Shaolin Punk

Hi all! After a sell-out season of the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour during the Comedy Festival, Shaolin Punk has been taking a rest. But both National Science Week and the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2009 are coming up in the near future – and you can bet Shaolin Punk will be involved in both those things in some way!

The title pretty much says it all: tickets are now on sale via the Comedy Festival web site for the 2009 Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour, featuring Ben McKenzie (the Man in the Lab Coat), Janet A. McLeod (Quiz Internationale) and Andy Muirhead (Collectors). Some nights did sell out last year, so get in quick this time around!

The Man in the Lab Coat returns for this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival with a new season of the Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour! Ben is joined by queen of trivia and stalwart of the Melbourne comedy scene Janet A. McLeod, and that ever-so-lovely yet cheeky comedian and host of ABC1’s The Collectors, Andy Muirhead.

The tour will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 6 PM for the last two weeks of the Festival, which is April 16-18 & 23-25. You’ll be able to buy tickets soon via Ticketmaster and the Festival web site, but they’ll also be available at the door; for more information, keep an eye on labcoatman.com.au.

If you’re wondering what Ben has been up to to cause such a long dark tea-time of the soul here at Shaolin Punk, well he’s been concentrating on The Anarchist Guild Social Committee, the monthly sketch show in which he provides backup to the cast. After their February show – which is this Sunday, February 15 – they’re off to the Adelaide Fringe before returning to Melbourne for the Comedy Festival, showcasing their best sketches of the past year in A Fine Selection. Tickets are on sale now for both seasons!

Well, the Melbourne Fringe was over, but we’d like to give a quick shout-out to Fringe Awards winners and friends of Shaolin Punk, Celia Pacquola (Best Comedy for Am I Strange?) and the Bella Union (Best Venue). Congratulations! We’d also like to wish all the best to other friends of Shaolin Punk, including Scott Gooding’s Eric, Karin Muiznieks’ Give My Regards to Broady, and the Hounds’ Last Bucket of Water.

Keep watching this space for news of upcoming Shaolin Punk exploits, including possible Comedy Festival plans.

For the last Set List of Melbourne Fringe 2008, Gerald and the Monkey Wrenchers graced the stage of the Old Council Chambers, with front man Gerald Anxiety pumping out some of the band’s best-known hits including metal anthem “Gorgon”, tribute to a lost childhood “Wonderland”, and the obscure historical indie-rock single “American Civil War Hot Cakes”. His offsider and rythym guitarist, Phil Innuendo, also sang the haunting “Don’t End Our Love (creepy things you say)” as well as the band’s 1989 track, “Safety Clips”, which was stolen by…well, another band whose lead singer is no longer with us. Let’s leave it at that. Keyboardist Clarisse Glitter and special guest Hepsebah “Nobility” Jones shared the ballad “Plage de nudistes français (oh yeah)”, and then joined in for a special finale: a reprise of the classic benefit song for the silent killer, Feline AIDS, “Get Spayed – Not Kitty AIDS”.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the eclectic mix of bands featured at Set List’s first Melbourne Fringe season; we may well bring Set List back in future, but until then, enjoy the music and rock on!