Sydney Comedy Festival and The Black Seeds-Arts Monday with Margaux Dombkins
Mick Meredith, Ben Ellwood, Dane Hiser will make us laugh. My first guest: Mick Meredith is in the finest form of his career and his show ‘The Jokerist’ is Mick’s story so far – a rapid-fire comical commentary of stories, songs, gags and guitarings.
Mick is a joke raconteur and singer/guitarist and after 25 years of being a musician and comedian in Sydney pubs and clubs he is all set to smash this years Sydney Comedy Festival. Adding a bit of sweetness to proceedings, Mick will be joined onstage by singer/songwriter Kylie Whitney.
From playing in bands at the Hopetoun and Annandale in the 1980s to starting Comedy at Harold Park Hotel in the late 1990s, Mick has performed all over TV, radio and the world including a dozen appearances on the NRL footy show and three tours with the armed forces.
Shows: 9th, 10th, 11th May – Happy Endings Comedy Club
My second guest: After years of procrastinating and putting it off, I, Ben Ellwood (Comedy Zone, Triple J, ABC) is doing his first solo festival show. Ben’s show is about WORK – “It’s the one thing we hate the most and the thing we spend most of our lives wrapped up in. Be you a butcher, a baker or a Chippendale stripper grinding for a middle-aged hens party, most of us think that going to work is the pits. Well I do anyway”. Ben’s had 23 jobs and in this show he will talk about all of them to all of you. – Tales from a decade trapped in the wage slave hell of retail and café work. Unbelievable true stories about working on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Super Nanny tips from Ben’s years as a party clown and dog trainer. And sacking after sacking after sacking. “It’ll be hilarious, I promise. Plus, if the show’s a success I’ll be able to use the ‘it was for art’ excuse to justify a lot of terrible life choices”.
Shows: 2nd, 3rd, 4th May – Factory Theatre Container
My third guest: A well known ‘threat to himself and others’, Dane Hiser brings his debut solo show to the Sydney Comedy Festival, following a successful debut at the Fringe last year.
Praised by some of comedy’s finest, Dane has made his mark on the Sydney comedy club circuit and is taking his unique brand of ‘cocky self-deprecation’ to festivals.
Dane tell tales of midgets, nanna trolleys, boxercise classes, ill conceived ‘parental guidance’, potential restraining orders and self imposed house arrest. Dane shares his experience and ‘wisdom’ in the hope that you can one day be as awesome as he is.
Shows: 8th, 10th May – Factory Theatre The Match Box
For more info and bookings: www.sydneycomedyfest.com.au
My next Guest is Barnaby Weir guitarist and vocalist, The Black Seeds – one of New Zealand’s finest bands, who have carved out their reputation on the back of mulit-platinum selling albums, and a masterful live show that has been filling dance floors across the globe for over a decade.
While firmly based in the island grooves that inspired the birth of the band over a decade ago, The Black Seeds’ sound casts a wide net, layering funk, soul, Afrobeat, and other eclectic elements over their dub/reggae foundations. It’s “contemporary groove music with influences from soul, funk and reggae rhythms – and even rock on their latest album ‘Dust and Dirt’.
Rolling Stone – “The best reggae band in the world right now’’, The Black Seeds supremely danceable live show infuses raw energy and good vibes wherever they go making the band a regular fixture at the world’s leading music festivals.
Clash Music, UK – “one of the best reggae acts on the planet”
The 2012 release of latest album ‘Dust And Dirt’ marked an exciting new chapter for the band capturing The Black Seeds characteristic brand of reggae-funk fusion at its most authentic and fundamental.
From the get go the trippy album opener ‘Out of Light’ with it’s shimmering keyboards and trippy vocals showcases a reinvigorated band with a more expansive sound. ‘Loose Cartilage’, inspired in part by an AC/DC concert starts with a beast of a riff before slipping into a funk-laden Black Seeds groove.
The chilled-out disco dub of ‘Don’t Turn Around’, born out of a spontaneous jam before rehearsal, and the blaring horn line and varied use of instrumentation on ‘Love Me Now’, are testament to a band at the top of their game, revelling in their new found creative freedom.
Released worldwide through the bands own label Proville Records, the album received widespread acclaim, debuting at number 1 in the New Zealand album charts and topping reggae charts around the world.
Originally formed back in 1998, The Black Seeds are led by the vocals of Barnaby Weir and Daniel Weetman. Lyrically their music expresses messages on different levels. Personal triumphs and failures, relationships good and bad, give a personal insight into the lives of the musicians. Ultimately though, their songs are always under-pinned with an underlying positivity and optimism.
Friday 26th April – Selinas Coogee Bay Hotel
For more info: www.theblackseeds.com
I look forward to your company at 10.30am – 12.00pm
Margaux