Press
“Delightful and enthralling” – Australian Comedy Review
“Jon is smart, funny, engaging and talented.” – The Herald Sun
“A refreshing change. Delightful stuff.” – Rip It Up Magazine
“the indisputable fact that if your inner schoolboy needs a giggle, Jon Bennett is your messiah.” – UQ Events Arts & Entertainment
“You will be so comfortable laughing, you probably won’t notice.” – The Advertiser
“Jon’s homespun tales will make you laugh out loud frequently and tear up, intermittently… a unique standup experience.” – Tom Richardson, Independent Weekly
“You see, the show is about more than Jon telling funny stories on stage. It is the beginning of a friendship in which you are his confidant. It is why after the show he invites you to have a beer with him, and why I feel comfortable calling him by his first name.”- Newshit Magazine
“Genius. Bennett combines comedy, pathos and autobiography in an act that is funny, poignant and original.” – Jemma Chapman, Network Ten
“It needs to be seen to be believed”
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is not your average run-of-the-mill comedy show.”
“Ever get the feeling you’re being played with by a prankster with Andy Kaufman sensibilities?” – RHUM Magazine
“Bennett is a natural storyteller and will have you completely engrossed” – Montreal Mirror
“at the end of this hilarious and thoughtful hour, no one seems to want to leave the room. ★★★★” – Edmonton Journal
“true brilliance ★★★★” – Vue Weekly
LATEST REVIEWS:
Fringe Review: Pretending Things Are A Cock (4 Stars)
By Todd Babiak, edmontonjournal.com
August 17, 2011
In the entertainment business, they call it a “brand extension.” Take an idea and make it a book, a film, an interactive website, an art exhibition and, finally, a Fringe show.
The idea at the heart of Pretending Things are a Cock is, not surprisingly, pretending things are a cock: Jon Bennett has spent over four years travelling the world and posing with things: flagpoles, rainbows, the Statue of Liberty, cows, clouds, photographs, the Stanley Cup, objets d’art. He puts them where his penis ought to be and makes a scrunchy face. Sort of a “Damn, baby!” face.
This doesn’t sound like a one-man show. But at the end of this hilarious and thoughtful hour, no one seems to want to leave the room. There is something primal and human and beautiful, and really stupid, about his quest to make things into a cock that we all recognize in our hearts.
The fundamental question Bennett answers, or at least explores, is why? Why would anyone do this? Bennett takes us through his childhood in rural Australia and through more recent adventures that illuminate his heroic path. He is, luckily, an amiable and funny man with lovely timing and an air of self-deprecation. Despite what our parents told us, pretending is good.
★★★★
Pretending Things Are A Cock
Michael Hingston, vueweekly.com
OK, hear me out. Jon Bennett has spent the last several years pretending various things are cocks, and he’s got the photos to prove it. Wild animals, historical monuments, the entirety of Machu Picchu—he’s got them all, and in all of the photographic evidence he’s making the exact same cool guy explodey-orgasm face. (Bennett has also made an entire book of these, apparently.) But the true brilliance of this slideshow presentation is how he takes a fairly one-note joke and weaves in a whole bunch of honest character study, courtesy of assorted family history and behind-the-cocks anecdotes. Put it this way: you’ll never play NBA Jam the same again.
★★★★
Pretending Things Are A Cock – It’s not like you haven’t thought about doing it
By Marco Ruiz
MICF 2011
“Let’s get cocking,” is the call a stranger trumpets from the doorway. What would normally draw stares of bewilderment or disgust anywhere else is instead met with rapture by those closest and subsequently a procession of bodies up the wooden staircase in anticipation of the show. However, the performance actually begins before you take your seat.
As you begin your ascension up the staircase at Tuxedo Cat, where Jon Bennett’s show takes place between Thursday 31st March and Sunday 10th April, before moving around the corner to Bertha Brown for the following Thursday, you encounter the first of what appear to be many- and I mean many- photos of Jon posing with the same scrunched-up face and hips-thrust-forward pose. And as you should be able to guess by the title of his show, Jon is pretending that anything and everything is his cock.
