All posts by Kerrie Pacholli

Shappi Korsandi at Melbourne Town Hall

07/04/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Shappi’s show was like sitting down to a glass of wine with THAT friend who keeps you in fits of laughter the whole evening, with tales of single-parenthood, best-friends, her son’s childhood romance, being pregnant and horny, boob-flashing relatives, internet dating, being a victim of racism, and learning to stand up for herself. Shappi has a really warm and easy way of leading us through the stupidity of life, and poking fun at social mores and conservatism with a sharp and insightful wit.

review by Conor O’Neil

DATES & TIMES: 16 Shows 27 Mar – 13 Apr

VENUE: Melb Town Hall – Lower Town Hall / Melb Town Hall – Mini Main

PRICES: $26 – $35

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‘Every Grain of Sand’

10/04/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Powerfully emotive, Every Grain of Sand is currently playing at Chapel off Chapel, but you better be quick as this season finishes next Sunday.

My dear friend Emily Humphries who I know to be an exceptional and extraordinary poet, painter and thinker illuminated me to this play and it’s multi-faceted and talented playwright Neil Cole and director Don Bridges. Both have very rich pedigree careers in Australian theatre, film, television and politics. Both currently invest their time and energies, among other pursuits, in passing on their expertise and life experience as educators.

Even though my friend knew little of the theme of the play other than being staged around sports and politics she assured me that anything Don Bridges is working with has to be above and beyond good. Yet, again she was spot on…

This story is about life on life’s terms when four hardworking citizens unite for a common cause. We witness the rise of political ambition morphing into addictive desire for the spot light and the need to win; combined with unabated capitalism, manipulation and socialist ideology. But most compelling and emotionally charged is the deep support and compassion that carries these individuals through their daily trials and tributions. I was literally brought to tears by the authentic and often diverting performances by this amazing cast.

Presented by Melbourne Jewish Theatre Trust

Written by Neil Cole
Directed by Don Bridges

Starring Chris Broadstock, Clare Pickering, Cameron McKenzie and Kirsten Snowden

Composer Warren Wills Lighting Design Boyd Gordon

BUY TICKETS

6 March – 23 March
Times: Tuesday – Saturday 8pm, Sunday 6:30pm
Tickets: $35 (+ Transaction Fee)
Seating: General Admission. Please make sure you arrive a minimum of 15 minutes prior to the performance start time.Latecomers will not be permitted.
Please Note: If you require wheelchair access please call our Box Office on 03 8290 7000.
Duration: 90 mins (no interval)

By Kerrie Pacholli aka Pation Pics
https://pationpics.com

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Virgin Melbourne Fashion Festival 2014

06/04/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Jessica Gomes heading up the opening for David Jones as part of the Virgin Melbourne Fashion Festival. — Jessica Gomes heading up the opening for David Jones as part of the Virgin Melboune Fashion Festival 2014

Sammizphotography.com — Runway Day 2 presented by Instyle as part of the Virgin Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Day 4 at the VAMFF Featured Sydney designers Talulah ,Finders Keepers , Wild Horses and Keepsake.

Day 5 Featuring Designers Yeogin Bae , Carla Zampatti , Alice McCall and Macgraw.

photographs by Sammiz Photography -_ Sam Tabone

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Headliners

05/04/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Welcome to the home of Neurosis Yak/yankland, aka North America. This places fizzes with the bent smash and grab of four performers who each rock 18 minutes.

First into the ring is Dave Meherje, from Toronto who goes at it like a Lebanese Woody Allen trying to address all the voices in his head at the one time. His hands pop left then right as if batting off invisible muggers. He improvs off the audience with the front row being a crew from his home town whom he interrogates and takes on like you’d play with a wild raccoon in a cheap sleeping bag.

Next up: Brooke Van Poopelen. She’s got the onomatopoeia name for tripping your nutsack off by a mountain river. From Detroit now New York, her set corners on the aging mid 30’s woman, how they are represented on TV ads and what in fact is the real bitching truth. She moves smooth through her smooth moves and shits us with laughs like a colonoscopy.

Dave Hill follows with cravat and smoking jacket, like an Oscar Wilde clone eaten and defecated by a fictional Norwegian death metal band. He thanks the invisible applause of the audience, tickles us with erotic short stories, charms us with his delusions of grandeur and wipes us with stories of Japanese hi-tech toilets.

Seaton Smith rocks the crescendo of the night with hi- octane jibes into the nature of race and diversity. He muses on his 75% agreement with conservatives until they sabotage themselves with the last part of their argument.

Each night is throws up a revolving pot pourri of comics from the Upper Americas with all tastes covered.

revue by Connor O’Neil

Nightly until 20th April, Melb Town Hall, cnr Swanston & Collins St. Tickets $28- $35.50

Tue-Sat 9.45pm

Sun 8.45pm

70 minutes

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Sara Pascoe vs Truth

05/04/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Sara Pascoe comes out to the audience armed with a glass of red wine and immediately and mindfully tries to sabotage her own show.

