Chaos and comedy at Melbourne Fringe

In the great tradition of Jewish comedians who use wit, absurdity, and just a touch of chaos to reveal deeper truths, Michael Lanzer is stepping onto the stage at this year’s Melbourne Fringe with his most ambitious project yet.

For Lanzer, The Michael Lanzer Extravaganza is more than a performance, it’s a culmination.

“It’s a mix of comedy, characters, puppets, and theatrical sleight-of-hand, all tied together with a sense of chaos and play,” he told The AJN ahead of the show. “The show is really a culmination of everything I love – puppetry, comedy, magic – all rolled into one night of joyful unpredictability.”

That sense of unpredictability runs deep in his creative DNA. Audiences, he promises, should expect the unexpected.

“Audiences can expect spontaneous moments, larger-than-life characters, puppetry, magic, and a lot of unexpected turns. I like to blur the line between performer and audience, so there are always surprises that can’t be repeated from night to night. It’s a mix of meticulous craft and complete chaos, sometimes in the same sketch,” he explained.

Lanzer, a Mount Scopus old collegian, traces his artistic spark back to school productions and community performances.

“I’ve always been passionate about the performing arts, and I grew up surrounded by it,” he recalled. “During school I was involved in a number of community performances and shows, which really gave me my first taste of being on stage.”

Among those formative roles included playing the Lion in The Wizard of Oz and travelling to the US with fellow performers. “Those experiences not only shaped me creatively, but also connected me strongly to the community that continues to support and inspire my work today.”

That grounding in community soon blossomed into a career spanning stand-up, television, radio, and online platforms. His early successes included hosting award-winning programs on Channel 31 and SYN, and producing the parody talk show Late Night Tonight, which attracted guests like Ronny Chieng and Tommy Little. He later worked on The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, Channel 7’s Behave Yourself, and Foxtel’s Open Slather. Along the way, he also collaborated with Jewish comedy stalwarts Ryan Shelton and John Safran.

Yet if comedy was one foundation, puppetry was another. An unusual, yet strangely inevitable companion.

“Puppetry has been a passion of mine since childhood. It started as a hobby but slowly grew into a professional career,” Lanzer said. He trained overseas with puppeteers from The Muppets and Sesame Street, even visiting The Jim Henson Company to deepen his craft.

Back in Melbourne, he founded The Puppet Creation Lab, whose creations have graced TV and advertising campaigns. “It’s been exciting to see puppetry and comedy merge in my career,” he reflected.

For Lanzer, comedy is less about punchlines than about presence.

“Comedy, for me, is all about connection. There’s nothing quite like standing on stage and feeling the energy shift when a room full of strangers suddenly bursts into laughter together,” he explained. “I love that it creates a shared moment of joy, a release, and sometimes even a bit of truth tucked in there too.”

The Fringe stage, then, feels like a natural home for him. It’s a place where he can bring together all his worlds – actor, comedian, puppeteer, magician – and offer audiences a kind of organised mayhem that is both crafted and spontaneous.

“That’s magic to me,” he simply stated.

As he prepares to premiere The Michael Lanzer Extravaganza, Lanzer’s résumé speaks to the breadth of his creative life. He’s appeared in national campaigns for Mars Bar, Aussie Broadband and Baker’s Delight, performed at the Melbourne Jewish Comedy Festival, and, in one of his most joyful career highlights, interviewed Elmo and Cookie Monster.

But ultimately, the show is not about a career showcase, it’s about sharing joy.

As Lanzer puts it, it’s about “one night of joyful unpredictability.”

The Michael Lanzer Extravanganza runs from October 11-17 at The MC Showroom. For more information and tickets, visit melbournefringe.com.au/whats-on/events/the-michael-lanzer-extravaganza