AliceFraser

Numbers

MICF 2016 Breakdown. 0 nervous breakdowns; 24 Shows performed; 16 other people's shows watched; 1x Max Watts Festival Club spot. $180 worth of snacks for my audiences including; 19 x 1kg bags of organic carrots; 14 brown rice avocado hand-rolls from Yoyogi (for me). 18 x delightful audiences, 5 x quiet but pleasant theatrical style audiences, 1 x confused and off-tempo audience with the chatty front row who made me miserable which included the guy who weirdly walked out twice, my own failu...

Which one thing is not like the other thing?

It's amazing to me how different the same show can be, two nights in a row. Like, it's mainly the same words, in mainly the same order - I'm telling the same story in the same room to the same number of people at the same hour of night, the LIGHTS are the same - you've removed so many possible variables from the scenario, but the difference between tonight's show and last night's was vast. From my first sentence last night, the room felt heavy, tense, hostile - the audience members who seeme...

They can't all be good.

There had to be one. Statistically. One with weird persistent chatty front row hecklers who offer to be your dad then one leaves and then comes back and then storms out 25 mins in. Also festival judges in. I think the show was not the show they expected to see. Which is fine. But tonight was a bit heartbreaking, because the show, (when I do it right) is a really nice shared wrestle with some big ideas and some rough trust falls and some warm feelings and some sad bits. And hopefully a whole...

Elbow Tree

Monday I had a day off and walked in the park with my friend Laura Davis, and there was a tree that looked like an elbow. That was good. Aside from that, the show is going very well. My biggest problem is wrestling comps for artists who want to come and see the show. If you don't know the logistics of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival comps and holds system, don't worry, it's mildly elaborate. As follows: Your tickets go on sale. You have a few (in my case, three) producer holds, w...

Worryingly nice

Hey Punks! Isn't it weird how we tend to think the universe balances itself out? That when bad things happen we assume they'll get better just out of fairness. Equally, when things go very well I immediately begin to worry about when and how they'll go horribly wrong. Which is to say, MICF is going very well, thankyou, and I'm very relaxed and happy and it's making me feel strange. I've been full every night, with maybe one empty chair and most nights fully sold out. I've got some very lovel...

The Micfening

Oh hi punks Hope you're all doing well. I'm in the kind of cold sweat you get when your email alerts you that you've got a thing in your inbox from the people who tell you about your ticket sales. Will the numbers have moved? Will I feel elated or dashed by the wonky columns my phone refuses to justify, so that every list of ticket sales is like a coded letter to decipher out my incremental victory or defeat? How stressful! It's the hardest bit, because to be realistic (aside from flyering my...

Rape jokes are funny...

... ... or not. Depending. The point is (and I've made this point before) that people who have opinions about the political or social impact of a joke shouldn't focus on whether it's funny or not. It's a distraction, a conflation, an irrelevance, and worse, refutable. If you're attacking a comedian for telling a joke by telling them it isn't funny, they can point to all the people who've laughed at the joke, even if you didn't. If they have any experience or skill on stage, they're unlikely ...

Much Ado About Women

I was really pleased to be asked to chair a session at the Opera House's All About Women event, part of their Ideas at The House series. The session they brought me in for was Mallory Ortberg's talk, "The Happy Feminist", and I loved it (I love her work, and I thought the topic was an interesting one to engage with, which indeed Mallory proved). There were a few things about the whole experience that were really interesting to me. I will talk about them now. 

1) Mallory Ortberg was lo...

This is what Brendon Burns looks like

So I've come to the end of the Adelaide Fringe. I feel like it's been an odd journey - having been grieving for so long had the side effect of making me feel quite numb to the ups and down of performance life. The highs and lows. This festival I've been up and down at the whims of audiences from one night to the next or from one show to the next. Which is objectively dumb. I tell myself (at least) that I don't want to be serving up comedy that everyone enjoys - that it's impossible to please...

Upsides, downsides

So, the upside of being at a festival is that I get to meet and talk to a lot of interesting comedians, and try to get them on the podcast. The downside is that I have less time and less reliable wifi, and as I'm in a new city I don't have ...

Hot Prep

Hi Punks

Tonight's the night I launch The Resistance at Adelaide. This means back to regular pod-output, as my panic levels will have stopped red-lining. 

Why did I decide I wanted to add a tiny piano to my show? Who th...

Legs 11

I did mention over on my twitter (@aliterative if you don't already follow me there) that listening to music these days gives me goosebumps. Here is photo-proof that my metaphors are ALWAYS literal and exact. I'm not going to tell you what song this was, because it's mildly embarassing. 

