Neighbours shoot some scenes at Local Laughs in St Kilda

Nieghbours actor James Mason.

Sam Simmons is filming a behind-the-scenes doco on Neighbours so last Monday at Local Laughs the audience were very happy to join in on some filming where actor James Mason (who plays Chris Pappas - the first recurring character on Neighbours who is openly gay) heckled Sam. "If you think it's so easy why don't YOU try it??" said Sam, taunting James until he took to the stage and delivered a few punchlines to rapturous laughter and cheers. Then when Sam tried heckling James we all booed him. Great fun.

Cold weather the last two weeks has seen audiences hibernating at little but tonight's lineup warrants braving the crappy weather and coming down to see Jimmy James Eaton (HILARIOUS), Gatesy from Tripod doing solo standup, Anne Edmonds (banjo playing dag), UK's Neil Sinclair and very funny newcomer Fabian Lapham.

June 11 - LOCAL LAUGHS 9th BIRTHDAY! (Can you believe it?) Huge lineup - MC Dave Callan, Justin Hamilton, Lawrence Leung, Elbowskin, Luke McGregor, Dingo & Wolf, Geraldine Hickey

Neighbours actor James Mason, Sam Simmons and camera guy..

Comedy Festival 2012 has started and Local Laughs is in on the act

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2012 has started and Local Laughs at The Local Taphouse is again part of the excitement.

On Tuesdays 2nd, 9th and 16th in April, Local Laughs will be featuring all the usual hilarity as a bunch of stand up comedians grace the stage. What's different during Comedy Festival week, however, is everything seems amped up a little and we regularly get extra special (some international) guests popping in without fanfare.

These shows often get packed so get in early, get your tickets at the door, have a bite to eat and join in the fun!

Click here to find all the listings for Local Laughs (well, the ones we can tell you about.

TV's Alan Davies drops in to Local Laughs

Last night at Local Laughs in St Kilda, Alan Davies of QI and Jonathon Creek fame test-drove material for his upcoming tour. This sort of special treat occurs from time to time at Local Laughs so make sure you come down on Monday nights!

Oh, and Julian brought in an 'Air Swimmer' at the end of the night. It's a helium filled shark with moving tail which operates by remote control so it swims through the air. Very cool!

Local Laughs - the world's best comedy?

Our Local Laughs Monday comedy night run by Janet A McLeod for nigh on a century (well, almost) has received regular and deserved plaudits as a leading comedy room in Melbourne. Here is another fantastic glowing endorsement by none other than Sammy J which appeared in Qantas' Guide to the World's Best Comedy.

To be kept in the loop with all the weekly lineups, check out Local Laugh's Facebook page.

Local Laughs EIGHTH BD reminder for Monday night

Don't forget. Local Laughs turn EIGHT on Monday night. Come along and join in the celebrations.

Read Justin's witty blog post about the occasion here.

Local Laughs 8th Birthday Bash!!! Queens Birthday Monday

Melbourne's longest running comedy night, Local Laughs, is turning 8 years old!!!

Thats right - its 8. When it kicked off in 2003, Australia was busy winning the cricket world cup, Brisbane completed their AFL premiership hat trick, the Concorde took its final flight, that crazy comedian Hu Jintao became the president of China and the US were flat out catching Saddam, God bless their cotton socks.

Apart from Local Laughs being easily the funniest thing to happen in 2003, a few people had some funny stuff to say throughout the year...

"I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman." -Arnold Schwarzenegger

"George Bush was not elected by a majority of the voters in the United States. He was appointed by God." –Lt. Gen. William Boykin, the defense undersecretary in charge of hunting down top terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan

"We know there are known knowns: there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns: that is to say we know there are things we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." –Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

On that note, you should know that we know that this Queens Birthday Monday is going to be a hoot at Local Laugh's 8th birthday bash.

That it will be funny is definitely a known known as opposed to a known unknown or an unknown known, or indeed an unknown unknown, which of course, would be the ones we don't know - that much we know we know.

So you should really just turn up and laugh. There might even be cake - that's a known unknown.

Doors Open 7.30pm. $12 entry.

See you there.

Standup Stars of beer video at Local Laughs Monday night

Did you see the video we posted of comedians Elbow Skin promoting the Good Beer Week? Well, you should check it out - it's tres funny.

Then, come along to check out Elbow Skin and others in the flesh at Monday night's Local Laughs (see poster above) which is coincidentally our first event of Good Beer Week..

