Same-sex marriage – why bother?
InReview
This is the third consecutive year I have reviewed the Feast Comedy Debate, and I can’t say that I’m sick of it yet. The reason this format works so well is because it’s short and sharp. The speakers get only five minutes each to state their case.
This year the theme was Same sex marriage – why bother?
The affirmative team included high-energy twunk (former twink – ie young gay guy) Nath Valvo, laidback lesbian and self-proclaimed bogan Geraldine Hickey, and outrageously in-between drag queen Malt Biscuit. The negative team was led by the dynamic and hilarious Lori Bell. She was backed by the a-little-too-serious Sally Goldner from Melbourne and up-and-coming star Thomas Jaspers.
In debates like these, the performers tend to be slightly crazy on stage, and this one was no exception. Malt Biscuit dressed up as a bride. MC Catherine Fitzgerald, who also happens to be the artistic director of Feast, sang a song about marriage. Valvo rang his mum, who has turned 61, to ask what she wanted for her birthday. Her answer? Marriage equality, of course. Plenty of valid arguments were paraded by both sides, alongside highly eclectic ones.
To strong applause, Valvo suggested marriage equality was like Clive Palmer’s heart attack: “You don’t know when it’s going to happen, but it’s inevitable.” Bell, on the other hand, suggested people don’t get married for love; they just do it to f*** without guilt.
After Malt paraded around in the wedding dress, Jaspers asked if he/she was available for gay weddings. Malt answered “yes” in a deep voice, to which Jaspers cleverly retorted: “That’s a good reason against.”
Overall, the team against marriage equality was, as Bell so eloquently put it, “pushing shit uphill”, and was hardly expecting to win. But MC Fitzgerald and the voting audience had a different idea, rewarding both teams for excellent debating by giving them a stubby holder each and a shared victory.
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The Feast Comedy Debate was a one-off event at The Blender, Fowlers Live. Lori Bell will perform solo at the Nexus Theatre tonight in her comedy show One Naughty Night. Nath Valvo and Thomas Jaspers are also in Twunks (past tense of twinks) Live! – a night of “stand-up, music and booze” – at The Blender, Fowlers Live, from November 21-23.
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