She then challenges herself to win back the audience. She admits she did this in Cardiff, Wales calling it her favourite part of England – which by doing so lost her her audience, who then booed all through her allotted 18 minutes. Melbourne is much too polite to do this and she de-quagmires herself, from the initial purposeful faux pas, during the rest of the show. She delves into whether or no she is an alcoholic and, well, one has to question whether the lady protests too much.

Sara messes with the illusion of reality and her part in it as a struggling ethical, vegan, feminist. She doesn’t hector but unwraps her slice of life through a deep philosophical lens: whether she explores the transubstantiation of a communion wafer, her own existence or why she has abandoned hairdressers and padded bras. She feels dissociated from the world and often at times feels she is just a brain in a laboratory in some cosmic joke of an experiment. She engages us in laughter by her cleverness and her own knowing futility of self.

revue by Connor O’Neil

DATES & TIMES: 22 Shows 27 Mar – 20 Apr

VENUE: Melb Town Hall – Old Met Shop

PRICES: $25.50 – $33

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Win two tickets to Kyle Kinane!

31/03/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Kyle Kinane performing at the Victoria Hotel in Collins St from 28 March - 6 April. — **Kyle Kinane performing at the Victoria Hotel in Collins St from 28 March – 6 April.**

Kyle Kinane plays at The Victoria Hotel on Little Collins Street and his show is an utter delight. He is deeply warm and affable and has the side profile of Gerard Butler in “300” (note : no sprayed on abs). The thread line is that pre-midlife of 37 and how hitting the floor of the shower became a wake up call. He is in mid space life glitch, chucking money in bins, talking aloud for mind diagnostics and realises pet adoption is a more realistic aspiration than porn.

He transfixes with his smart, acute observations of going on the gun range in Texas spotting a metal head there with a silenced pistol and why those dressed in Abercrombie + Fitch will be shot in a not so random shooting. He tells us where he’s going and he goes where he’s tells us but then swerves into impending car crash territory threatening to impale himself on the audiences loathing but redeems himself oh so gracefully

Kyle is a legend in the making: smart, philosophical and downbeat joyous. His show runs at a hour but felt much longer in the best way possible. He evokes a panoply of different types of laughter from the obvious to the hard won and he likes to show the unlikeable in himself to redeem his own past.

Story by Connor O’Neil

WIN TWO COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO KYLE KINANE

SHOWING THE 1 OR 2 APRIL 2014

To have a chance at winning just tell us why you want to see Kyle’s show in the comment section below.

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The Comedy Zone

31/03/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

Wild and live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

The Comedy Zone introduces five outstanding specimens of ‘wild, untamed, new talent’ from around Australia to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2014.

Under the direction of Heath McIvor, performers Geoffrey Windle (MC), Suren Jayemanne, Becky Lucas, Aaron Chen and Demi Lardner deliver polished and precocious stand-up, exploring the challenges posed by coming of age in post-millennial Australia.

From Queensland, the urbane and erudite Geoffrey Windle dissects troubling logical and grammatical absurdities as he introduces his colleagues, taking time to ponder the naïve spelling and spurious recipes of a found cookbook.

From Sri Lanka via Victoria, Suren Jayemanne demonstrates his mastery of the pun, with howling results. He confesses his bewilderment with the opposite gender and delectation of inappropriate rap titles.

Queensland’s Becky Lucas likewise takes a prod to gender tensions, contemplating the lack of charm among predators lurking in night-clubs and dark alleys. In self-flagellatory style she laments her failure to gain paternal approval of her career choices, and the paucity of reliable sex education to be gleaned from babushka dolls.

Aaron Chen from New South Wales projects a meek, social phobic persona and up-tilted question inflections, while navigating swiftly changing perspectives on intercultural dating, thwarted musical ambitions and illogical urban encounters. Aged just 18, Aaron is the youngest comedian of the set.

Last but not least, Demi Lardner from South Australia hops with elfin whimsy from frenetic anecdote to edgy one-liner to zany impersonation, as exemplified in her spluttering confrontation with a front-desk police officer, and her ‘impression of an insane comedian’ perpetrating audience participation. In 2013, Ms Lardner won the MICF Raw Comedy competition, propelling her to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she went on to become joint winner of the So You Think You’re Funny competition.

The five’s journey to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2014 is the subject of a documentary to be televised on C31 on Tuesday 8 April at 8.30pm and again on 12 April at 9.30pm.

Story by Marian Webb

The Comedy Zone runs Tuesday to Saturday 8.15pm, Sunday 7.15pm, to 20 April.

Venue: Old Council Chambers, Trades Hall, cnr Lygon & Victoria Streets, Carlton.

Running time: 60 minutes

Prices: $19.50 – $23.50

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2014/season/shows/the-comedy-zone

http://comedyfestival.com.au/raw/

http://www.c31.org.au/program/view/program/in-the-zone

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Sean Cullen ‘I am a Human Man’

31/03/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

From the moment Sean Cullen slunk on to the Fairfax stage at the Arts Centre a feeling arose that Sean was not alright. It wasn’t in his plan but this unsaid thing dominated and was later in the show he admitted he was unwell. To me it read that Sean had been smashed by gastroenteric with horrific jet lag thrown in for good measure.

