The Brisbane Comedy Festival ran in the Brisbane Powerhouse and finished in March 21.  For the first time in this festival, they utilised the Rooftop Terrace which allowed a place for a greater variety of artists to be programmed in the festival.  I have a chance to check out local, national and interstate acts such as:

• ·         Claudia O'Doherty in Monsters of the Deep 3D
• ·         Melinda Buttle in Sista Got Flow
• ·         Bulmers Best of Edinburgh Fringe Festival
• ·         Josh Earl in Josh Earl vs The Australian Women's Weekly Childrens Cakebook
• ·         Maeve Higgins and Nick Coyle
• ·         Des Bishop

The Brisbane Comedy Festival also had a Chalkboard series which allowed emerging and established acts to perform in front of an audience not to mention the usual Livewired program every Sunday.

Too often am I that type of person to dive straight into things, rather than dip my toe in the water, and this was the case with Brisbane Comedy Festival.  Other than DVD's and YouTube, I have never seen a live comedy act before (ie in festival format) unless we count in some of the comedy that was part of Brisbane Festival 2009.  Rather than see one or two, why not six or seven?  And so I did and I absolutely loved it!

One of my favourites was Melinda Buttle - she's pretty local and I really liked being able to easiliy sympathise with her.  Yes, I too used to work in that high school or yes, I too am pretty glad we have those cop cars in the Valley and I have been asked if I had a spare dollar/20 cents/note at some point.

My next favourite act was Josh Earl and his tiff against the Australian Women's Weekly Childrens Cakebook.  Again, the whole factor of being able to relate so easily and quickly to this comedian was the best factor.  Josh brings forward a cake mixture of his family stories, favourite cakes, and some tunes, played live, in the act.

Last, but not least, Des Bishop tied in very close with the Bulmers Best of Edinburgh Festival acts.  Bulmers brought out the most tears (of laughter) out of me but then again they were three guys with the last one armed with a glass of beer and a teddy bear.  Des managed to weave a serious story with his act skillyfully and in a way that also entertained us.

I felt that the best comedians were the ones that could look at life - at whatever mood, phase, or era it may be in - and to see the funny side of things and are able to tell the best stories about these while knowing that they may be exposing a vulnerable part of themselves in front of a group of strangers.

By Hannah Suarez