SWAN Hill will welcome some of Australia’s funniest stand-up comedians early next month, when the Swan Hill Town Hall hosts the Melbourne Comedy Showcase.
Five of Melbourne’s finest comedy minds will take the stage from 7.30pm on August 2, bringing laughter with their amusing takes on life.
Melbourne comedy veteran Brad Oakes will host the two-hour show, as Dave O’Neil, Lehmo, Bron Lewis and Billy Stiles each bring their brand of comedy to town.
O’Neil told The Guardian the quintet would bring the laughs for audience members young and old.
“With the group of really funny comedians we’ve got coming up, there’ll be jokes and stories about almost everything,” he said.
“Lehmo has been doing stand-up for almost as long as me, but most people in the country still know him as Jim from Utopia or the Hawthorn fan from the football shows.”
He described Oakes as “a real veteran of Australian comedy who has a pretty unique comedy style that people will love”.
“Bron Lewis has really started to blow up on TV with things like Have You Been Paying Attention? She has some cracking stories about her time as a teacher.
“Then there’s Billy Stiles, who was a truck driver for 30 years before his sisters told him he was such a funny guy that he should give stand-up a crack.
“There’s a real variety of comedians at shows like this, so if you don’t like one of them you just have to wait for the next person to come on stage.”
After touring regionally over the decades of his career in comedy and radio, O’Neil said the best shows were often in front of audiences in regional towns.
“I think that the country audiences are always so much better,” he said.
“I’ve been touring regionally a fair bit lately, and they just really appreciate you coming out to entertain them.
“Farmers always make for a great audience – you just have to ask whose got the biggest farm around and who is eyeing off their neighbour’s farm.
“They can be very stoic though, and often sunburnt – but once you get them laughing, they usually stop staring you down.”
It also won’t be the first time O’Neil makes the trip to Swan Hill, having made the journey as part of the Massive Murray Paddle in his younger days.
“I was never a canoer, I left that to my friends – I was a part of the support crew and volunteering with the Red Cross,” he said.
“After the canoeing would conclude, we used to have a really big party on the Swan Hill Showgrounds oval, so maybe my memories aren’t that reliable.
“I do still get the Mallee and the Wimmera mixed up from time to time, which people seem to not like for some reason.
“But something I always look forward to when getting into the country is having the chance to check out the local bakeries.
“It’s either a really great experience or an absolutely terrible experience when you get into a small-town bakery – surely Swan Hill’s bakeries are good.”
O’Neill said the growth of comedy podcasts and online content meant “comedy has never been more accessible for people in rural areas”.
“Back in the ’80s, you’d be talking about things from the cities and some country audiences wouldn’t know what you were talking about,” he said.
“But now the rural audiences know exactly what you’re saying – like Swan Hill doesn’t have Uber, but it’s not like you don’t know what it is.
“When people come up to me after a show, it’s not about what they’ve just seen – now they come up and talk to me about The Junkees podcast I do with Kitty Flanagan.
“They bring me bags of Twisties because we talk about junk food, and I very much appreciate that.”
Melbourne Comedy Showcase tickets are on sale at swanhilltownhall.com/events/melbourne-comedy-showcase, at the town hall ticket office, or over the phone on 5036 2384.
