Laughter festival season overtakes Melbourne
For 2023, the line-up includes a stellar list of Jews including Michael Shafar, Marilyn Leder, Ben Kochan and Reuben Kaye.
It’s one of the three largest comedy festivals in the world, alongside Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival, and this year, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is taking over Australia’s comedy capital yet again with an enormous program of stand-up comedy, cabaret, theatre, street performance, film, television, radio and visual arts.
For 2023, the line-up includes a stellar list of Jews including Michael Shafar, Marilyn Leder, Ben Kochan and Reuben Kaye.
Kochan, whose credits include credits include writing for Wil Anderson’s Question Everything, will continue to captivate audiences with his keen, observational humour and deep commitment to all things silly. In 2021 he made his Melbourne Comedy Festival solo debut with I’m Done It and in 2022 he doubled the fun and hit the road with de facto partner Concetta Caristo (Triple j), performing their live show Funny As Sin.
His 2023 show, From Us & Ours To You & Yours, analyses what was on the two golden records that were sent into space in 1977 by NASA, which were intended to show what earth was all about to any extraterrestrial life that found them. But don’t worry, Kochan has taken it upon himself to update the discs from the ‘pretty boring’ information that was originally on it.
For Marilyn Leder, 2023 is a chance to perform alongside three other comedians, focusing on motherhood, in their show, Tight Mums, Loose Units, which Leder describes as “four hilariously sassy gals – two happily married and two happily divorced – cutting loose on stage”.
“We feel the pressures placed on women to be perfect wives, mothers and lovers … tightly wound, tight friends and tight bodies. But when we hit the stage, we’re loose units! We explore marriage, parenting, dating and expectations placed upon women from various cultures – Jewish, Chinese, Indian and Australian,” she said, explaining that audiences should expect a hilarious and surprising peek into the women’s lives.
“We are all mothers from different cultures and have faced similar challenges balancing performing and family life. My kids are a little older now, but it was really difficult when they were younger to have the capacity to be performing regularly and I gave up performing live comedy for way too long. Male comics who are fathers don’t seem to have this pressure, family responsibilities and expectation placed upon them in the same way,” Leder told The AJN.
“I really admire the new generation of younger female comics who are mothers and continue performing. It takes a really supportive partner and the younger generation of males have really stepped up.”
The added bonus, Leder explained, is that because they’re all in the same boat, no one bats an eyelid when someone’s child needs to come to rehearsals, saying though, that “we do need to put headphones on them when we talk about hilariously filthy stuff”.
Leder, who refers to herself as a “modern-day ‘Marvellous Mrs Maisel’ who sings”, said that while she was born and raised in the Melbourne Jewish community, she’s anything but Orthodox. While her day job is as a film and television lecturer, in the past she has interned at Twentieth Century Fox for Jason Alexander. She also worked in development at NBC TV in Los Angeles, searching for new writers for Seinfeld, Frasier and Friends.
Ultimately, Leder explained, while they simply want to make audiences laugh, the four women want to show what can be done if you really put your mind to it.
“We hope to inspire other women to continue pursuing their dreams and show their children what can be achieved. When mothers are given the space to be creative and express themselves, their happiness and fulfilment benefits the whole family.”
MICF is running until April 23. For more, visit comedyfestival.com.au
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