I'm very pleased to be featuring at what is one my favourite regular readings in Melbourne. My good friend Geoff Lemon puts a lot of work into curating these events and the big audiences who attend these readings, (always 100 plus) are testament to that.
Here's what Geoff has to say about this one...
This is not quite the final Wordplay - there are still two more after this. But it is my last one before I take off to South America. And given I've breastfed and hand-raised this baby for the past three years, I've taken the egomaniac liberty of giving myself some stage time to say farewell.
But for the healthy proportion of you who think I'm a knob, there's far more reason to come down given the starpower wattage of everyone else on this line-up. This is beyond stellar. This is interstellar. Like Stanley Kowalski. We have:
PEZ
This Melbourne MC has had a meteoric rise to fame over the last 12 months, with his Festival Song becoming by far the biggest Australian hip-hop hit since 2003. It's had 2.6 million plays on Myspace alone, as well as getting hammered on national radio. Pez is a cunning and passionate lyricist, with a well-established fondness for the a cappella side of hip-hop. The first time I saw him play, he was rapping a cappella to 6000 drunk dudes from the main stage at Pyramid Rock. And he was good enough to make them love it. I think he can handle us.
FELICITY WARD
Another quick rise to stardom, this time in the field of comedy. Felicity Ward's Ugly as a Child Variety Show was a huge hit at the last Melbourne Comedy Festival, and now she's just got back from a successful assault on the massive Edinburgh Fringe (a festival, not a hairstyle. "For God's sake get rid of that Edinburgh fringe, Felicity!" This year alone she's appeared on Spicks and Specks, Good News Week, and Thank God You're Here. She will make you laugh in all the right places and cringe in all the wrong ones.
SEAN M. WHELAN
We love this guy. With his winding, gently spoken stories of a world just a bit more surreal than our own, he's entranced thousands over the years. Sean is the co-creator of the massively successful Liner Notes series (their recent Thriller gig sold out the Toff). He created the brilliant poetry/rock crossover with The Mime Set, and is back in that field with new project The Interim Lovers. Wonderful.
GEOFF LEMON
This guy talks a lot. Seriously. On the plus side, you get at least twelve months off after this. To celebrate, I'm going to perform my least-performed poem, the epic hymn to wasted ravers, dodgy ecstasy-fuelled fashion, and hilariously misspent youth that I call Point Me to the Gods. Bring your phat pants. And something to chew.
Wordplay has been a phenomenon, and you've all been amazing in your support. So I'd love my final show to go off with a bang, and to see a giant sea of all your faces having a damn good time in the crowd. Forward the invite if you can, and try to think up at least one uncultured slob who you can drag along. Or just find a lost kandy raver in the Carlton Gardens and bring them.
It's been real.
Love.
Date:
Thursday, 08 October 2009
Time:
20:00 - 22:30
Location:
The Dan O'Connell Hotel (back bar).
Street:
Corner Canning and Princes Streets, Carlton (between Nicholson and Lygon)
Town/City:
Melbourne, Australia
