[info]julesmond

, dave, myself and 

[info]vanilla_extreme

 went and saw ourselves some Fringe shows last night.

First, there was A Record or an OBE, written by mate [info]barrington (AKA Ben McKenzie), directed by another mate Scott Gooding and featuring both Ben and the very talented Rob Llyod.  It basically story about Graeme Gardner (Ben) and Tim Brooke Taylor (Rob) from the Goodies trying to cope with Bill Odie leaving the ensemble.  It’s a question of how do they continue making the Goodies, but with the two of them.

What starts as a comedy, gets a bit bitter sweet and sad toward the end.  The play goes for 30 minutes, which I thought was just about the perfect length for the show.  Ben abd Rob are just brilliant.  They don’t try an mimic both Graeme and Tim (though at times Ron can’t help himself but do Tim’s lady voice) and yet both performances are spot on.

A Record or an OBE is being performed at 80 Smith Street, Collingwood (bugger if I can remember the name of the pub).  The venue itself is the nookiest of crannies and the play is literally performed in a blue-stone fall out shelter.  Well, it might not be a fall-out shelter precisely, but… it’s small and intimate and very cool.

Highly recommended.

The other festival show we saw – though not Dave coz he’d seen it already – was Every Film Ever Made.

This show is just brilliant.  Starring Tegan Higginbotham (who does the best Gollum evah!), Adam McKenzie (no relation to Ben and whose Orlando Bloom is tears streaming from your eyes funny) and Rob Llyod (yes, I had 2 doses of him in one night and survived), Every Film Ever Made is exactly what it say on the tin.  It’s 3 people trying to perform every film.  It’s worth the admission price just for the… no… I don’t want to ruin it.  If you’re in Melbourne, go see it now.

And in between the two shoes, Jules and I spent some quality time with Dave and Mitch.  It was a really fun night.