Sydney Comedy Festival 2018: Buckle Up For the Ride of Your Life

Have you heard the news? Sydney’s having it’s annual comedy festival and the lineup is legit. You better sit down, I’m about to give you a heads up on the lineup. Are you sitting? Are you really??

Image Credit: Anneliese Nappa

NB: I’m going through this alphabetically because I refuse to play favourites:

Alex Williamson

If you haven’t watched the Cowdownie Fair YouTube video there’s something wrong with your life. I pity you, and really, you need take a good look at yourself and think long and hard about what your priorities are.

Now that you’ve righted that prodigious wrong and watched the vid, I can tell you that Australia’s official loosest bloke is performing at this year’s comedy fest and it’s going to be 100% lit. I’m letting Williamson’s bio of the Syd Comedy Fest page tell you what his show’ will be about because it can’t be said better:

“Did someone say drugs, pedos & terrorists? Probably not, alas these are just some of the topical/fun themes touched upon in this one hour honesty session. If you’re not an 85 year old church-goer, there’ll be something in this show for you. But by all means come along if you are an 85 year old church goer, just flick your hearing aid off and laugh along in a haze of dementia.”

Becky Lucas

She wrote for Please Like Me and The Other Guy and honestly I don’t need any more encouragement to see her than that. Her show’s called cute funny sexy smart beautiful and tbh I’m down for whatever Becky Lucas can throw at me.

Image Credit: Herald Sun

Frocking Hilarious

Yay, an all woman comedy show! Dedicated to women’s rights! That’s actually going to be funny and not perpetuate the “women aren’t funny” myth! All the proceeds from the show go to ActionAid which works to support women’s rights around the globe. So basically, forget the fake news and the alternative facts, these ladies are here to tell you what’s happening in the world in the most straightforward and accessible language we’ve got: standup comedy. It’s an outspoken medium, yes, and it’s irreverent, sure, but it’s activism nonetheless.

I’m going to go to this show and I’m going to let the pure concentrated female power wash over me while I laugh my darn tootin’ arse off. Watch this space for my review soooooon.

Image Credit: Sarah Lorien

Joel Creasey

Look, you might’ve checked out Joel Creasey on I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, or caught him hosting The Circle on channel 10, or seen him compete on Hughesy We Have a Problem, but let’s be honest, the best endorsement for Creasey’s acid tongue and gossipey humour is his Instagram. He writes these reeeeeally long captions that at first you’re like “oh god I am not going to read all of that” but then you start reading and suddenly you’re 32 weeks deep and officially in love with a thin gay man with bleach blonde tips.

Gosh so many highlights of 2017 I don’t know where to start – Schapelle Corby coming home is obviously up there alongside Sasha Velour’s lip sync to So Emotional by Whitney. Iconic. Not to mention the time a few months ago when I got a mosquito bite in the shape of Helen Mirren. Very exciting. But an even bigger highlight was getting to become buddies with this legend @myfwarhurst. I grew up watching Myf on the tv and was so stoked to host Eurovision in Ukraine this year alongside her and cannot bloody wait to to do it all again in Portugal in a few months time. Here we are in Bali last night ringing in the New Years with an overpriced bottle of white wine that I suspect may have just been cordial. Also please enjoy the eleventy million kilos I’ve put on in this last 2 weeks and my hair which is now permanently yellow from so much chlorine exposure. I’m utterly irresistible. Happy New Year!

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Matt Okine

You can quote me on this, Matt Okine is Australia’s Donald Glover. The dude does everything! Hosts Triple J,  does standup, wrote his own TV show, he’s a legit rapper, and now he’s got a cooking show on ABC called “Shortcuts to Glory”. I don’t even do one of those things.

He’s just had a full run at Melbourne Comedy Fest and been touring his newest standup show The Hat Game the past year as well, so you know it’s polished. I know I said I wasn’t going to play favourites, but he’s my favourite.

Image Credit: Multicultural Development Australia

There is a humongous amount of local and international talent super eager for you to laugh/boo/make any noise whatsoever at them. Just to name a few more, there’s Ari Shaffir, Guy Montgomery, Jude Perl, Kitty Flanagan, David O’Doherty, Ian Bagg, Urzila Carlson, Alice Tovey, Alice Fraser and Nazeem Hussain.

The Sydney Comedy Festival is on from the 23rd of April to the 20th of May. You can buy tickets at http://www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au/.

Who are you desperate to laugh at this year at the fest and why? Comment below.