The Globalist: Laughing Matters

LAUGHING MATTERS

Published in Atlas (Etihad Airways inflight magazine), March 2020

Can comedy can make the world a better place? We speak with Melbourne International Comedy festival director Susan Provan to find out.

WHEN WE LAUNCHED Deadly Funny, Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s competition for new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander talent, 14 years ago, voices that were virtually unheard of in the less-than diverse comedy industry suddenly had a platform, a spotlight. Now, happily, festival programmers worldwide are starting to do the same. At last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Aboriginal Comedy Allstars – three of whom got their start in Deadly Funny – brought over an immersive show (audience members are guests at an aboriginal-Maori wedding) and absolutely smashed it. As the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing approaches (29 April), this year’s edition of Deadly Funny will have extra resonance. Maybe you’d say jokes don’t have a place among the vigils and reflections that will also be staged, but I disagree. These performers are on a mission to use their comedy to educate the world about issues affecting indigenous communities; after shows, I see lots of audience members hanging around to chat about the issues. In fact, I’d say good comedy can work in ways that other art forms can’t. By broaching the issues with humour and entertainment, it has much more impact than reading stories in newspapers. Yes, the material isn’t always entirely comfortable, but then the tension is broken with a joke – not to undermine the punch of the difficult topics, but to remind of our common humanity. No other art form, in my opinion, can do that as well as comedy.