Watch out Melbourne, the Gold Coast is coming for your comedy crown.
GC Laughs Festival, the glitter strip’s annual comedy festival, is coming to HOTA (Home of the Arts) to tickle funny bones and elicit guffaws with a line-up of 40 shows from March 15.
From homegrown comic talents to international performers, festival goers can expect a veritable smorgasbord of stories, humour and skits. Festival director Josh Armstrong says GC Laughs Festival will be a true celebration of mirth and merriment, providing comedy fans with a diverse array of headline shows, smaller performances and late-night gigs.
“We’ve been bringing the best of Aussie and international comedy to the Gold Coast for five years now and each year just keeps getting better,” Armstrong says. “This year the line-up is massive, showcasing the who’s-who of comedy royalty from right around Australia and the world. We can’t wait to welcome this bill of comedians to the Gold Coast for another massive year of laughs.
“We have more than 35 comedians performing across more than 30 shows across six chaotic, jam-packed nights. The past five years have seen more than 25,000 comedy fans flock to HOTA and we’re hoping to see even bigger numbers this year with most shows already at capacity and limited tickets remaining.”
The festival officially kicks off on March 15 with a gala hosted by Australian stand-up comedian and TV personality Rhys Nicholson. The evening will include a surprise line-up of performers to give audiences a taste of the hilarity to come throughout the festival. Nicholson is also in town to premiere his latest stand-up show, Huge Big Party Congratulations.
That same night also sees the return of hugely popular comic Dave Hughes, with his new show Fully Furnished offering more of his signature laconic humour, uniquely sardonic takes on everyday life and observational comedy. Also performing are Geraldine Hickey (Don’t Tease Me About My Gloves), Ballina native Alexandra Hudson (Making Lemonade), He Huang (Tiger Daughter vs. The World) and Heath Franklin, AKA Chopper (Not Here To F*ck Spiders).
Best known for her highly relatable mum monologues, Mel Buttle delivers her new show Not Here to Put Socks On Centipedes, while Felicity Ward unveils I’m Exhausting, her first new show in five years.
Also, Scottish comedienne Fern Brady performs I Gave You Milk To Drink, while Brisbane-based real-life couple Chris Martin and Taylor Edwards premiere their sketch comedy show, Date Night. The pair, who met while doing improvisational comedy more than a decade ago, made the decision to collaborate on a show in order to spend more time together.
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“When you’re a comedian, you spend a lot of your time doing gigs and travelling around, so between the two of us we rarely had a night off together,” Martin says. “We did what all healthy couples do and decided to write a show so we had to spend more time together.”
Edwards adds that audiences attending Date Night can expect “some pretty wild sketch comedy, some of it about dating and relationships, some weird situations and wild characters, some bad dancing and a lot of fun”. “We both love comedy that’s big, silly and a bit dumb,” she says.
Co-host of The Project Sam Taunton also brings his show How To Tie A Tie to Surfers Paradise while comedy legends The Umbilical Brothers make their GC Laughs debut with The Distraction, a performance which sees them blend live performance with the spectacle of cinema in a show that is simultaneously staged live and on the big screen.
GC Laughs Festival runs at HOTA, Surfers Paradise, March 15-23
hota.com.au
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