Sydney Comedy Festival 2013

Stephen K Amos - The Spokesman

Newtown

The out’n’proud UK comic has hosted TV, done documentaries, voiced animated characters, written an autobiography, toured like a madman and come up with a freakload of sweet lines... “We had one book: the phone book. I’ve read it, it wasn’t a great read: lots of characters, and in the end loads of Polish people turn up.”

Arj Barker

Newtown

He’s become a star worldwide thanks to his performance as Dave in both series of Flight of the Conchords, but we knew this US comic was something special from the get go. And he felt the same about us. "I didn’t ever expect that this would become the biggest part of my career," he told us recently, "but to be honest I feel right at home here ten years later. Maybe my sense of humour is similar to the Australian one. I am a bit dry and sarcastic, and I know you guys don’t mind a bit of that, but I never overanalyse anything."

Danny Bhoy

Sydney

He’s a regular visitor to our shores, but Bhoy’s finally starting to get the sort of US recognition he deserves. This might be the last we see of him for a while, but fortunately we have his new DVD Live at the Festival Theatre, filmed in Edinburgh, to keep us company after this visit.

Margaret Cho - Mother

Newtown

Margaret Cho has done many things in her comedy career – years of standup, albums, starred in sitcoms, portrayed Kim Jong-il on 30 Rock – but one of the constants has been her portrayal of her mother, Young-Hie Cho. And since her new show is entitled Mother, one might wonder if it’s non-stop thick Korean comedy accents. And the answer is “a bit.” Click through to read our interview with the comedy great.

Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds

Marrickville

You know him for his characters in classic Brit comedies The Young Ones and Bottom, but Adrian Edmondson has always pursued music as a parallel career, be it directing hyperbolic video clips or in heavy metal spoof band Bad News. For the past five years he’s fronted the Bad Shepherds – a folk band, right down to the reels and jigs, that covers punk classics – with albums Yan Tyan Tethera Methera! and By Hook or by Crook.

Alice Fraser

Marrickville

Sydney’s Alice Fraser has been doing her wordy, occasionally banjo-pickin’ comedy all over the world, but now she’s bringing it home for Alice Fraser Does Word Crime. We had a few words with Fraser ourselves... 

The Kransky Sisters

Chippendale

Mourne, Eve and Dawn return with more creepily familiar songs and downright peculiar stories.

Lawrence Leung

Marrickville

We have a very soft spot for Mr Leung, as a comic, a skeptic, a TV writer, a man who can do a Rubik’s Cube in 49 seconds while jumping from a plane – dammit, we just like him as a human being. But aren’t comedians meant to be the new rock stars?

Rhys Nicholson

Marrickville

Rhys Nicholson might be a new kid on the block, but with his sardonic sense of humour and quick wit (and shitload of profanities) he's already shaking up the comedy world. On the tailwind of winning the 2012 Time Out Sydney Comedy Festival Best Newcomer award, he's presenting his latest show Dawn of a New Error at this year's festival.

Randy is Sober

We’re not experts in puppet physiology, but should a creature made principally of felt even be drinking in the first place? Regardless, Randy has stepped away from his double act with flesh-and-blood comedian Sammy J for Randy is Sober, a solo show all about his new sobriety. “When I did stop drinking,” he says, “I suddenly found I had all this spare time on my hands – time I’d normally spend wrapped around the cool enamel of a toilet bowl in a pool of my own chunder, for example.”