Ever since I can remember, I have always wanted to go to Melbourne for the International Comedy Festival. I have religiously watched the Gala that’s televised every year, and one year I intend on being there for the actual gala itself.

This year I had the opportunity to go to the comedy festival, but alas not the gala. While visiting Jens and Julie in April, we booked in to see several shows, including:

• The Faulty Towers Dining Experience (based on the original tv show Fawlty Towers)
• Mark Watson
• Josh Thomas

All of these I was looking forward to, but never in my wildest dreams did I think they would be as amazing as they were.

The Faulty Towers Dining Experience started out with all patrons standing around for pre-dinner drinks, where eventually we were led to our seats by the waiter, Manuel. As it turned out, diners were called out by their surnames, preceded with either Master or Madam. This actually filled our group with dread, as one of my friend’s last name was “Bate”. Rude joke warning, so if you’re a prude, please skip the rest of this paragraph! I’ll wait……ok good those prudish readers are gone, which begs the question wtf are they doing on THIS blog anyway, don’t they know I swear too much!! Anyways, back to the story. Eventually our group was called up, including the requisite “Master Bate”. See what happened there? Master Bate. Say it aloud. Get it? In case you’re missing the joke, it sounds like masterbate. Somehow, the joke managed to go over Basil’s head as he made no mention of it at all, and we were led to our seats. Phew!

After the night was over, we all agreed that the show was incredible, the characters were hilarious, and we had all had a great night.

Basil & Manual try to open a wine bottle during the Faulty Towers Dining Experience

On the second night we saw Mark Watson, which unfortunately I don’t have any photos from this night to share. We were urged by a lady in the foyer to get into the room as soon as the doors opened, and without telling us why, she was positive we wouldn’t regret it.

She was right.

Mark was sitting at a desk on the stage, laptop in front of him, with a great big projector showing the contents of his laptop on the wall behind him. It turned out that as people walked in Mark would watch them, then type in comments on the laptop, which had us in stitches. He also put in requests, such as a challenge that for the next person that walked in front of him we had to cheer incredibly loudly. Or when someone finally sat in a particular seat we all had to clap and whistle. A few times people would simply walk past, he’d make a hilarious comment, the audience would roar with laughter and the victim would just look around confused at what was so funny. It was brilliant, as was the rest of his show.

On the last night we saw Josh Thomas. I have to be honest here; while I was looking forward to it I also had sneaking suspicion that I was going to be a little bit let down. How wrong I was. He was brilliant!

On TV you don’t really get the impact of how funny he truly is. He makes a few jokes here and there, but more often than not comes off looking a bit silly. His stand up routine is fantastic, and his interaction with the audience is even better. He doesn’t hold back, and we heard a lot of stories about his life (I wouldn’t hesitate to say that he’s one of the most famous gay men in Australia now, but he is generally very private about it, hence why I was so stunned by the level of detail in his show). He shared dating and relationship stories with us, but as always the boyfriend had a code name of “Ralph”. I don’t regret seeing him at all, I’m glad that my expectations were surpassed, and I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to recommend his show to others.

The set for Josh Thomas' show

 So, yet another another 52 in 52 crossed off, and the funniest one by far! This was another thing I’ve really loved getting out and doing, and while there’s no venues on the Sunshine Coast for stand-up (that I know of), I don’t think it would hurt to make the odd trip to Brisbane for a show (depending on my budget, that’s one 52 in 52 I need to get cracking on). The best thing about the 52 in 52 challenge? Going and doing the things you wouldn’t normally make an effort to do!