Next Show:
Anarchist Guild Social Committee Meeting no 5
Bella Union Bar, Trades Hall, Carlton
Sunday 19 October
5.30 - 7.30
$15 full/$10 concession or group

In Melbourne we have a habit of holding monthly events at very specific times, at very detailed locations, with very confusing exceptions. For example: ‘Fourth Tuesday of the month, seven-thirty pm, under the clock tower, excepting February in leap year, when we meet for dinner a day-and-a-half and an hour-and-a-quarter earlier at the John Curtin.’ This works fine as long as you and the others remember to turn up, the events remember to eventuate, and everything else is in working order.

For about five months now I’ve been going to a series of comedy shows at the Bella Union bar in the Victorian Trades Hall in Carlton, called ‘Anarchist Guild Social Committee Meetings’. I found out about them because a friend joined their group on Facebook. Now that I’ve joined the group too, Facebook reminds me when the next meeting is on, asks me sign up to it on the events calendar, sends me thank you emails after the event, courtesy of the Anarchists (and on one occasion a freebie to another Trades Hall show) and generally gives me the illusion of being an organised fellow who goes to see all the important theatre shows and knows all the important people. On Facebook.

‘Guild Meetings’ take the form of a one hour skit-comedy show performed by nine or so regular comedians, with a few other guest performers and musicians. The regulars have a delightfully economical approach to jokes. When they can’t find a good pun, a bad pun will do, and when they can’t find a bad pun, they do without and the lack of pun becomes the pun. They all wear white shirts and black pants; if they want to appear as a character, they’ll just put on a hat, or just hang a tag over their neck. (One of their good skits, ‘Meeting of Endangered Animals’, simply had a bunch of the regulars sitting around on chairs with the tags ‘whale’, ‘koala’, and so on, around their necks.)

The whole production seems in parts to be like a good long-running commercial skit comedy show, or an antipodean Monty Python. The show is opened with a credit sequence played by a projector onto a screen. They love humiliating one another (they’re performers, after all), so it’s no surprise that a few months ago they introduced each of the characters with a kind of ‘funniest home video’ sequence showing the performers hurting themselves. In between skits the performers bicker and make fun of one another - but it’s still funny. It’s all part of the script; these are just different skits with characters that more closely resemble the performers themselves. So really, more than anything else, it’s like the Muppet Show. If the Muppets drank beer, smoked, and occasionally had sex with one another, or at least wanted to.

I think the show is pretty fantastic, so I hope the performers don’t take it the wrong way when I say my favourite part of the show is the end. Not because I get to go home, but the show always ends with a succession of quick jokes played out as ‘previews’ of skits that ‘might’ happen next month. (They never do, but that’s maybe the best joke of all.) This might include anything from two guys kissing (punchline, if you could call it that: ‘IT IS WHAT YOU THINK!’) to jokes about Mafia-style hoodlums. I think it all works beautifully, because it gives you just enough time to figure out what the joke is, or should be, and then moves on - the performers never bother stretching a joke out over a whole show like others do sometimes in commercial skit comedy shows.

I’m not sure about how the show is put together, but the material is new every month. My guess is they just improvise the material at the start of the month and start writing the script down after that. Last month’s was actually the worst ‘Guild’ production I’ve seen, but that’s more likely due to the looming presence of the Melbourne Fringe Festival (most, if not all, of the performers had individual shows in the festival) than flagging inspiration.

Either way, I’ll be there this Sunday to find out. Probably at 4.30, because judging by the crowd last time, they’re getting more popular every month, and it’s pretty hard to buy a drink and find a comfortable seat unless you get there early.

And if you should happen to find yourself in Melbourne on the third Sunday of the month at 5.30 on the afternoon, near the Victorian Trades Hall in Carlton, then you could get along to the show too - if for no other reason than to make grandiose boasts to your friends afterwards: ‘I’ve just been to an anarchists’ meeting at the trades hall…’

Similar Posts:

• Melbourne: Rod Quantock @ Trades
• Might need a laugh after the Melbourne Cup?

Related show

• Region: Melbourne
• Date: Sunday, December 21st 2008
• Time: 5:30pm
• City: Comedy Guidein Carlton South, VIC
• Venue: Anarchist Guild Social Committee @ Trades
• Address: Trades Hall, Victoria Street, Carlton South
• Country: AU
• Admission: $15/$10