And we’re talking anything: tanks, flagpoles, monuments, animals (none of which I imagine were hurt or traumatised by this…), tourist destinations, statues and even family photos. What’s surprising is that by the time you reach the top of the stairs you are not just giggling like a schoolboy, you’re laughing hysterically and pointing out the next photo and its title to your friends (note: a few beers will help with this).
What you’ve missed among all the cocks – which is made known to you once you take your seat – is the answer to one of the simplest questions: why?
What on the surface appears to be a man fulfilling a childhood dream by lying before the Statue of Liberty so that it appears to be his erect penis is so much more. There are no secrets here.
In the space of fifty minutes you meet Jon’s family, learn how religion influenced his upbringing (his father was a minister), and hear his most embarrassing moments. By the end you come to know all the details of his ‘idiosyncratic world.’
This is done through a slideshow of various ‘cock’ poses that just so happens to be an incredibly entertaining way of recounting how he became fascinated with cocks. And no, it’s not just because he is a guy.
I could go into detail, but that would be unfair to both him and you. You see, the show is about more than Jon telling funny stories on stage. It is the beginning of a friendship in which you are his confidant. It is why after the show he invites you to have a beer with him, and why I feel comfortable calling him by his first name.
There are times when you begin to wonder if what he is saying is actually true. This is because Jon uses tired jokes for a quick, cheap laugh between stories. For example, ‘The Boomerang Cock’ represents his father because it doesn’t return, (I thought boomerangs did return? Well, sometimes), a story he later tells us is not true. Nevertheless, the guts it takes for him to tell some of his stories quickly ropes you back in. As does the sense that what he’s saying is so utterly outrageous nobody would ever think to invent it. All else is then forgotten.
What we should do now is thank Jon’s brother Tim. Go and see the show and you’ll understand why, and more than agree.
RHUM Loves Pretending Things Are a Cock: Still Cocking After All This Year @ MICF 2011
Written by Anthony McCormack
If you’re a newcomer to Jon Bennett and his Pretend Cock show, you may feel like you’re coming in late or you’ve missed the beginning. The reason is simple – this show is actually Part Two. Part One, which you’ll pick up on very quickly, is the Pretending Things Are a Cock phenomenon itself.
It grew out of a Facebook group where Jon regularly posted pictures of himself using all sorts of everyday items as pretend cocks. When you first walk into the venue you’ll see Jon’s pretend cock pictures adorning the walls, celebrated like works of art. In all of them Jon is pulling what he refers to as his ‘cock face’, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Then the man himself comes on stage and does something remarkable. He spends the next hour convincing you he’s not the kind of person who would take photos of himself pretending things are a cock. This is despite the gallery you’ve just walked through, the coffee table book on offer, and the original Facebook group where this all came from in the first place. Ever get the feeling you’re being played with by a prankster with Andy Kaufman sensibilities?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is not your average run-of-the-mill comedy show.
The emphasis here is on storytelling. Jon Bennett is a storyteller and his ‘cocks’ are the springboards for his stories. He openly sifts through the formative regions of his life searching for reasons why any man, let alone himself, would feel the need to play with pretend cocks. The stories he tells are sincere and at times embarrassingly honest. You may be expecting him to go for easy, cheap laughs, but the pleasant surprise of this show is that even in the most scatological of setups, the laughs come from really emotional places.
It needs to be seen to be believed how much maturity and warmth a comic can pull out of a slideshow where he’s constantly pulling cock-faces.
2010 Vancouver Fringe Festival
Brave is Funny
Pretending Things Are a Cock by Jon Bennett
Jon Bennett is an Australian comedian with a serious talent for storytelling. His show outlines the reasons for which he has become obsessed with photographing himself at certain angles which make landmarks, everyday objects and even people appear as though they are his erect phallus.
Three things I liked:
1. The cock travel itinerary! His favourite ‘cock’, as Mr. Bennett explains it, is Machu Picchu Cock, but his open-toed footwear has taken him around the world and you really feel there is no place his cock hasn’t been. I would love to sit in a pub with this guy, drink pitchers of beer and listen to him tell travel stories.
2. The tragi-comedy! Anyone who can make an audience howl with laughter and then switch to a dark, sad moment without losing the essence of humour and humility is truly talented. Bennett has such insight into the human spirit and he uses his tool very, very wisely.
