There are more than 300 acts at this year's Sydney Comedy Festival. Lenny Ann Low mines the program for some of the lesser-known names you should put on your list to see.
- PETER & BAMBI HEAVEN
Dance and magic power couple Peter and Bambi Heaven merge high-end exotic dancing, master illusion and extremely tight outfits in The Magic Inside, a celebration of delusion and unrestrained sexual attraction. And dancing. This spectacle of wardrobe malfunction, '80s soft rock, overblown stage conjuring and artistically libidinous gyrating is a smart and beautifully concocted spoof by Asher Treleaven, comic, and Gypsy Wood, burlesque performer, who created the show.
- THE KAGOOLS
Silent double-act Nicky Wilkinson and Claire Ford perform in the often tightly knotted hooded anoraks known in Britain as kagools, or cagoules. In Tutti, the Kagools speak nary a word on stage but deliver finely tuned, highly energetic physical comedy with facial expressions more elastic than a rubber band. Go see them for a masterclass in timing, in-sync performance and the ability to wordlessly induce audience participation with charm.
- BECKY LUCAS
In an episode of ABC-TV's recent comedy series Fancy Boy, Becky Lucas managed to steal the show playing the wife of a political candidate campaigning to raise the legal age of buggery to 25. Her performance was not showy but she turned Tracey Phillips, partner of Len, played by Greg Larsen, into a subtly simmering realist who finally quit the madness. Lucas, a "fervent tweeter" who wrote for Please Like Me and led ABC2 documentary Big Bad Love about domestic violence, will deliver sharp, self-critiquing stand-up in festival show Little Bitch.
- FRIDA DEGUISE
Deguise is billed as the only Australian stand-up wearing a hijab onstage and it's an important part of her show. First, it helps "hide the explosives" she says. After six years performing live comedy, Deguise deflects prejudice with bold, uncensored quippery. Her show AKA Wogan explores being Australian, a Muslim, a mum and the knack of marrying three different Lebanese mechanics.
- PAIGE HALLY & ALEX JAE
In Paige Hally & Alex Jae Are Garbage, two emerging comics mine self-deprecation with a passion verging on life philosophy. "We don't think we're awesome, and we're happy to tell you," Jae says. In a world full of people curating their career brilliance, personal grooming and adorable errors on social media and beyond, emerging comics Jae and Hally bare their shortcomings with unfiltered chutzpah.
Sydney Comedy Festival got underway on April 24 and continues to May 21.
- sydneycomedyfest.com.au