I am just back in Melbourne from the beautiful Perth FringeWorld, and have done my first trial show of The Resistance (coming soon to 2016-02-06 12:07:19 +0000 UTC View Post

Fringe Life

Looking at this foot-painting scene from the floor of the fringeworld artist services section of the state library raises a few thoughts for me. First, my legs aren't really this pale, blame the lighting. Secondly and more importantly I'm not sure if I fit in with the whole fringe thing. On one hand, maybe that is the fringe thing - not fitting in to any other category. On the other hand, I don't want to talk to only people who are on the outside. I want to talk to everyone and make everyone ...

Perth FringeWorld and Prompts

Hallo Punks!

Hope your new year has been going along at a good pace, and you haven't completely given up on all your fresh and excellent plans. I'm trying to do monthly resolutions, to give myself a better chance of sticking them out, with the only problem being that I sometimes don't notice when the month has finished. 

It's still January though (right?) so I don't have to worry yet! 

Thanks to everyone who has written nice things to me after coming to The Mo...

Creative Scrambles

Hallo Punks! So 2016 is well underway, and I'm in the middle of churning out some big and medium sized projects, slightly overwhelmed by my workload. The Resistance is shaping up for the festivals, and I have some glorious Tea With Alice guests in the works. That said, I've been thinking about how much I love limits and briefs and suggestions and the kind of grit that makes pearls and YOU GUYS and I thought a fun thing to do for my birthday (Burmese and hobbit style giving rather than getting...

Down with 2015! Long live 2016!

Hallo Punks! 

So, 2015! That was a big year. A lot of things happened, and I won't try to sum them up, but I'll try to count ten to give you a bit of a picture of everything that happened. I'd hyperlink it all, but I can't figure that out. 

1) I wrote and performed a show called Savage, which got lots of nice reviews. 

2) I did a regular column for SBS, which was very joyful and lots of fun

3) I went on Wil Anderson's Wilosophy podcast

4) I perfor...

November News

Hi Punks!

This month has been a busy one, with a lot of things rolling out of my production cannon. (Let's pretend that image isn't as phallic as you just made it in your head). 

Articles

My semi-regular column for SBS comedy has now been made into a weekly Friday thing, and I've been given an explicit brief (again, gutterminds) where I get to wrestle big ideas in what I hope is a hilarious way, so if you've got any ideas that you'd like me to wrestle,...

Fresh Tea

Hi Patreons

Welcome back post hiatus!

It's been a big month. A couple of SBS articles, and starting to write my new show, as well as some other projects that I'll tell you about if I get my Sh-t together enough to actually make them happen.

 I've been making decisions about the shape of next year, as Australian based comedians do at around this time. The year's round is done, and people start to say "last year" about Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2015 and "th...

Patron Update

Hi Punks I'm settling in to Melbourne, and thought I should send a message to you guys - something private and special and bonus. All that. A roundup of what I've been up to. I have been SBS Articling like a maniac - I am scheduled to do one every two weeks, but I tend to be the person who's called in when someone else drops out at the last minute, because I turn them over quickly. Most recently I wrote a response to the Rebel Wilson 'scandal', and a piece on Melbourne vs Sydney. 2015-06-06 02:14:09 +0000 UTC View Post

So - I've come to the end of my 2015 Festival run. It's been a good thing, and a profoundly strange thing, to have been grieving and working on SAVAGE, and trying to be a person in a community at the same time. Thankyou, Patrons for helping me out. Being a full time comedian is a weird and strange life. If you would like to drop me an email on alicerfraser@gmail.com I'll give you two free patreon tickets to the EXTRA SHOW of SAVAGE (by special demand) at the Comedy Store in Sydney. Can't fly y...

Podcasts & Articles for this Month

This month, I've put out a couple of articles for SBS comedy, and the weekly podcast, including a special re-release of my Lucy Fraser right of replycast. These are up at https://itun.es/au/utgeV.c or the website, alicecomedyfraser.com. I've done a bunch of writing about grieving, which is not exactly comedy, but it is topical. These are up at the poetry blog - 2014-11-20 04:29:38 +0000 UTC View Post

Tea With Alice #40 is Up

This was the most epic Teacast to get up. First I recorded it with my twin at the end of a hospital corridor and got feedback that the sound quality was not good enough. Pulled it down and then recorded a different conversation with Hen and put it up... without an intro. So, ten minutes of silence at the beginning. Not cool. Now it is up and cool and I am happy with it. Sigh. This is TOFOP level tech-flop but I feel like I have learned a lot. Stick with me, kids!

STRANGERS KISSING - Outrageous Bloopers

Shocking Diet Danger foods! Star Trainer and Celebrity Nutritionist Tips

Tips to Look Good and Lose Weight Fast! Star Trainer and Celebrity Nutritionist Top Tips!

Two South Africans Sketch (original) - USYD Law Revue 2007

Alice Fraser in Aggressively Helpful

Alice Fraser - Buddhist Lullabye

Alice Fraser Bedroom News Episode 1 Dec 29, 2012