3. His balls. I know nothing about the size of Bennett’s physical genitalia, but figuratively, he’s got balls the size of his favourite mountain cock. The personal stories about his highly-religious parents and his penis-obsessed brother made us all laugh because we could hardly imagine admitting to half the shit he shares. I couldn’t get enough of his actual childhood journal, titled ‘Jon’s Comedy’, from which he read proudly about masturbation and well, mostly just masturbation. When I stepped outside the theatre, I was stopped by some Fringe representatives who asked for my photo, my name and my one word review. I stammered, trying to think of some witty cock connotation, but all I could say was, “Brave. It was very…brave.”
REVIEWVANCOUVER.ORG

PRETENDING THINGS ARE A COCK
Talk about a Fringe wank! Australian Jon Bennett is obsessed with pretending that things are his cock—everything from common household items to world-famous landmarks—and he’s turned his extensive photographic record of his phallic exploits into one of the most immature and ridiculous Fringe shows I’ve ever seen. I liked it. At 60 minutes, this scatological slide show wears a tadger thin—it would be better at a tighter and snappier 45 minutes—but this doesn’t change the indisputable fact that if your inner schoolboy needs a giggle, Jon Bennett is your messiah.
Pretending Things are a Cock
Performance Dates 9, 12, 14, 15, 18, & 19 (6 shows) September at Revue Stage
Performer Jon Bennett
You may be wondering what would possess a young man to create a slideshow featuring photos of himself posing with phallic looking monuments and objects taken on trips around the globe, ranging from a giant cactus to the Hollywood sign. Apparently the answer is “If you grew up in a small town where your father was also your minister and your school teacher, you’d want to rebel a bit too.” Some photos were quite clever and well done, while others were the juvenile sort you would expect to find in most young men’s college photo albums. Juvenile or not, the audience loved it. There was even a cheer of Canadian pride when Bennett revealed a photo of his “CN Tower cock.” Bennett’s commentary is what makes the show special, more so than the photos themselves. He uses the photos as a tool of describing how he came to take the photo, his relationships with his friends and family, and the odd situations in which he found himself in the days surrounding the photos. He has developed quite the fan following over the years (his Facebook site has over 10,000 fans, not to mention his sold out shows around the world) while doing his best to keep the photos a secret from his mother. This show will not appeal to everyone, but is worth seeing if only to find out the story behind Jon’s missing thong (the sandal, not the underwear!).
© 2010 Cassie Silva
Rainbow Cock by Jon Bennett
2010 Montreal Fringe Festival
Pretending Things Are a Cock
Aussie funnyman Jon Bennett has a deeply rooted fascination with dicks. Yet it’s not actual male genitalia that gets him going. Three years ago, Bennett realized he much preferred taking pictures at angles where objects, landmarks and even people seem to sprout out of his trousers like erect schlongs. Using a slideshow of his greatest shots—prickly cactus cock, Olympic Stadium cock and asthma-inhaler cock among the standouts—he narrates his penile journey from infancy to adulthood. Thankfully, the schtick doesn’t wear thin—Bennett is a natural storyteller and will have you completely engrossed by the end of his tale about a lost flip-flop in Machu Picchu. (Mission Santa-Cruz, 60 Rachel W)
—ADAM AVRASHI
Montreal Mirror
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2010/061710/theatre.html

PRETENDING THINGS ARE A COCK WITH JON BENNETT
2010 Melbourne International Comedy Festival
This could possibly be the most ambitious project of the festival. For the better part of the last couple of years, Jon Bennett has travelled the world, posing for photographs that utilised all manner of phallic objects. This has resulted in a website, a facebook page where fans submit their own ‘cocks’, an exhibition, a coffee table book (available for sale from Jon) and this art/standup hybrid. It has become a worldwide phenomenon!
The first ten or fifteen minutes was time for the punters to enter the gallery and peruse the art at their leisure. The works were exactly as you would expect; Jon with all manner of objects projecting from his groinal region and an intense expression on his face. Each photo was accompanied by a title describing the object being used, my personal favorite being ‘Paper, Scissors, Cock’. It was all rather puerile and silly but a cellist playing in the background gave the event a tongue in cheek classy tone. After being handed an instructional pamphlet we were encouraged to make use of the various objects provided to create our own ‘cocks’.
