Bulmers Best Of The Edinburgh Festival has been the go-to cheat sheet for upcoming comedy talent for a while now. It’s not that they are breaking new talent; the guys they feature are all top-notch professionals. It’s more a feature showcase for comics you are not smart enough to have discovered yet.
Previous years have seen the likes of Ross Noble, Arj Barker and Stephen K Amos gracing the stage under the Best Of The Fest banner and this year is no different. Tom Allen, Carl Donnelly and Seann Walsh have all been killing it at Edinburgh and will be out here to show Melbourne what they can do.
“You can expect a show where, regardless of your taste in comedy, there will be an act that will blow your mind,” Carl Donnelly says of the show. “If you like amazing observational comedy from an annoyingly young and good looking man then we have Seann Walsh for you. If you like hilarious anecdotes from the most suave and well-dressed man I’ve ever met, we give you Tom Allen. Then finally, for those unsure about what type of comedy they like, I come along and talk nonsense and waffle about whatever comes into my head for a set period of time.”
It’s rambling through those anecdotes in front of a crowd that Tom Allen relishes the most. “I love the experience of being in a room with a completely new set of people and seeing what happens,” he says. “It’s one of the most exciting things about live comedy – each show will never happen again because it’s very much a tennis match between the person on stage and the people in the audience. And both these things keep changing. Stories and details are what make me laugh so they tend to make up the biggest part of my set. I love painting the world in a way that other people might not have seen it. It’s a short life so we’ve got to enjoy it and celebrate it, regardless of how weird and uncomfortable some bits of it are. In fact I think that’s a big part of what makes people laugh, that realisation that they’re not the only one with these strange quirks and uncomfortable bits.”
Such introspection only lasts so long. “For once I’d just like to be interviewed about food,” Carl interjects. “I love food and have a slight obsession with Masterchef. Some comedians want to be famous so they can live the celebrity lifestyle and make loads of money but the only reason I’d like to be famous is so I could appear on Celebrity Masterchef. The other day I made an orange and polenta sponge cake with an orange glaze that would have blown your mind.”
The Bulmers Best Of The Edinburgh Festival features Tom Allen, Carl Donnelly and Seann Walsh and is at RMIT’s Capitol Theatre from March 31 – April 24. It’s at 9pm Wednesday – Saturday, 8.30pm Tuesdays and 8pm on Sundays. Tickets are $25 – $33 from Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and at the door.
Jack Franklin