Moments fleeted wherein like a drunk awaiting from a blackout he internally screamed ‘WHERE AM I? Why am I doing comedy at my body clock of 9 am.’ Empathetically the audience got it. Here was a trooper for whom the show must go on. It was a salutary lesson from an old school trooper of how to survive a Saturday night when the odds and indeed ones biology is stacked against you. His show entitled ‘I am a Human Man’ framed and forgave him.

Never in my own experience of going to comedy have I ever been at a gig where the comedian spoke so softly. He engaged with the audience and rambled off into glorious fits and trips of improved sideline and we got it. He amped up when he swanned into mimicry- Liam Neeson and English gangster movies. His real forte was when he sang: riffing into farming, grunge bands, the surreal and daddy teaching son how to treat the ladies. He couldn’t but not commit when it came to the songs, which counterpointed whatever was really going on for him.

It was an entertaining 75 minutes that reminds that there is always a human with a reality going on behind the facade of just making us laugh.

story by Connor O’Neil

HOW TO WIN A TWO FREE TICKETS TO SEE

SEAN CULLEN on 1st APRIL 2014 at

In the comment section

just tell us why you would like to see Sean Cullen on the 1st April 2014. This is not an April fool gag!

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‘Double Up’ – Deadly, Dynamic, Hypnotic

31/03/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

: Deadly duo ‘Double Up’ with Kevin Kropinyeri and Sean Choolburra.; The saying that goes ‘once you’ve had black you can’t go back’ also rings true for ‘black humour’.; I kicked off this years Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2014 with an Aussie team of Indigenous brothers in ‘Double Up‘ who are next performing at the Melbourne Town Hall – Mini Main on the 4 – 5 April. This show is a must see for seasoned die hard enthusiasts who like to keep raising the bar for their next comedic blast.; Performing separately together this dazzling comedic duo deliver a witty and entertaining show that brings their combined perspective to contemporary culture. Sean Choolburra’s fast paced style delivers a family friendly show and veteran funny man the over the top Kevin Kropinyeri’s humour revels in adult themes. Both had me totally mesmerised inspiring explosions of near jerk laughter. Both artists are crystal clear illuminants and cultural ambassadors, paving the way , cutting straight to the proverbial ‘funny bone’ preparing our palates for more to come.

NEXT SHOWS: 4 – 5 April 2014

VENUE: Melbourne Town Hall – Mini Main

SHOW: Fri – Sat 9.30 pm for 60 minutes.Buy tickets from online ticketing partners / Ticketmaster 1300 660 013 / or at the door

PRICE: $22 – $26.50

News and Events

Martin and Lewis Tribute Show Aussie tour

20/01/2014 Kerrie Pacholli Leave a comment

I was first introduced to Tony Lewis and Tom Stevens stars of the Martin and Lewis Tribute Show about four months ago and became an instant fan.

Being in the media for as long as I have, one can not help but to develop a sense for star quality on the rise. And this dynamic comedic duo is well and truly on a meteoric rise on a global scale.

Tom Stevens crowned the best Dean Martin tribute artist ever has been performing to legions of fans in Las Vegas for decades. ‘DownUnder’s’ Tony Lewis also a seasoned veteran of comedy is considered the best Jerry Lewis tribute artist today.

You can imagine how these guys felt when they finally saw each others’ acts via cyberspace a couple of years ago!

Re-creating much loved original Martin and Lewis skits from the 40”s and 50′s as well as successfully weaving their own written material and contemporary themes into an iconic original comedic formula created by Martin and Lewis, they have created the greatest Martin and Lewis Tribute Show of all time and are playing to sell out audiences in LAS VEGAS.

Recently, signed by Eggman Global this show is now going on the road and to the top.

To get a taste of the glitz and glam of Las Vegas and world class comedic cabaret at its best you can catch this amazing act during their Australian tour. They will be in performing in:

Adelaide on Friday 21st February and Saturday 22nd February at THE OFFICE – 110 Pirie Street, Adelaide SA for bookings call 0412 399 169

Sydney on Sunday the 23rd February 2014 at CLUB FIVE DOCK RSL located at 66 Great North Road, Five Dock NSW for bookings call 0478 693 202

Special accommodation details are available for interstate travellers. Contact Steve on 0412 399 169 for Adelaide bookings, and for Sydney bookings Virginia Moschella on 0478 693 303.

Stay posted for more tour dates…

Nightly until 20th April, Melb Town Hall, cnr Swanston & Collins St. Tickets $28- $35.50

DATES & TIMES: 22 Shows 27 Mar – 20 Apr

VENUE: Melb Town Hall – Old Met Shop

PRICES: $25.50 – $33

**** WIN TWO COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO KYLE KINANE ****

**** SHOWING THE 1 OR 2 APRIL 2014 ****

Wild and live at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

HOW TO WIN A TWO FREE TICKETS TO SEE

SEAN CULLEN on 1st APRIL 2014 at

Productions, PR, Publicity, and Pics

WIN TWO COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO KYLE KINANE

SHOWING THE 1 OR 2 APRIL 2014