Hobart Comedy Festival

BLUNDSTONE BACK TO BASE

Tasmania’s best comedians return to the state that launched them…

Hannah Gadsby

Hannah began her stand-up career in 2006 at the Hobart Comedy Festival. She went on to win the national final of Raw Comedy and then a very impressive second place in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival’s contest So You Think You’re Funny? Her first solo show won the prize for Best Newcomer at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2007 and since then Hannah has toured in Edinburgh, New York, Singapore and was honoured with invitations to perform at the prestigious Montreal Comedy Festival and the exclusive Kilkenny Comedy Festival. So far in 2010 she has appeared at almost every Australian comedy festival, the New Zealand Comedy Festival and received the Directors’ Choice Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. After appearing at The Hobart Comedy Festival she jets straight to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Josh Earl

Josh first appeared at The Hobart Comedy Festival in 2004 and has been a regular and popular visitor since. Josh is a hip, sharp, loveable musical comedy star in the making who has been support act to Rod Quantock and Arj Barker and toured Australia. He writes and performs the Lime Champions sketch show on Melbourne radio Triple R and has appeared on Triple J, ABC Local Radio 774, Stand Up Australia (comedychannel) and the Laughapalooza DVD.

“To find a comedian that has you laughing the entire way through a show is hard. To find one that you could happily sit through another hour of is almost impossible, but he managed to do just that. Take your mum – or your teenager! Final Word: Delightful.” – Bridie Toomer, Rip It up (Adelaide)

The Bedroom Philosopher

In 2004 The Bedroom Philosopher arrived at The Hobart Comedy Festival and also performed (along with Josh Earl) at the Falls Festival in Marion Bay. He attempted to set the world record for ‘Boon Rapping’ (Reading David Boon’s autobiography in hip-hop style – 12.5 minutes). He said, “I want to go for longer but the Comedy Festival promoter reckons that is enough.” In 2005 The Bedroom Philosopher performed his own successful solo show at The Hobart Comedy Festival before taking his wares to the Comedy Festival circuit around Australia. In 2009 The Bedroom Philosopher won the Director’s Choice award for his Melbourne International Comedy Festival. His songs have regular airplay on Triple J and his current release can be seen on ABC TV’s Rage.

“one of the few artists making a genuine attempt to explore the oddness of our age.” – The Age
“bring-spare-knickers level of hilarity” – Rabbit Hole Urban Music
“I love it when comedians do this. I love it when they produce shows that prove conclusively that comedy is an art form, and that, as an art form, it can scale great heights.” –   www.thegroggysquirrel.com

Gavin Baskerville* – MC

Gavin Baskerville has been a professional stand-up comedian since 1999. He has performed around Australia and has written and performed five Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows. Gavin has been seen on the ABC, Channel 10 and The Comedy Channel. From Perth via Melbourne he is now a leading light in Tasmania, especially in training and developing new comedy talent. He is a former Raw Comedy National Finalist and Moosehead Award recipient at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

PLANET EARTH PRESENTS

Comedians from other parts of the planet have their Hobart premiere…

DeAnne Smith

This will be DeAnne’s first appearance in Hobart, but she has been to Australia before, when you may have caught her on Good News Week or The Squiz. DeAnne is a New York native who knew she wanted to be comedian at age 11. She exploded onto Montreal’s comedy scene in 2005, after just 16 short years of repressing her dream. DeAnne was voted one of Montreal’s top five comedians by readers of The Montreal Mirror for three years in a row. She’s appeared on NBC’s Last Comic Standing and was featured in the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in 2007, whose website predicted, “You can expect this alternative comic to make some noise and garner a great deal of attention.” Confident that her quirky and cerebral brand of humour was well-received at home, DeAnne travelled to Australia in early 2008, 2009 and 2010 for appearances at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, Sydney’s Cracker Comedy Festival (where she picked up an award for Best Newcomer) and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. The Hobart Comedy Festival is delighted to be presenting DeAnne for the first time in Tasmania.

“Fast, funny, and highly original” – The Adelaide Fix
”genuinely awesome…ridiculously hilarious. Next time you see DeAnne Smith’s name, run, don’t walk, to the venue box office.” – Drum Media
“Will leave you wanting an encore” – Adelaide Advertiser

Eleanor Tiernan

Without a doubt becoming one of Ireland’s top female comics, within just a year of starting stand-up Eleanor was asked to perform in Dublin’s Vicar St for the RTE production The Liffey Laughs, and the BBC’s One Night Stand. She has performed at the Kilkenny Cat Laughs Comedy Festival, the Galway Comedy Festival, in Best of Irish at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at the BudLight Comedy Revue and was a Semi-finalist in the Edinburgh So You Think You’re Funny? competition. In 2007, she starred in the play Help!, which she wrote with her two cousins and performed with great success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and, more recently, at the Dublin Fringe Festival. She also made her solo show debut at Edinburgh in 2008 to critical acclaim. Eleanor has recently completed 120 shows as the support act for Tommy Tiernan, playing to over 120,000 people and she heads straight to the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival after her appearances in Hobart.

