A man of mystery, Hue Blanes has given little away about his upcoming show in The Melbourne International Comedy Festival – until now. Based in Melbourne, the virtuoso pianist is set to blend melancholy musical arrangements with a serious spin on casual comedy.
Still indecisive about what tone he wants the night to take, Hue is more than happy to allow his audience to decide for themselves. “I guess it’s whatever you want it to be,” says Hue. “The truth is, even in some of the serious songs, people are laughing. I pretty much did the same set Friday and Saturday night up at Nannup Festival, the first gig I did in a nervous, kind of funny way and it got heaps of laughs – it was almost like a comedy act. The second night I did mostly the same songs, just a little bit more serious as opposed to funny and witty, no one laughed, but people loved it.
“It’s one of those things with comedy, people can go away not having laughed but really enjoyed it anyway, or they could go away having laughed the whole show and at the end of it go ‘Oh yeah, that was okay’. Some of my favourite comedy is quite black – there’s an English guy called Matt Berry, he was on The Mighty Boosh’s first series. There are no jokes like ‘Here, laugh at this’ – but they’re just funny. I don’t know if anyone can really describe or define comedy. Comedy is to one person what tragedy is to another.”
In terms of comedic content, the singer/songwriter has created a satire-soaked show that is sure to impress. A natural born storyteller, Hue’s attention to detail and emotive appeal cements him as a truly entertaining talent.
“I tell a story about being on Tinder,” he laughs. “It’s really tragic, I’m always on it and I just scroll and there’s a picture of my [fictional] wife. There’s another story about having multiple personalities and calling myself different names. At the end of the song a lot of ex-girlfriends get named, having ganged up on me and they want to kill me.”
Still leaving some things to the imagination, the Melbourne act will have his audiences delving deeper into his anecdotes than ever before. “I wrote an album called Holiday a couple years ago that is coming out in April this year. It was all about me, all the stuff that’s going on in my mind,” explains Hue. “Now, I’m doing songs about characters, they might be real or might be fictional – you have to guess.”
While Blanes is clearly open-minded in regards to the comedic aspects of his show, he certainly possesses an underlying desire to balance out the genre of musical comedy. “You’ve got guys like Tim Minchin and Sammy J who are quite funny and quite musical – but mostly just funny,” he explains. “I want there to be a musical element to it. I want the audience to feel something musically, as well as just hearing jokes that are pandered at them. There’s maybe one song with a punch line.”
All jokes aside, Hue Blanes And The Moon will be held in brand new, slightly used, secret venue – Batty Patty. “It used to be home to a lady with like twenty cats,” Hue discloses. “I think she was affected by toxoplasma, which I think is a cat disease where the cats attract you by a chemical in the brain. It’s opposite the Jazz Club and it’s now a groovy little art space – just imagine one of those trendy-artsy-warehouse kind of places. I’m going to bring my grand piano in from the church into the space and lots of other pyrotechnics –a tape recorder and perhaps some grapes, maybe some wine, and away we go.”
By Phoebe Robertson
Venue: Batty Patty, 24 Bennetts Lane, CBD
Dates: March 30 – April 17 (except Mondays and Tuesdays)
Time: 7pm
Tickets: $20
