence.
Do not be fooled by these wanna-be gangster buffoons and their hilarious bumbling bastardry -the plot opens up as the head of the family, Matko Destanov, unites his mob to make sure his daughter is wed and wed in a proper & timely fashion. The outcomes of these endeavours are heartfelt and often ill-concieved but ultimately, when played out on celluloid they will have you retching with laughter. You‘ll be gagging on your incomprehension of the trials and tributaries (yes, waterways) that the wedding party encounter.
Having been fortunate enough to traverse Bosnia a few years back; Kusturica‘s film is certainly reminiscent of the uneducated madmen that roam the countryside. Somewhat similar to the bogan or twit, this cariacature of clueless peasants from the Balkans is as interesting and humorous as it is sad and disappointing; with Bosnia a country particularly dire in despair. A place that an 80 year old professor who I stayed with in Mostar deemed “it is everyone against Bosnia. They have us land locked and it is each for their own“. Upon asking how he felt about the Croats, Serbs and other socio-political groups: “How do you think I feel when 100,000 people were slaughtered in this very town during a 2-day campaign“. A chilling reminder of the devastation of war. And it was less than 20 years ago. A ‘contemporary‘ war.