Jon conducted a gallery tour of sorts by pointing out various photos and giving us some background to their creation, reciting some hilarious travel tales. Despite not being prepared enough to point out where exactly they were located in the room, this presentation was delightful and enthralling.
Moving into the theatre area of the venue, the performance became a type of storytelling show with Jon seated in a small armchair on the stage. He used individual photos from the collection as a launching point for various tales. He didn’t go into technical details about the photos but more their importance to his life and experiences. In this instance, he told us a fair bit about his family and upbringing; pondering how he became obsessed with penises. There were also tales involving a couple of people he met and befriended on his travels. These tended to veer into drug stories but were very well told so as to appeal to all. Jon promised he would have different tales each time so multiple visits may be worthwhile.
On the surface this show appeared to be merely reliant on the most base of concepts, but Jon had successfully used this silly obsession as a basis for some much deeper comedy. His brilliant tales of relationships and male sexuality revealed plenty of warmth and insight into Jon as a person. This was a unique event that is worth checking out.
Colin Flaherty – The Groggy Squirrel


STORYTELLING WITH JON BENNETT
2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival
Michael Coghlan – Rip It Up Magazine
More a sit-down than a stand-up comic, Jon Bennett declares that he has no jokes and that he will indeed just tell stories – true stories. Like that wonderful SBS program, Front Up, this show is testament to the fact that all our lives are full of stories that are worth telling, and that can make us laugh and cry. The knack is in the choosing of the detail to share and the timing and weight of events, and Jon Bennett has this knack in spades. A refreshing change to see someone not needing to perform or create an act, but rather just rely on their authentic experience of life to entertain others. Delightful stuff.
Final Word: Relaxed.
http://www.ripitup.com.au/article/497
Russell Emmerson – The Advertiser
IT’S not so much a show title as a description. The disarmingly relaxed Jon Bennett spends 45 minutes telling people stories from his life.
This night it was family tales: one penis-fixated brother, one drug-addled brother, a decaying pet cow and the shooting of a karate friend. (Not all in one story, but instructive nonetheless).
Bennett’s intro has been tested on circuit before, but it’s a smooth affable patter that is easy to settle into. So when he sits down in his armchair to talk about his family (or whatever it will be when you visit there are three versions), it’s okay to settle back and enjoy the chat. You won’t suffer stitches from laughing, but you will be so comfortable laughing, you probably won’t notice.
Sugar, until March 14
* * * 1/2
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainment/festivals/storytelling/story-fn489y6u-1225833344619
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The Peak – Vancouver
Vol. 136, Issue 1
September 07, 2010
Arts
Fringe Festival: Don’t get cocky
By Kelly Thoreson
What started as an ironic gag of dicking around between roommates has transformed into an internet phenomenon, a book, and now a stage performance. However, despite the obvious title, Pretending Things Are A Cock’s Jon Bennett hopes that the show will be more than a bunch of crude jokes. “It’s actually stories, and I would like to think that it goes a bit deeper than just dick jokes.” Pausing, he adds, “Although there will be some dick jokes — dick-based jokes.”
The Fringe Festival’s presentation of Pretending Things Are a Cock displays the photos of Jon Bennett — self-proclaimed “comedic artist” — all around the world modelling with anything from the Statue of Liberty, to Machu Picchu, to Jesus, and pretending that they are . . . well, cocks. (Surprisingly, even Bennett gets sheepish when saying the word.) The show is about more than just the photos, however — it’s also about the stories behind them. For instance, the Japanese family who inadvertently took their own phallic photos next to the Statue of Liberty, the ordeal that Bennett went through freeloading off of a tour group in Peru, the Jesus theme park he discovered, or how his “cock” was blocked in Argentina after being nearly arrested. Another aspect of the show is also explaining what happened to Bennett as a child that would cause him to choose this career path: “I’ve got three older brothers, and a dad. So I say that I have been surrounded by cocks my whole life. My brother was obsessed with his. So it’s all about this crazy brother of mine who put his cock in my ear when I was a little kid, and things like that.”