Coopers Local Laughs - Great first night

Brad Oakes

Rather than tell you about the first night of Coopers Local Laughs in Darlinghurst myself, I'll let Gaggingforit.com.au explain!

Review: Cooper’s Local Laughs Aug 2nd ‘09

This was the opening night for a new comedy room in Sydney – Cooper’s Local Laughs at The Local Taphouse on the corner of South Dowling and Flinders Streets, Darlinghurst. Always keen to look at a new room, I went along.

First: the pub. It used to have another name, but now it’s The Local Taphouse and it offers an extensive range of boutique beers (including a tasting paddle for the dedicated) and a funky menu of snacks and full meals. (There is another The Local Taphouse pub in St Kilda which hosts Melbourne’s longest-running independent comedy room under the name Cooper’s Local Laughs, and this Local Laughs comedy room is a spin-off from that.) The ticket price for the show includes two half-price Coopers beers – happy days.

The performance takes place in the front bar which has some couches and sofa-chairs near the front, along with some high tables and stools along the sides and some more normal seating in rows in the middle. The room is a wedge-shape leading to the stage right in the street-corner of the building. This means great sightlines, although the sound tends to splash around a bit towards the back of the room near the bar, which makes some words a little unclear there even when the front rows can hear them perfectly. So, get there early and get a seat up front if you want to get every punchline.

The planned opening night line-up was a corker, and despite a hitch with the booked MC being a no-show due to flight delay problems it was still a great night. It’s just as well that room organiser Jacques Barrett has plenty of MC experience, as he had to step in at the last minute. The audience made him work hard at the start, but he had them starting to warm by the end of his set. Englishwoman abroad Julia Clark was the next to take them on with her rapidfire wryness on her new country and the foibles we share. She and Raw Comedy finalist Rodney Todd’s more relaxed free-form style had the audience smiling and chuckling happily but not really letting the guffaws run free. Melburnian veteran Brad Oakes closed the first half with a set that finally broke through the audience’s reserve with his sheer gag per minute rate and his challenge to them to step up and think even though it was a Sunday night – they couldn’t hold out any more and willingly followed him for the ride.

After the break a younger Melburnian comic, Geraldine Hickey took the stage with her dark cynicism contrasted with delightful recountings of romantic bogan dalliances – so nice to see a comedian having fun with sexual stories instead of being insecure about it. The audience were really enjoying themselves by now. Then birthday boy David Smiedt alternated his slyly charming anecdotes with riffing off audience answers to his questions, followed by Nick Sun’s anarchic and always surprising comic musings, to finish the night off with the relentlessly taking-logic-to-absurdist-extremes one-liners of Bruce Griffiths. It may take the audience a few beats to fully follow Griffiths’ train of thought, but the response is all the bigger for it.

The audience left the pub happy, appreciative and vowing to return another week. Which is very much what this room needs – some regulars who help get everybody else in the room ready to have a fine old time with the comedians. Once the word gets around about the highly appealing beer-food-comedy combination, I don’t think regulars will be any problem, especially since the early start at 7-ish means that it’s all over before 10pm so that everybody can manage to start back to work on the next day. Good planning, that. Highly recommended.

Coopers Local Laughs...Coming to Sydney!

Sydney’s only Sunday night of comedy is coming to the Local Taphouse in Darlo, spinning off from Melbourne’s longest-running independent comedy room.

Come down and see some of Australia’s best new comics mix it with the local pros and touring international stars. Opening show is August 2nd with Dave Williams to MC and a kickass gala style lineup.

Here's the line up for the first night:

Julia Clark
Dave Williams
Rodney Todd
Nick Sun
Geraldine Hickey
Brad Oakes
Bruce Griffiths.

Bruce Griffiths

Date:	Sunday, August 2, 2009
Time:	7:00pm - 9:30pm

$10 entry includes 2 half price Coopers!

$10 menu downstairs.

For more info and to keep up to date, check out the Facebook site here.

Local Laughs Turns FIVE!

Amazingly, Coopers Local Laughs (our standup comedy night) is turning FIVE next Monday! All credit must go to Janet McLeod (pictured) who passionately organises the night each week. Next week's celebratory lineup: MCs are Mr Nightlights (Oliver Clark) and El Grande (Andrew McClelland), plus Celia Pacquola, Xavier Michaledes, Geraldine Hickey (1st comic on at our 1st show), Mat Kenneally and more.

For more about Coopers Local Laughs, visit the Myspace site.