Nestled within an immense covering of drab scaffolding in King St, the entrance to the Australian Institute of Music seemed like a tiny speck of light. The inside of the historic former Melbourne Wool Exchange building was a massive contrast: Bright and modern, with lifts to the high-ceilinged auditorium with excellent acoustics. It was a great venue for ‘All Star Musical Comedy Showcase with Greg Champion & Friends‘.
Rohan Windle was our very likeable MC for the evening, singing and joking around with us and himself — well, his pre-recorded self. Rohan was also educational, demonstrating how you can make a Jewish song by taking a nursery rhyme and playing it in a minor key, which then sounds like a Russian dance song if played at double speed while inserting ‘hey!’ at regular intervals.
Up next on stage, Stew Walker lived up to his title as ‘Dad joker’. What a disturbing treat it was to hear his ode to Frank Walker from National Tiles!
After Stew’s mellow performance, Geraldine Quinn pounced from the wings. So much fun, whether belting out a high-energy rock parody or describing a mysteriously artistic dog turd in Edinburgh.
As his fans would expect, Greg Champion sang some footy-related parodies, but non-footy fans will also find a lot to enjoy, whether it’s words of wisdom from Guru Bob or the way he closes out the show with the inverse of Stew’s national anthem tune with different words: national anthem words set to different tunes. (Amazingly, ‘Advance Australia Fair’ works better to almost any other tune than its official one.)
– Craig
It’s a show like this that reminds Craig Macbride of another benefit of travel: not having to hear ‘Frank Walker’ ads on the radio.
All Star Musical Comedy Showcase with Greg Champion & Friends was a two-show special at the 2017 MICF. However, you can see the awesome Geraldine Quinn in two other shows: Fox Poncing until 8 April at The Coopers Malthouse and Sunglasses at Night: The 80s Apocalypse Sing Along Cabaret on Mondays until 17 April at the Melbourne Town Hall.
The venue is accessible.
