When Brendan Black and Martin Chellew heard an MP was sent away for empathy training, they had a lightbulb moment. This is a comic exploration of how Empathy Training might play out – and who might attend...

Who knew that sharing lockdown would give us all a heightened sense of community? Well Geraldine Hickey, and she’s tapped into that so sharply she can recreate that feeling with just a few words.

When the character of Dave was conjured into being by Zoe Coombs Marr nearly a decade ago, he was crafted out of all the things she is not: part nemesis, part alter ego. Now he's back.

If you love checking out fresh, new comedic talent, there are some great ‘compilation’ shows on offer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and one of the best is The Breast of the Fest.

Puck and his fellow fairies from Midsummer Night’s Dream have often cast their magic over Melbourne's Botanic Gardens but, this time, the magic is delivered by more human hands: The Mechanicals.

Ben Kochan is moonlighting from his job as a tennis coach to perform at the MICF 2021. He comes across as a very sweet, slightly nerdy kinda guy whose shtick is a suitcase full of props and some rather good musical jingles.

Who knows if their stories are fact or phony? they work them so well together, I am laughing too much to care.

For all her cynicism and cutting social commentary, there’s a delightful, sweet quality to Coombs Marr’s humour, which is peppered with cute dad jokes and puns.

It seems surreal that Frank Woodley has been playing the manic irritant to Colin Lane’s frustrated straight man since the mid 1980s – which is probably when half their current audience was born.

It’s hard to watch Geraldine Hickey without (a) laughing and (b) mulling over words like ‘laconic’ and ‘laid-back’.