The cock craze unzipped when Bennett’s roommate created a web site to share and commemorate the various cock photos they had taken around the house, also known as Series One. That then grew into a Facebook fan page (which boasts nearly 11,000 fans, a number to be cocky about) where friends and followers could also post their own cock photos -— which Bennett truly enjoys. But if you plan on contributing, he warns that, “you’ve got to do the face — and you’ve got to name [the photo]. That’s the way it works. We’re cock purists, you know.”
Those that are truly cock-eyed are honoured with the title Cock of the Week, or even Cock of the Year. And it’s not just guys submitting these photos – girls do as well, along with a girl who enjoyed it so much that she is creating a photo series of the female equivalent to Pretending Things Are A Cock. Bennett even admits that he was shocked to hear that his deeply religious mother has made a “cock” of her own with a fish she had caught.
The phenomenon has snowballed into something much larger than Bennett could have ever expected. In his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, he would even be stopped and recognized as “the cock guy”. Because he has been growing old of this kind of attention, he has devised a plan to end his growing collection of “cocks”. Bennett says that it has been suggested that only way he could finish it would be to use his own member as a “cock”— which Bennett argued against for a number of reasons. “Now I’ve decided,” he explains, “that the only way to end it is to make enough money from the book and the shows to make $250,000, and then go on the Virgin flight to the moon and make an Earth cock. That’s the only way to finish it.”
If you are interested in helping Bennett achieve his Earth cock goal, Pretending Things Are A Cock will be playing at the Fringe Festival from September 9 to 19.
A Likely Story
By Mel Campbell on March 24th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Well red: Lisa Dempster is appearing at this week’s St Kilda Storytelling event.
This woman rushed to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. A man and a friend are playing golf one day at their local golf course. A woman gets on a bus with her baby. Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses.
These intriguing, action-packed sentences are all great ways to start a story. They’re also the opening lines of jokes. In 2001, the University of Hertfordshire conducted a research project called LaughLab to determine the funniest joke in the world, and the sentences you just read were, in order: the funniest joke to Australians; to Americans; to Britons; and the overall funniest joke.
Storytelling is clearly a keystone of even the most punchline-laden stand-up set. And, as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) kicks off today, many of its shows aren’t just strings of pearlers but foreground the imaginative practice of storytelling. Whether they’re drawing on personal experiences, creating characters with back stories or even sketching completely imaginary worlds, comedians are also expert spinners of tales. At last year’s festival – but, sadly, not this one – the London comedy room Storytellers Club set up shop at Trades Hall, where a mixed bunch of comedians from around the world flexed their narrative muscles.
But even when it’s not festival time, performance storytelling flourishes in Melbourne. An Evening With David Sedaris sold out in January as audiences flocked to hear the American anecdotist. The same month, master storyteller Daniel Kitson played the Arts Centre with 66A Church Road, an elegy to the house he rented for six years. The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas opened in February with a gala night of storytelling and, inspired by popular storytelling events overseas, Melburnians are discovering the pleasure of a good old-fashioned yarn.
Chris Flynn publishes the literary journal Torpedo and, with his next-door neighbour, writer Josephine Rowe, recently began curating the St Kilda Storytelling night at the Dog’s Bar. “We’d both been fans of The Moth in New York and seemed to know a lot of people who were comfortable on stage yet weren’t necessarily comedians or spoken word artists,” Flynn tells The Enthusiast. “Every kid in the world loves storytime, and I suspect every adult does too,” says Flynn. “We just forget that, even though we tell each other stories every day.”
Each St Kilda Storytelling night features two Melbourne writers and commentators – an established and an emerging voice – plus two open mic spots for audience members. “Eventually we’d like to have people from all walks of life,” Flynn says – “musicians, comedians, bricklayers…”
At last week’s opener, Ronnie Scott revealed his obsession with Alanis Morissette, then Michaela McGuire shared the anal sex and Liberal party references that hadn’t made it into her recent book, Apply Within. The atmosphere was “very interactive and funny,” Flynn says. “We had two great readings from the open mic people too, so it was a lot of fun.”
