Colin Lane and Frank Woodley, of comedy duo Lano and Woodley, recalled a near-disastrous fire during their first Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) show in 1987. While performing at The Last Laugh in Collingwood, a towel thrown onto a bar heater caught fire, threatening the acrylic-painted backdrop. ‘That whole place would have gone up very, very quickly,’ Lane said. Woodley added that he still has nightmares about the incident.
Woodley also remembered an unhinged improvisation where he stepped onto a table and was hit in the head by a ceiling fan. ‘Luckily, I didn’t get decapitated – though that would have made a much better story,’ he joked. The festival had only about six shows that year; Woodley was 19 and is now 58.
Aaron Chen shared that during his first MICF show at the Swiss Club, his uncle Len suffered a heart attack from laughing and had to go to emergency. ‘What an attention seeker uncle Len was!’ Chen said. ‘He’s never been able to come to a show since, just in case he died.’
Wil Anderson described a Great Debate at Town Hall where he invoked the biblical camel-through-a-needle metaphor. The director secured a real camel, which Anderson rode on stage. ‘He pronated, I climbed on his back. Then he slowly stood up and I think my head touched the roof,’ Anderson said. The camel looked ‘pissed off’, he added.
Urzila Carlson, who has performed 30 consecutive MICF shows, recalled her first year supporting Canadian musical group Corky and the Juice Pigs. They challenged her to insert the line ‘I like tits, but I’m really an arse man’ into her set. ‘To this day, it was probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do,’ she said.
The festival, which began in 1987, has grown from a handful of shows to a major event. Comedians praised its longevity and impact. ‘We’re so lucky to have it,’ Woodley said.
