COVID-19 quite literally killed the laughter this month after the threat of the virus caused Melbourne International Comedy Festival to cancel just over a week before it was due to start.
Since then an increasing number of us have been encouraged to social distance – a term that is surely a frontrunner for the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year. Luckily this pandemic has hit in the 21st century, a time marked by online streaming services available without having to interact with a single human.
Ten of the biggest Australian names that had been booked for MICF 2020 have just announced stand-up specials streaming via Amazon Prime. The line-up of Aussie comedians includes Zoë Coombs Marr, Judith Lucy, Celia Pacquola, Anne Edmonds, Tom Walker, Tommy Little, Lano and Woodley, Dilruk Jayasinha, Alice Fraser and Tom Gleeson.
Two specials will be released every week starting Friday, April 10. The comedy specials were even filmed right here in Melbourne at Malthouse Theatre so you can pretend, for a bright, shining moment, that everything is back to normal.