Last week, me and three of my pals had a night out over at the comedy club in Albion. Albion is a suburb just a 10 minute taxi drive north of the city of Brisbane.
Actually, the evening was billed as an “Adult Magic” night, but from where I was sitting, it was 90% adult comedy and 10% magic. That’s not me complaining though; we all had a great night.
Of course, being adult comedy I can’t tell you any of the jokes here on this “family” blog. But I can tell you what everything cost so you can compare it to how much a similar night would cost you where you live.
Firstly, the tickets. They were $25 each, although we got ours free! Somebody got sent them as part of a promotion and passed them on to my mate Nick, and me, Mark and Andy were all happy to freeload along with him.
Next, the drinks. Four bottles of Carlsberg, yes, Carlsberg, in an ice bucket for $25. As these bottles were only 330 ml, that would work out at around $10.60 a pint. Or, at current exchange rates, £6.60 a pint. So not the cheapest beers we’ve ever bought.
Food. Everybody sat at a table in this club, but food was optional. I had some sort of green chicken curry with rice and salad and it cost $23.50. Pretty good value, I thought. Steaks were available from around $28.
The venue. It was full. Not an empty seat in the house. The atmosphere was really good, well it should be I suppose, it’s a comedy club! There was plenty of laughter, I can tell you. But the table and chairs all looked a bit school canteen like. But then they do in so many places here in Australia. So nothing to complain about, I think it’s just the way it is here.
And finally, the acts. One very funny compere and four very similarly hilarious acts. The whole thing kicked off very shortly after eight o’clock and went through till about 10:30 PM. I thought that was very good value for the price of the tickets.
I checked out the price of similar night out in the UK, and found a comedy club in Bristol where ticket prices were £10 and £11. I don’t know how much the beers would have cost, but most of these clubs only sell bottled beer and it’s usually not cheap either.
Verdict: a great night out and we’ll definitely do it again.
Okay, just one joke then. Slight language warning, but nothing too bad. This was the opening joke for the last comedian on the bill, and for my money the funniest of them all, Paul Brasch.
First, a little background. Australia occasionally debates whether it wants to be a monarchy or a republic. It’s an interesting debate and one I’ll cover in a future post.
But Paul Brasch covered it in about 30 seconds. Like this…
His opening line as he walked on stage was, “Who wants Australia to be a monarchy?” A small noise, more like a mumbling, came from the audience.
“Who wants Australia to be a republic?” He continued. Another low volume mumbling sound from the audience.
“Who doesn’t gives a rat’s *rse?” He then asked.
Big uproarious cheer from the audience.
“And there you have it, Australia’s culture in a nutshell.” He said.
And he’s probably right.
But it’s Friday, where’s the video?
Last week I told you the story of two Australian migrants and the telly, well here’s another Australian migrant who has settled and become successful here in Australia. And in keeping with today’s post, he’s a stand up comedian.
But when he first arrived here, aged 22 back in 1988, he worked as a gardener. Today he is regarded as one of Australia’s top comedians. He’s come a long way since then. This is the only video clip I could find in which he doesn’t swear, here’s Jimeoin…..