Tomorrow’s event stars Lisa Dempster and Kalinda Ashton. Dempster was introduced to the art of storytelling while publicising her book Neon Pilgrim, and it took a few goes for her to get into the swing of it. “The first time I did it was at Ashfield Library in Sydney, and one of the oldies in the audience fell asleep!” she laughs. “Which wasn’t great for my ego.”
Dempster believes that everyone has their own way of telling a killer story. “What really works for me is using the a traditional hero narrative, telling a story about a journey and beating the odds. But for someone else it might be sharing something really intimate, and being able to get a crowd hanging off every word by having a very quiet delivery.”
Jon Bennett’s “huddled masses” yearn to be free.*
*
Jon Bennett has come a long way from his deeply religious upbringing in rural South Australia to his show in this year’s MICF, Pretending Things Are A Cock. Part storytelling event, part art exhibition, it takes audiences around the world in Bennett’s quest to take strategically phallic photos.
While Bennett has been a writer and comedian for a decade, he’s one of Melbourne storytelling’s most passionate advocates. While in New York in 2009 he performed to a sold-out room at The Moth, and with Dan Lee he hosted a night called Northcote Storytellers – now continuing as Willow Tales under the stewardship of Simon Godfrey and Dan Alleman.
“Our rationale was the idea that everyone has stories to tell but they don’t always have the opportunity to share them with an audience,” Bennett tells The Enthusiast. Like St Kilda Storytelling, Northcote Storytellers aimed to attract non-professional narrators and to include audience members. On themed nights such as Love, Sex, Drugs or Travel, people could send stories to Bennett for him to read out on the night, “as they were often too shy.”
Often, the best storytellers were “characters” of Bennett’s and Lee’s acquaintance. “My most memorable was a lady I knew named Pinky, the daughter of a wealthy chocolate factory owner,” Bennett recalls. “She grew up in the ’60s in San Francisco, going to all of the major festivals. She spent her teen years pretending to be a hippie in an attempt to fit in and see all of the music she loved. She also lived across from a studio where Jefferson Airplane would rehearse.”
Kirsten Law, who’ll be appearing in Bennett’s MICF show as well as her own show Prolifia, has performed at Willow Tales and runs her own work-in-progress performance night, Self-Cultivation. She’s inspired by New York’s proliferation of storytelling nights – “the most compelling of which I saw whilst there being Kevin Allison’s Risk Show” – and the podcasts that make them available to an international audience.
“In New York, though, the lines between storytelling and comedy are a bit more blurred, as are the lines between stand-up and improv, cabaret and storytelling and comedy and burlesque,” Law explains. “It’s a bit more synergistic – that would be nice to see here.”
With an unsettling sound design by Rob Mayson, formerly of Grey Daturas, and video art by Catherine Dwyer, Prolifia is one of the more conceptual offerings in this year’s MICF. “I enjoy comedy that might challenge established formats,” Law says. The show unites a collection of characters who seem a bit like losers, “so I decided to base the show on this idea – questioning the purpose of futile activities, but also celebrating the fact that something that is seemingly futile can have a larger purpose and function in people’s lives.”
But it’s still very funny. “Even in ‘heavier’ themed tales, the audience needs some lightness to balance the dark. Yin and yang!” Law says, pointing to the humorous undercurrent of TV shows such as Six Feet Under. “Sometimes you hear really tragic and beautiful stories of survival or resilience – especially on The Moth and This American Life – but my personal preference is for stories with at least a smattering of humour.”
Part of storytelling’s appeal is its sense of intimacy and spontaneity. “There’s more of a convivial atmosphere, like you’re being let in on a secret,” offers Flynn. “My girlfriend doesn’t like spoken word nights at all, but she loves the storytelling. So I guess it’s about the relaxed delivery and not trying to impress the audience with your ‘performance skills’.”
Dempster rates herself “a much better conversationalist than a storyteller,” and says her stories are rarely spontaneous. “I’ve never sat down in front of an audience unprepared and just started talking – I have the story ready and I know how I’ll tell it.” But Bennett thrives on speaking off-the-cuff.
“Most storytelling is done without notes; to me it feels like a once-only show,” he says. “I have told the same stories to different audiences, and each time the experience and the energy changes… I remember something different and sometimes I add something new.” He adds that storytelling forges connections between audience and narrator, “and a sense of comfort that helps break down the barrier between them.”
