When the majority of the acts you have seen in the Melbourne Comedy Festival are of the edgy, absurd, whimsical or politically aware ilk, it can actually come as quite a shock to the system to encounter an evening of age-old, traditional pub comedy stand-up, which is what the Best of British is offering for MICF 2025.
Now in its 18th year and hosted by emcee Dan Willis this year’s line-up was full of banter, plenty of crowd work, the requisite tasteless jokes and, yes, plenty of laughs too. Though, to be fair, with a Friday night pub crowd of middle-aged vodka-drinking women and boisterous 20-something lads, you’d have to be really lacking in your comedy chops not to get the audience guffawing.
Rory o Hanlon is up first, driving the well-worn stand-up route of jokes about both English and Aussies, from the point of view of an Irishman. There are also plenty of gags at his own expense, particularly revolving around his red-haired, pale-faced appearance. And, to be fair, he’s not wrong when he says even his countrymen think he looks too Irish to be true. What this means when it comes to finding an appropriate SPF for his lily white looks offers more fodder for the funny.
Maureen Younger is another old-style comedian, full of cracks and stories about sex, her size and meeting men. She’s sharp as a tack, but when she delivers the repeated refrains, “not all of these are jokes”, you can’t help but believe her.
The third performer, Jonny Pelham, who you may have seen on Mock the Week or Live at the Apollo, sails a bit closer to the edge with jokes about his friend with cerebral palsy and rape, but if you’ve seen any of his other material where he talks about the sexual abuse he experienced at the age of eight, his Exford set is certainly mild by comparison.
Read: Comedy review: Mad C*nts, Meyers Lane, MICF 2025
Understandably, the show saves the strongest til last with another Mock the Week alumni, the veteran stand-up comedian, broadcaster and writer Ian Stone – who manages to bring in the greater geopolitical landscape without (seemingly) getting anyone offside. For a Jewish comic talking about the Middle East, the US and other myriad contemporary topics, that’s a pretty impressive feat.
Tickets: $20.50-$32.50
Best of British will be performed at the Exford Hotel until 20 April 2025 as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF 2025).
