Hosted by the cleverly clean and keen Ryan Hamilton, this show was a lovely showcase of comics from both halves of the planet.
Australian superstar Dave Hughes amused the crowd with some material about going to a hipster restaurant, getting a vasectomy, and his seven-year-old son figuring out that he got a wife who's out of his league thanks to his fame. Hughes barely moved around the stage, but he didn't need to: his assertive tone was engaging on its own, and adding movement on top of that voice would have probably made him intimidating.
Tone Bell followed the Australia's Got Talent judge by laughing about his father's DVD collection and how his black father had transformed into a Filipino man as he got older. He initially seemed a bit unlikeable because he started his set by genuinely saying "Give it up for me," but fortunately his material was enjoyable enough to completely eclipse that cocky moment.
Following Bell, the energetically adorable Jackie Pirico stumbled through the first few minutes of her set, but she found her stride as she closed with a bit where she acted out what it would be like if baby talk was realistic.
Rick Glassman stepped up the game of the whole show with his absurdist set making fun of political correctness and bro-like behaviour in one fell swoop. His scattered yet calculated series of alternative punch lines was disorienting in the funniest way possible, plus his gag where he brought a puppet on stage only to not use it was fantastic.
Matt O'Brien was also fun to watch, with his animated bit about drinking wine and his joke about how no one good is called Spencer. Danny Bhoy was entertaining with his wisecracks about captchas and his iPhone telling him it was overheating.
Throughout the whole show, Ryan Hamilton's hosting was charismatic and professional, and his material was consistently comical. His observational bit where he talked about becoming an uncle with the smugness of a new parent was uncomplicated yet brilliant, while his anecdote about being on the subway in New York with a man who was openly smoking crack was also very funny in a surprisingly light-hearted way.
Australian superstar Dave Hughes amused the crowd with some material about going to a hipster restaurant, getting a vasectomy, and his seven-year-old son figuring out that he got a wife who's out of his league thanks to his fame. Hughes barely moved around the stage, but he didn't need to: his assertive tone was engaging on its own, and adding movement on top of that voice would have probably made him intimidating.
Tone Bell followed the Australia's Got Talent judge by laughing about his father's DVD collection and how his black father had transformed into a Filipino man as he got older. He initially seemed a bit unlikeable because he started his set by genuinely saying "Give it up for me," but fortunately his material was enjoyable enough to completely eclipse that cocky moment.
Following Bell, the energetically adorable Jackie Pirico stumbled through the first few minutes of her set, but she found her stride as she closed with a bit where she acted out what it would be like if baby talk was realistic.
Rick Glassman stepped up the game of the whole show with his absurdist set making fun of political correctness and bro-like behaviour in one fell swoop. His scattered yet calculated series of alternative punch lines was disorienting in the funniest way possible, plus his gag where he brought a puppet on stage only to not use it was fantastic.
Matt O'Brien was also fun to watch, with his animated bit about drinking wine and his joke about how no one good is called Spencer. Danny Bhoy was entertaining with his wisecracks about captchas and his iPhone telling him it was overheating.
Throughout the whole show, Ryan Hamilton's hosting was charismatic and professional, and his material was consistently comical. His observational bit where he talked about becoming an uncle with the smugness of a new parent was uncomplicated yet brilliant, while his anecdote about being on the subway in New York with a man who was openly smoking crack was also very funny in a surprisingly light-hearted way.
