Wednesday 22 August 2007

Regular column: ask the internet

Who would be a good comedian to ask to do a stand-up routine at the drinks hour at the end of the first day of the Jane Austen conference?

criteria:

reasonably priced
already in Melbourne
might be willing or able to say something about Jane Austen
English teachers and academics will like

Dorian has suggested Julia Zemiro but I don't think we can afford her, even if she wanted to do it, which she very well may not.

anyway, you know, HELP! Please.



18 comments:

Peter said...

I have been advised by TV comedy writer friends that Corinne Grant is very in to literature stuff. Though she may be expensive (though, again, she needs the work).

She is with Token Management.

I'll keep asking around.

Anonymous said...

I've never seen Courteney Hocking www.courteneyhocking.com perform but I really like her joint podcasts (www.nonstopical.com)

Boris

TimT said...

Uhmm... one of the guys from Tripod?

Definitely Facebook this, as there are at least two stand ups in the blogging/facebooking coterie.

Anonymous said...

Corrine Grant studied at LaTrobe, maybe she'd give you an 'old school' discount?

Mel said...

What about Josh Earl? Shhh, shhh, he's a librarian!

Or the Bedroom Philosopher - he's another nerdy type and apparently he drives nerdy chicks wild!

TimT said...

Yeah, Bedroom Philosopher dude is from Sydney, but he does gigs in Melbourne all the time: worth a shot.

Anonymous said...

"Nerdy Chicks Gone Wild!!!"

Oh man, who doesn't want to see that? They'll be throwing their cardigans on stage and everything.

Love the concept here, Miss Tartan, but I'll be seriously impressed if you can pull it off. I'm guessing literary stand-up is a very small genre. Forget "reasonable" rates, the comedian who can produce a tight half-hour of Austen-influenced wit would be worth their weight in Penguin Classics. [OK, that's actually not very much, even in hardbacks, but you take my point.]

Zarquon said...

John Clarke?

Anonymous said...

& I was thinking Julie Bishop....

Zarquon said...

Hee, I just found John Clarke's web site. Very Literary because it has poems:

Fifteen Bobsworth Longfellow was an Adelaide academic who wrote instructions for kit-set model products, mainly balsa wood aircraft and submarines which ran on baking powder. The manual included here was for the assembling of a twenty-five-foot aircraft carrier marketed by Myer stores between 1954 and 1960.

MYER'S WHOPPER

Take the pieces from the package,
Lay them out as per the graph,
Gathering the bits you'll need,
Removing what you shouldn't have.
With the implement provided
Ease the bearings to the left,
Push the little angled mullion
Up into the socket 'F'.
This will free the moulded bracket
Holding back the nylon strand,
Draw the slippery hoop and coupling
Through the right-hand rubber-band.
Put the topside brown side outside,
Push the inside upside down,
Underneath the left-hand wingnut,
Press the folding backward crown.
Overlapping lifting side-flaps
Lower in to fit the screws,
Pack up tools, retire to distance,
Don protective hat, light fuse.

Anonymous said...

thirdcat

GS said...

jane clifton?

Anonymous said...

Denise Scott. I think she lives in Preston or Thornbury. Just looking at her makes me laugh. And she seems smart as well as being funny.

sophie said...

i think denise is a good suggestion.

Unknown said...

Surely Judith Lucy? I just assume she lives in Melbourne, I don't know why.

Zoe said...

Yeah, FX, thirdcat is a librarian AND a stand up comic. And Adelaide is almost Melbourne

Janine & Steve said...

How about Marieke Hardy? Is she in Melbourne?

But I think that Denise Scott would be brilliant

Anonymous said...

I was going to say Jane Clifton - she spoke after dinner at an editing conference and was great - she worked in lots of editing stuff. I'm sure she could do some bronte stuff. And she's bound to sing!