This is the third year of FanFiction Comedy at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival after being ‘discovered’ by Wil Anderson, who saw them perform in their native New Zealand and brought them over to Melbourne to perform.
There’s a reason they keep coming back and I keep seeing them year after year – they’re a hugely talented group of kids, doing something genuinely different, fun and unique and no two shows are ever the same.
If you’re not familiar with Fan Fiction, it’s a hobby where fans of a story (think: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter) write their own version or extension of a text, using the characters and settings from the original.
Each night this talented troupe (Heidi O’Loughlin, Steven Boyce, Joseph Moore, Tom Furniss and host Nick Gibb) present and read aloud a unique FanFiction they’ve written, usually accompanied by a special guest who also makes a special contribution of their own.
On the night we visited, Tom Ballard was the special guest. For this woman in her 30s, Ballard’s offering was the highlight of the night, with a fantastic FanFiction of the 1990s show Charmed, complete with theme tune sung, emotionally and powerfully, to kick off his story.
This is a seriously talented group of young comics. Heidi O’Loughlin in particular stands out – I’ve never seen her present a weak fiction. Her offering on this particular evening was a ‘cross fic’ – a crossover of two fictional worlds. In a stroke of genius, she chose Sherlock (the sullen, BBC version) and Blues Clues, (a Nickelodeon kid’s show).
Other contributions included an Iron Man FanFiction that saw Tony Stark fall in love with his computer Jarvis (hilarious, but got a little racy around the nuts and bolts) and a Thomas the Tank Engine fiction, inspired by The Island and Alien Resurrection.
Because the fictions are presented for the first time on the night, one of the joys of the performance is watching the other members of the troupe laugh at their comrades’ work. They take the piss out of each other mercilessly, which only adds to the fun.
One of the highlights of the show was when one of the performers attempted Ringo Starr’s accent, which came out as a horrible hybrid Scottish/American mash-up. The host then revealed that he had in fact been to acting school and had no excuse for what he’d done.
If you read or watch mainstream fiction books or TV (or even film) there’s going to be something in here for you. I’m not a big fan of the ‘judging process’ after the fictions are read – it seems pointless. Perhaps just tighten up the banter and stick with it, because it works.
This is a fantastically talented group of comics – I’ll be at next year’s show. And probably the one after that, too.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Wil Anderson presents FanFiction Comedy
Melbourne Town Hall, Swanston St
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
www.comedyfestival.com.au
7 – 20 April