“Following a triumphant return from the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, Canada where she performed as part of the Irish contingent at the prestigious, invitation-only event, Eleanor Tiernan is finally starting to garner… much-deserved international critical acclaim and recognition…” – Totally Dublin

Kevin Kopfstein* – MC
Kevin Kopfstein is a versatile and popular comedian and writer. He has a strong knack for hilarious observational humour with a surreal flavour, creating a totally unique and original act. With his friendly, relaxed style audiences always warm to this former Glaswegian (now Tasmanian) comedy treasure.

“Kopfstein is one of the funniest comedians in the country” – The Scotsman

THE FESTIVAL CLUB

The late laughs keep coming with your Master of Ceremonies, Damian Callinan, presenting an array of visiting and local comedians each night.

Damian Callinan

Damian Callinan is one of the most prolific, versatile and creative comic artists working in Australia today. As an award-winning standup comic, TV sketch show star, broadcaster, director, actor and writer, Damian delights in creating and inhabiting off beat landscapes of ridiculous but fully realised, sympathetic characters. His media credits include Spicks n Specks, Skithouse, The Wedge, Comedy Slapdown,  Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala, Before the Game, The Fat and various guest spots and co-hostings on Triple J, Mix FM and ABC Local Radio. Meanwhile he works consistently in the corporate sector and is an accomplished comic actor, appearing in productions including the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), in venues from the Sydney Opera House to the Victorian Arts Centre. In 2010 Damian is developing his own kids’ sitcom for ABC3.

THE BIG FINALE

A gala to end The Hobart Comedy Festival with a bang…

Frank Woodley

As a solo artist, Frank Woodley continues to earn the adulation of critics and audiences alike.

After twenty years as one half of the much loved, Perrier Award-winning Lano and Woodley, Frank said Good Bye to Lano and Woodley in 2006 with a national tour that took in 34 markets and sold more than 125,000 tickets. As the driver of many of the more physical aspects of Lano and Woodley, it is no surprise that he has taken this to a new level with his solo work. Having made his solo debut with his 2003 Melbourne International Comedy Festival show - which was described as “a triumph” by The Age – Frank has since extended the experiment, touring his 2009 solo show, Possessed, and his 2010 show Bewilderbeast around the country to sell-out crowds. He also appears regularly on ABC TV’s Spicks and Specks and Network TEN’s Good News Week.

“Irresistible comedy that will have you giggling like a little kid.” – The Sunday Mail, Adelaide
“Endlessly inventive mirth-making” – The Herald, Scotland
“Comedy doesn’t come much better than this. Seriously.” – The Herald Sun, Melbourne
“As universal as it is timeless” – The Guardian, UK
“A unique brand of larrikin absurdity that is never less than clever and frequently brilliant.” – Sydney Morning Herald

Charlie Pickering

Edgy, polished and inventive, Charlie Pickering is one of the most exciting names in Australian comedy. Charlie is a political junkie, former lawyer and the voice of his generation as a regular team captain for Generation X on Network Ten’s Talkin’ ‘bout Your Generation, as well as co-host each weeknight of The 7PM Project. Keeping his stand up skills firing, Charlie has performed solo seasons at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Adelaide Fringe Festival (where he was nominated for Best Established Comedy in 2008), the Brisbane Comedy Festival and New Zealand Comedy Festival, not to mention performing spots at comedy clubs throughout Australia. Charlie has earned many an accolade for his live work over the years, including nominations for the Perrier Best Newcomer Award in Edinburgh and the Barry Award for Most Outstanding Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as being named Best International Guest by the NZ Comedy Guild.

“Charming company and a natural raconteur” – The Scotsman
“You won’t be disappointed” – The Independent, UK
“Dangerously funny” – Cape Town Argus
“Masterful” – New Zealand Herald

Claire Hooper

Claire Hooper is best known for her role as a Team Captain on Network TEN’s Good News Week. She has also appeared on Rove Live, ABC TV’s The Sideshow, The Comedy Channel’s Stand Up! Australia and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Great Debate. She Claire began her comedy career in Perth in 2004 when she won her state finals of Triple J’s Raw Comedy. In 2005 she was selected to perform in ‘The Comedy Zone’ at Melbourne International Comedy Festival and won ‘Best and Fairest’ at the National Improv Championships. In 2006 she scored a Best Newcomer nomination at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for her first solo show, which went on to earn a place in Scotland on Sunday’s top five comedy picks of the Edinburgh Fringe. Since then she has written and performed three brilliant solo shows and written, directed and performed in a number of theatre shows, though not necessarily all at the same time.

“The spritely Hooper shines… precision quality” – Inpress
“marvellously entertaining…” – www.chortle.co.uk