Storytelling also favours the personal anecdote – after all, what better narrator than the protagonist? Dempster prefers fictional storytelling, because “spinning a yarn is a great skill and when it’s done well it’s wonderful. I think it’s much harder than simply talking about yourself!” However, this year’s MICF program reveals that confessional comedy is more popular than ever.
Law’s storytelling is all done in character. She portrays a university lecturer who’s unhealthily obsessed with early-’90s ‘positive rap’, a home-schooled herb enthusiast in love with her brother, and former D-grade celebrity Ailsa, telling her life story to an unsuspecting charity door-knocker. “The character was inspired by Bette Davis’s character in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane,” Law reveals.
Then there’s bourgeois mum Marie, her possibly autistic son and her cruel teenage daughter. Marie “is a familiar type to anyone who’s ever worked in a cafe – she must have her caffe latte very weak and very hot,” says Law. “She’s a certain type of outwardly ‘polite’ person who has difficulties concealing her inner rage.”
We would love to hear the story behind this pic of Lisa-Skye Ioannidis.
Lisa-Skye Ioannidis, who told hilarious stories about her Greek grandmother in last year’s Goth V Nerd: Disenchantment Lane, reunites with comedic partner Nick Rasche this MICF for Supermanchild, another show drawing heavily on personal anecdote. Ioannidis credits blogging, the popularity of confessional essayists Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, and “the rise of bloody raunch culture” for making confessional performances less controversial.
“There have always been showponies and exhibitionists, but it’s all about the degree,” she says. “In the ’70s and ’80s, you’d have comedians like Richard Pryor talking about their families, their sex life, and the honesty was shocking to the audience. Hilarious, but confronting.”
In Supermanchild, she delves further into the antics of her often outrageous family. “Everything I say is true. Not a word of exaggeration or lie,” Ioannidis insists. “And it wasn’t until I performed it that I realised, ‘Wow, this… truly isn’t a normal upbringing, is it?’ Which is just so odd, since I think my childhood was completely conventional. It’s a brick house with fluoro pink nougat mortar: normal, but weird in the gaps.”
Her parents and family friends regularly attend Ioannidis’s shows and have a whale of a time. “They think, ‘Ho, ho, that’s so true. We’re awesome. Now, where’s my drink?’” But, she hastens to add, that’s because she turned out okay in the end. “If I reframed my whole act into a tragic tell-all of how I came to be a junkie doing anal for coins, it might be different.”
For Bennett, storytelling offers comedians a way to create humour and evoke deep emotions without relying on punchlines. “Hearing silence from an audience in a joke means the comedian has failed. Silence in a story means they’re listening,” he explains. “Silence after a story has been told can be just as fulfilling as raucous laughter after a joke.”
Ioannidis agrees. “I think deliberately unfunny stories at a comedy show tend to get a stronger reaction. It’s the shock of the unexpected,” she says. “Also, it’s easy to make someone laugh. It’s harder to make them cry, or reflect.” Ioannidis is full of praise for Daniel Kitson – whom she calls “the world’s greatest working comedian” – and his story shows that “take you through the gamut of emotions. In an hour, he’ll have me laughing, crying, and feeling so intensely that afterwards I’m left in gaping awe of his genius.
“Most of us mere mortals can just get away with telling a story that’s worth a few chuckles, but when you can get to that level of taking your audience on an entirely unexpected and multi-faceted journey, that’s when storytelling is at its best. Also, when there’s some tits in it.”
St Kilda Storytelling is at the Dog’s Bar, 54 Acland Street St Kilda, every Thursday at 8pm.
Supermanchild is at Chloe’s Bar, Young & Jackson’s Hotel, from 25 March – 16 April, Thu-Sat at 6pm.
Pretending Things Are A Cock is at the Grace Darling Hotel, 114 Smith Street Collingwood, from 25 March – 18 April, Thu-Sun at 7pm.
Prolifia is also at the Grace Darling Hotel from 25 March – 18 April, Thu-Sun at 8:30pm.
http://www.theenthusiast.com.au/archives/2010/a-likely-story/





