The Comic's Lounge

We went to The Comic’s Lounge on Friday since Jo had some tickets for a discounted price. I agreed to go since it only cost $6.50, despite some reservations due to the last comedy festival act that I went to where it was so boring. That previous comedy act was by Peter Berner and it was really not funny. It was also uncomfortable as the crowd was rather quiet and it wasn’t cheap either, at about $30. That was some money not well spent.

However, I’m very pleased to say that The Comic’s Lounge is some of the funniest entertainment I’ve been to and it was so worth the money. Apparently, the normal cost is about $25, and even at that price I would still go back. The night was awesome and I had heaps of fun.

Jo, Phuong and I traveled by car to The Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne to meet Kin and Rowena who had arrived earlier. We grabbed some quick food, really bad sushi from a Chinese sushi take away. Then we ate the sushi out in the cold tables outside the shop. If I had known that the Comic’s Lounge a)served food and b)served humungous servings for a decent price, I wouldn’t have eaten and just ate inside. Not to worry, I now know for the next time, as there will be a next time.

The Comic’s Lounge is a huge upstairs room, with a bar at one end, the stage at the other, and all these tables in between. You are seated at a table with your friends. This was a great environment as it was very comfortable. You get a drink from the bar at any time and drink it at your table where you can talk to your friends as well as listen to the comedians. They also serve snack foods, like nachos, wedges, chips etc. The servings are so big that one serve will fill you up even if you hadn’t eaten dinner. The comedy started at 8:20pm and four acts plus the host later, it ended at 11:30pm. There are breaks in between some of the acts.

The comedians that we saw that night were from memory, David Hallin (surname possibly mispelt), Chris Bennett (a special appearance since he happened to be at the club), headline act Gab Rossi, and headline act Tahir (Habibi from the SBS show Pizza). I forgot the hosts’ name but he did short gigs in between the acts and then introduced them. All the comedians were hilarious and I didn’t stop laughing all night. My favourite was Gab Rossi, since he combined music into his act as well and I love music. Some of his songs were so funny I hurt my stomach laughing. But all the acts were great, with the common theme from all comedians on the night being Australia’s multiculturalism, or more precisely, ethnic stereotypes. The stereotypes were very true, and I being ethnic myself, didn’t find anything offensive. I was there for a laugh and knew it was just jokes, not like one guy who got upset when Tahir started joking about circumcision. He said it was not relevant, and Tahir’s hilarious comeback was that, he was Turkish and was circumcised, so it was relevant. Tahir’s impersonation of a Vietnamese accent cracked our table up the most, since all of us have Vietnamese friends or are Vietnamese and could relate to how accurate the observations and accent was. I guess that is what separates a good comedian from a bad one, the good ones are great observers and can pick up on something that we all see and hear but may not perceive in another way.

I definitely recommend you go along to the Comic’s Lounge. I think you have to pre-book for tables and it’s very busy so you can’t just rock up expecting there to be room, not on a weekend anyway.