BellyLaugh with Ellen
Since winning Foxtel’s national Be A Comedian competition in 2006 and performing as a national finalist in Triple J’s 2007 Raw Comedy Competition, accidental mother of identical twins Ellen Briggs hasn’t looked back.
Ellen has an easygoing, friendly nature that belies the dark wit that she presents. It’s been said that ‘Ellen says out loud the things other mothers only dare to even think,’ and that ‘with her tales of parenting, she could well become Australia’s next Fiona O’Loughlin’.
Ellen has a knack of looking at any topic and finding the funny side of it.
No subject is left untouched with Ellen – she has opinions and stories on her family, of sex in airplane toilets, and famous Hollywood starlets and their bad habits.
Ellen Briggs is the MC for the popular Open Mic Comedy Night – BellyLaugh at the Brewery on Thursday. 8pm. Free.
Spring into Circus Arts
Celebrate the start of the school holidays and the beauty of spring at the Circus Arts Byron Bay Showcase on Friday.
The Spring Circus Cabaret will be hosted by the effervescent Shorty Brown and will showcase Circus Arts’ top students performing their signature acts including contortion and trapeze along with group aerial silks and lyra acts.
Special guests Epic Cheer will perform a cheerleading routine not to be missed and the grand finale flying trapeze show is guaranteed to end the night on a high! 7pm, Friday at the Byron Entertainment Centre. Cafe, bar and sausage sizzle from 6.30pm.
Raffle prizes to be won. $5 trapeze swings after the show! $5 adults, $3 kids, under-3 Free.Tickets on the door.
Ringing the Bell for William
Norpa presents the Bell Shakespeare Company’s Henry V at Lismore City Hall on Friday at 11am and 7.30pm and Saturday at 7.30pm.
Bookings at 1300 066 772 or go to norpa.org.au.
One-Night Stand for Comedy Virgins!
The latest crop of standup comedy virgins are ready for their official deflowering at the Byron Ex-Services on Monday.
Over the past six weeks, comedian of 28 years Mandy Nolan has been putting the 13 funny people through their comedy steps.
‘I teach technique mainly,’ says Mandy, ‘but what I am really interested in is their world view. I think it’s how a person sees the world and how they choose to express their ideas, based on where they’ve come from and how they see the world, that makes them particularly interesting.’ Nolan has seen more than 1,000 initiates make their way into the blinding spotlight, and she admits that the thrill of watching a new comic do their first gig never leaves.
‘There is something intoxicating about watching a person try something as challenging as standup comedy. I really admire that people are prepared to put themselves on the line. It shows they have really high levels of resilience and they’re pretty gutsy. It’s a bit like an audition for Survivor – Comedy Survivor!’
Not all the students who start out make it to performance.
‘I always lose a few on the way,’ says Nolan. ‘I think the idea of performing is okay until it starts to get a bit too close for comfort!’
Nolan believes that the new comedians have something really unique to say. ‘These guys are really impressive. We had a run through the other night and I was just blown away by their work.’
Mandy Nolan MCs the Byron Shire Community College Standup Comedy Graduation on Monday at the Byron Ex-Services at 8pm.
Come and see some ordinary people do something extraordinary! Tickets are $10/15 and can be booked on 6619 0529 or purchased at the door on the night.
Three women artists who love Playing on the Edge
Three artists brought together by the meanderings of the drawn line, Oksana Waterfall, Zom Osborne and Mandy Nolan, in their different ways, explore ideas that dwell at the edge of conscious experience.
Oksana Waterfall’s current work details the whimsy and perversity inherent in the objects of childhood memories. Her drawings are small and precise, sometimes accentuated by embroidered patterns or needlework.
While she is intrigued by the connections we make with each other and the objects we acquire during our lives, Zom Osborne is touched by the energies she senses in the unseen and the immaterial, and Mandy Nolan allows herself the rare luxury of allowing her hand to roam freely in a kind of ‘unconscious doodling or fiddling’ when she feels she has something a little more whimsical or softer to say. Or maybe sometimes because she doesn’t want to say anything at all. For all three artists, the line has its own quiet eloquence.
The exhibition opening is
9 October, but bookings are now open for the limited-seating Sit Down Dinner with the Artists at 7.30pm.
With jugs of lemonade, antipasti, asparagus tart with roasted cherry tomatoes, market fish, chargilled veggies, rocket and pecan salad with a berry meringue or a chocolate surprise! $68.00 per head Bookings essential. Phone 6684 3446
SNIPPETS
Art talk in the pub
Nationally acclaimed artist Peter Sharp has been invited by C.A.S.E. to talk about his work, inspiration and practice at the Court House Hotel, Mullumbimby, on Wednesday 17 September at 6pm – all welcome – free.
Buddhist meditation
Change of address: from 24/09/14 Siddhartha’s Intent Buddhist meditation group will move from 1/22 Fawcett St to the South Golden Beach Community Hall. Teaching and practice: Wednesdays 6pm–7.30pm. Info. 0438 858 842, [email protected].
Fingertip therapy
Tyffany Howard lives in Austin, Texas, and her mission in life is to help women and men to help themselves through the art of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). This is when we tap with our fingertips certain parts of our body to release negative feelings that we have. Tyffany is holding a free talk at the Masonic Centre (next to Centrelink) on Thursday at 1pm sharp.
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