http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxQlZwGIdvk
In Rangas for Rangas, the third annual comedy event to raise money for Orang-utans (Profits go towards Borneo Orang-utan Survival) Mandy Nolan welcomes red-headed wisecrackers Bev Killick and Steven J Whitely to the stage.
Bev’s life has become all about boobs since she was asked to perform as a Bosom Buddy in Busting Out! Of course she accepted the Busting Out! offer and has now toured for the last four years in Australia, New Zealand and the UK and Edinburgh Festival. Bev is also touring with Wild Women of Comedy and doing solo standup shows around the nation.
Bev started making people laugh from the age of ten, at family gatherings. Invariably these gatherings would end up with Bev putting on a show. Always the class clown and lunchtime entertainer, Bev’s ability to remember a joke (handed down from her dad at the meatworks), and tell it well, saw her doing standup comedy in the school quadrangle long before she knew that it would be her calling.
Bev’s move south to Melbourne was where her innate comedic abilities came to the fore. Participating in numerous performance workshops from clowning to improvisation, she perfected her standup routine touring it around Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane comedy circuits, performing in top comedy spots such as The Espy, The Comedy Club, The Comic’s Lounge, The Comedy Store and the Sit Down Comedy Club.
Bev’s ability to get a crowd laughing non-stop each and every time came to the attention of the producers of the worldwide sensation Puppetry of the Penis. They offered Bev the opportunity to travel with the show as their opening act. Bev jumped at the offer and travelled around Australia performing to more than 250,000 people.
Since then Bev has worked with Weird Al Yankovic, Wayne Brady, Gina Riley and Jane Turner as a guest cameo on Kath and Kim. She was a panel member on Beauty and the Beast, featured comic on Stand Up Australia, a special guest on the hit show Pizza, married her Lighting Guy on Surprise Wedding, beat the blokes on Joker Poker, and was nominated for a Green Room Award for Most Innovative Cabaret Show for her show Sic Woman, which she performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Bev has appeared on many ads such as the much-aired Berlei Bra commercial, and voiced radio ads and characters, notably Little Johnny The Movie (2011).
‘Bev Killick was a particular standout. The singing, rapping, rough-talking soul mama had every girl in the room shedding tears of laughter with her irreverent ranting and granny undie flashing’ – Herald Sun.
She is joined by Gold Coast lad and rising comedy star Steven J Whitely, also a redhead; well at least now he’s lost his hair he has a red beard. Nolan is MC and while not a redhead herself she promises to don a wig in honour of Rangas at risk.
‘BOS is an incredible organisation,’ says Nolan. ‘The money that we raise and the money that they raise throughout the year goes into rehabilitating orang-utans and their habitat so they can be released into the wild. It’s about supporting locals to protect them and providing the income so they can. There is something so soulful about looking into the eyes of an orang-utan, you just can’t look away.’
Rangas, Orang-utan lovers and lovers of comedy can get together for a huge night of laughs, raffles, prizes and fun knowing that our mirth will save a few of our furry orange friends.
See Bev Killick and Steven J Whitely, Thursday 13 September at Currumbin RSL’s Side Splitting Comedy.