Yes, it’s barely more than two weeks until the launch of the 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and of course Shaolin Punk will be there providing some excitingly nerdy comedy. The Melbourne Museum Comedy Tour is now in its fourth year, and this year features not only new stuff (the 600 Million Years: Victoria Evolves gallery!) but new talent in the form of Kate McLennan (The Debutante Diaries), Stella Young (two-time state Raw Comedy finalist), Danny McGinlay (Food Dude, The 7PM Project) and Amanda Buckley (Beaconsfield the Musical)! Oh, and it’s head tour guide is once again Shaolin Punk creative director Ben McKenzie.

And, though we’ve said it before, there’s also a lot of Dungeon Crawl coming your way. While the show isn’t an official part of the festival, we’ve committed ourselves to bringing you the best nerdy comedians playing D&D for your pleasure with four late-night shows throughout the festival. We can tell you that we’ve got quite a line-up, including Lawrence Leung (Choose Your Own Adventure), DeAnne Smith (Canada), Dave Bloustien (Wit Large), Scott Edgar and Steven Gates (Tripod) and a whole bunch of other comedians you didn’t even know were geeks. In fact, there are so many of them, we’ve found a way to cram more of them into every show – so expect some surprises!

We won’t be able to give you full line-ups in advance, so you should just come along every Wednesday night at 11 PM from March 30 to April 20 and see who’s on. You’re in for a…[rolls dice]…great time.

 

Last week, Dave Bloustien‘s elderly illusionist (who created such mighty illusions as the sensation of having water in your ears and that feeling you get when you’ve left the gas on at home), Clem Bastow‘s half-elf druid Malcolm Turnbull (whose only spells, Hold Animal and Speak With Plants, turned out to be surprisingly useful), Jordan Raskopoulos‘s rogue Queerhand Fondlesacks (inspired by Mr. Humphries of Are You Being Served? fame) and Dave Thornton‘s Eskimo fighter (whose chief role in the party seemed to be carrying the illusionist) managed to defeat the evil minions of an even more evil necromancer before foiling their master’s supremely evil ritual. Never has a dungeon crawl seen such choreography, or the desire to get a complete set of items fuelled entirely by fashion sense!

This week is your last chance to get your dungeon on, with guest players Nick Caddaye of the Anarchist Guild Social Committee, returning crowd favourite Jordan Raskopoulos (Axis of Awesome), Fear of a Brown Planet‘s Aamer Rahman and actor, comedian improviser and all-round lovable guy Toby Truslove. It’s a big night, and it’s your last chance to be part of the crawl! This Wednesday, April 14, 10:30 PM at Gertrudes Brown Couch, 30 Gertrude Street Fitzroy. Get tickets via comedyfestival.com.au, Ticketmaster 1300 660 013, or just turn up at the door.

 

There’s just one week left of +1 Sword, and it’s been a great season so far! You may have already seen the interview with Ben and Richard on The Groggy Squirrel, or heard Ben on either ABC 774′s Evening programme with Derek Guille and Jodie J Hill on Thursday or SYN radio’s Geekyard Shift on Saturday. We’ve also been fortunate enough to receive another great review, this time from Age scribe and blogger John Bailey on his arts review blog, Capital Idea. Oddly enough, his is the first review to really compare us with Tripod Versus The Dragon, and his verdict? “Liked ‘em both!” (As did I, by the way.) You can read the whole thing here.

Dungeon Crawl is also going great guns, with our second show filling up the seats – expect an update on that and our finalised line-up by tomorrow – and has also been reviewed! Liam Pieper of RHUM Reviewer, who also reviewed +1 Sword, called it “very charming and frequently hilarious”, and gave us 9/10! See the full review at RHUM here.

If you’ve left your dungeon adventure until the last minute, we recommend you book for +1 Sword – the last night is all but sold out, and the rest of the week might well fill up! Dungeon Crawl also looks set for a big final night on Wednesday, and we hope to see you there!

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