The Sydney Comedy Festival is one of the most anticipated moments on the Australian comedy calendar. Drawing in some of the biggest international and Australian comedy acts, there is generally something for everyone, with venues all around Sydney over the next few weeks. 

The Gala was held this year at the Enmore Theatre and MC’ed by Andrew Barnett, who did a fabulous job bringing the acts together, with some superb comedy of his own. His quips were relatable and generally connected well with the audience. This was something that was surprisingly lacking in some of the other acts though throughout the night. 

The thing about the SCF Gala nights is that they really do bring a mixed bag. Some of the acts are hilarious, some are fine and some leave you with a bitter taste that you’d rather avoid. This is understandable as comedy as a form is much more inherently subjective than other art forms and comedy that connects with one won’t necessarily connect with others. The point is to give a taster to encourage the audience to see some of the acts they liked in the Gala at the Festival. 

With discussion of the inherent subjectivity (and therefore, challenges in reviewing comedy) out of the way, I will begin by discussing some of my favourite acts throughout the night. 

For me, the star of the show was Larry Dean, who brought a unique brand of Scottish humour to the stage, monologuing about his recent autism diagnosis in a way that didn’t feel stereotyped or cliched. His timing was superb and he gave a genuinely exciting performance that intrigued a lot of people in the room, who I’m sure will be buying tickets to his solo show. 

Olga Koch also gave a superb account of her comedic brand in the small amount of time she had, joking about going to college in America and her background in computer science. While the source material was quite unique, Koch took it to another level making the delivery sound fresh as well. 

Schalk Bezuidenhout and Reuben Kaye were also some of the more assured performers on stage, both cracking clever and considered jokes that bordered on the provocative (plenty of sex jokes which definitely pushed the boundaries of some audience members but were incredibly funny to those whom the comedians were pitching). 

However, for me, some of the other acts fell a little flat. In particular, the musical comedy acts of Two Hearts and Aunty Donna didn’t really connect with the audience and left a fair bit to be desired with performances that didn’t really extend beyond the superficial. Other performers were not as assured in their delivery, meaning that it was hard to connect with their brands of comedy.

From an objective standpoint, another slightly problematic issue was that a number of the jokes overlapped, meaning that there was quite a lot of repetition. This would have been fine once or twice but it became a problem towards the end of the evening. The constant reminders that the show was being filmed also made the audience feel like a bit of an afterthought. 

Perhaps most problematic was the lack of diversity throughout the Gala. Comedy is one of the few genres of entertainment in the Australian landscape where issues of representation are not as pronounced so it was disappointing to see that the Gala was not representative of the diversity of the SCF line-up, especially among the Australian acts. This seems to be a recurring issue at SCF Galas, so it can only be hoped that attention will be given to amplifying a diverse range of comedic voices in the future. 

With that said, overall, this was a decent showing that showcased some of the acts that can be seen at the Sydney Comedy Festival. It wasn’t the most spectacular gala but there were certainly some exciting acts that would be a treat to see when the festival rolls around. 

Rating: ★★★

The Sydney Comedy Festival runs from 22^nd April to 19^th May. For more information, click here.