Saturday, April 14, 2012

Al's Music Rant @ Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2012

So you may have noticed the drop in activity around here lately, that's for one very simple reason. It's Comedy Festival time, and once again, your titular host is taking to the stage to transform this seriously-minded critical music blog, into a hilarious hour of musical-based hilarity by borrowing the same name.

The result is Al's Music Rant: The Difficult 2nd Album and for those of you who follow this humble writer's extra-curricular activities, a lot of this wash might seem redundant. But as it stands, I'm heading into the second (and final) week of the show, and figure my faithful blog readers shouldn't miss out on the action. The key thing is, if you haven't already, 
you should pick a date, book some tix for the show and come on down and have a good old laugh. 





The remaining dates are:

Tues April 17th - Sun April 22nd. 
(No Mondays. 5.15pm Sundays)


6.15pm The Evatt Room, Trades Hall
Corner of Lygon St & Victoria St

Tickets available through: 
 or Ticketmaster online | Ph: 1300 660 013



So that's the basic info, but if you need some more convincing, I've prepared a wrap-up of all the promo-and-press I've been doing for the show. Think of it as a one-stop narcissism shop. 

First up, following on from last year's appearancetriple j brekkie hosts Tom & Alex had me on the show a week or so ago, where I unknowingly plug someone else's show, make horrible rapper gags and baffle a poor listener attempting to guess my conceited music mash-ups. Hilarity!. You can download or stream the full podcast here
What else? Well, I've been keeping a sort of 'comedy diary' for the fine folks at Everguide in the lead-up to/during the comedy festival run. A witty set of entries designed to give a bit of a pithy behind-the-scenes insight into the life of an emerging comic. 
Part 1 contains Lana Del Rey and YouTube links. 
Part 2 contains the above photo again, as well as some rehearsal footage and Barnesy.
Part 3 is forthcoming but is sure to contain some review links and alacrity about the press.

Speaking of press... the first review for the show comes from Farrago, and specifically the lovely Sarina Murray. She well and truly 'got' the show, saying 'his persona allays fears that this will be a whiny hipster complaining for an hour... Newstead’s dynamism keeps his audience entertained; his critical eye keeps them engaged, and his sharp wit keeps them laughing.' wow. Who needs stars with writing this eloquent?
You can read the full write-up here.

Then there's the interviews. I was on the cover of the latest issue of
YAWP a digital publication written by and for comedians, put together by the peeps at the Comedicate. Who are the same humans who run The Quarterly Retort (of which, the upcoming instalment I'll be a part of).Here's an in-depth chat with artsHub for their 'Artist Profile' about the show, my comedic heritage (or lack thereof) and a bit of a rant about comedy as well as music. You can read the full run-down here.

Last, but certainly not least. Are the brilliant ladies and gentlemen of Bon Vivant, a slick (and dare I say handsome) comedy website. I had an interview with the wonderful Daniel Hedger about the show, it's relationship to the blog (oh look, a mention) and the changes between the first show and The Difficult 2nd Album.

So there you have it, more than enough background and hopefully some LOLs to encourage you to come along and see the show. 

I'll be checking back with some more media updates as the season progresses and hopefully we'll be back to regular musical assessment once the festival subsides. Until then, hopefully I'll see you at Trades

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