Melbourne International Comedy Festival returns

Desperate for a laugh to lift your mood? One of the best places to find your chuckles this March/April is at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. This year’s line-up features a range of hilarious Jewish comedians including John Safran, Jude Perl, Reuben Kaye, Jess Fuchs, Josh Glanc, Mike Goldstein, Jeremy Moses, Jacob Sacher and Ruby Wax.

The title of Safran’s show, Squatting at Kanye’s and Other Adventures, is inspired by his real-life story of squatting in Kanye West’s (Ye) abandoned LA home, which he wrote about in his book Squat. Asked if Ye had responded, Safran said, “No, he hasn’t responded. He seems to be going around in circles now, when it comes to attacking Jews. A bit like Rocky 5 or Jaws 3, diminishing returns.” Safran said this show will also discuss “adventures” that have not made it into his books or shows.

Discussing what led Safran to comedy and what keeps him in it, he said, “I just see the world through that lens, clocking irony and strange cultural fault lines. I just tell stories and don’t overthink trying to make them funny, but the world and people (including myself) are ridiculous, so they end up that way.”

Known for pushing boundaries, Safran said he is most proud of “being exorcised by an evangelical Christian in John Safran vs God” and “pre-empting the rise of the new alt-right by hanging with the extremists for Depends What You Mean By Extremist”.

Safran said a key message of his show is that “while commentators and influencers smugly declare that there are simple divisions between ‘them’ and ‘us’, it’s not true, things are crazier than that.”

Josh Glanc is a rising star in the international comedy scene. His show Family Man was nominated for the 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Award and enjoyed sold-out seasons in New York. He told The AJN ascribing a premise to a ‘Josh Glanc show’ isn’t easy. “Most of the time the audience is trying to work out whether the person that just got up on stage is a plant or not (they’re not) or whether the show restart that just happened was planned (it was).”

Glanc said the show was inspired by getting older. “I’ve been thinking about family and my life as a comedian. I’ve spent the last few years heavily pursuing my career as a touring comedian and not really focusing on romantic relationships and having a family; I’ve been thinking about how important that is for me,” he said.

As to why he has chosen the path of comedy, Glanc said he always loved performing, “When I graduated high school I had it in my head that that was something I needed to give up. Probably had something to do with going to a Jewish school and being told you can only be a doctor or lawyer. So, I went to law school and didn’t perform for about 10 years. Then I ended up in a sketch show with some lawyer friends of mine. It was my first time performing for so long and I immediately had this feeling of coming ‘home’. I then did a solo show in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and kept on making shows since then.”

Jess Fuchs said her show Sex Jokes For Women is exactly what the title suggests. “There’s this common critique that ‘women comedians always talk about sex’, so I figured, why not own it? By making the title crystal clear, anyone buying a ticket knows what they’re in for – so they can’t be surprised when a woman gets on stage and talks about sex, relationships or anything in between,” she said.

Fuchs said the show was developed around audience engagement.

“While I share personal anecdotes, I also want to connect with the audience in real time. The idea of a female comedian talking about sex is often dismissed as ‘smutty’ or met with a crinkled nose of disapproval. But sex and relationships are a part of life – and a highly relatable topic, especially for my key audience, who are mostly in their 20s to 40s,” she said.

Jacob Sacher’s show Promising Young Mensch won a Judges Pick at the 2024 Melbourne Fringe. It utilises humour and vulnerability to reflect on growing up in the religious Jewish community in the wake of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and is presented from the perspective of Sacher’s 13-year-old alter ego.

The show wrestles with what it means to be a “survivor”. Sacher told The AJN, “One of the main takeaways is that, victim or not, we can choose not to abuse others.” Sacher is chair of Melbourne’s Corner Shop Comedy Theatre and a Jewish comedy researcher at Monash University’s Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation.

Look out for Jeremy Moses, who uses comedy to break taboos in discussing disability, multiculturalism and grief. “I love the balance between absurd and profound. Audiences genuinely laugh and cry. I’m very proud of it,” Moses shared.

In his show, Moses talks openly about being vision impaired, “I have a genetic condition unique to Iraqi Jews that affects my vision and balance, so a big reason for my show is raising awareness of disability and the need for accessibility. The other part of it was making sense of losing my mum, Shirley, at a young age. In our culture it’s such a whirlwind, so talking about it helps. It’s something we all go through, so hopefully it’s cathartic. Laughing at life’s dark little absurdities is strangely comforting.”

For more information visit comedyfestival.com.au

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