Global comedian at Court House!
Marcus Ryan is an award-nominated standup comedian, an award-winning storyteller (The Moth), a published writer and explorer. He’s hitchhiked his way through Latin America, walked 1,000km across Spain, and has a story to tell for every occasion. He is regarded as one of the most well-travelled performers working today. While not a household name in one country, he has a global following and is respected by his peers. His debut one-man show, the critically acclaimed Love Me Tinder, sold out festivals and tours and after an epic journey of Latin America he returned to Oz with a new show ¿Hablas Inglés?, shortlisted for Best Comedy 2017 at Fringe World Perth.
Perennial globetrotter Marcus Ryan is a gifted storyteller with a natural comic bent and has featured at so many festivals and clubs around the world it’s hard to know where home is these days. One thing’s for sure, he’s right at home onstage. A laidback yet engaging presence, Marcus charms his audiences with a sharp wit and tales from the road, having performed in more than 40 countries on six continents – even gigs in Spanish!
Though Australian born, Marcus is not one to stay still. Often based in Canada and the UK, he is a regular on club circuits across North America and Europe as well as frequenting festivals worldwide. It is the solo work, however, where he thrives. Never shy of a challenge, continually carving his own path, he brings English-speaking comedy to communities, cities and even countries that have never had it before! He has completed epic journeys through South East Asia and Latin America and become the first person in history to perform English-speaking standup comedy in several countries, including Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Paraguay.
Marcus Ryan is the MC at the open mic comedy night at the Court House on Thursday 1 March. Come and catch this world-travelling comedian to whom Edinburgh’s FreshAir publication gave five stars and claimed he was ‘a born performer’.
Thursday | Court House Hotel in Mullumbimby | 8pm | Free
Learn to Write Funny
Ever wanted to use humour in your writing but don’t know how? Comedian Mandy Nolan is running a one-day workshop for writers and wannabe writers teaching them how to make their work funnier. ‘This is not writing for standup comedy,’ says Nolan. ‘This is a workshop for memoir writers, bloggers, opinion writers, fiction writers and screenwriters who want to explore how to find the funny in the serious. Very often there is great humanity and connection in humour. It’s a very powerful way of connecting.’
Her Mullumbimby Funny Writing workshop has sold out but there are still spaces in her Ballina workshop on Sunday 11 March 10am–5pm. For more information go to mandynolan.com.au, email mandynolan.com.au, or ring on 0422 701 680.
The Business of Producing
Screenworks in partnership with Media Super is making it possible for northern rivers filmmakers and creatives with content ideas for film and television to get a step closer to getting funding, broadcast and producer interest. They are bringing some of the key screen industry decision-makers to Byron Bay for a two-and-a-half-day seminar
With a strong lineup of guest speakers, this seminar is an important opportunity for local creatives to connect with some of Australia’s most respected screen producers, broadcasters and funding body representatives. Guest speakers include Steve Bibb – head of Factual ABC TV, Helen Bowden – partner and producer Lingo Pictures (Wake in Fright), Karina Holden – producer Northern Pictures (Blue), Sally Regan – senior manager Screen Investment, Create NSW, and Deanne Weir – chairperson Hoodlum and Sydney Film Festival to name just a few.
The Business of Producing program includes a half-day session on Financially Managing Your Production by Monepenny Services, Meet the Broadcaster sessions and case studies from some of Australia’s most respected producers on the making of their films and TV series. There will be panel discussions, roundtable sessions and opportunities to book in one-to-one meetings.
Screenworks’ The Business of Producing is being held at SAE Creative Media Institute in Byron Bay from 1pm on Thursday 8 March till 4pm on Saturday 10 March.
It is most relevant to early-career screen producers looking to advance their industry knowledge and to connect with industry professionals, or to individuals pursuing a career in the screen industry.
For tickets and more information visit screenworks.com.au
Talking ANZAC
Mark Dapin is an author, historian and journalist, and editor of The Penguin Book of Australian War Writing and From the Trenches: the best Anzac writing of World War One. Mark Dapin will bring a fresh and engaging perspective to the Anzac legacy gained through his research and gathering of Anzac stories for his books.
The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session and information will be provided about an exciting youth art opportunity, where six successful applicants will each receive $1,000 to create a work that relates to the project title Northern Rivers’ Memory of War: Stories of then, told by people of now.
Thursday 8 March | Free | 4–5.30pm | Whitebrook Theatre, Southern Cross University, Military Road, Lismore | Bookings: www byronwritersfestival.com/anzac
On The Table and Other Works
Recently relocated award-winning sculptor Gudrun Klix is exhibiting her work for the first time in the northern rivers.
Central to the exhibition is a colonial table bearing porcelain corrugated farm sheds and tanks filled with red sand from the Tanami desert. The exquisitely made sheds feature images from the time of the 1788 invasion.
Also in the show are vessels that are a response to Australia’s desert country suggestive of leaves, boats, and seed pods. They are pieces of extraordinary colour, texture and form.
On the Table and Other Works opens March 2, 6–8pm and runs 2–14 March at the Project Space, Byron School of Art, 112 Dalley St, Mullumbimby.
flowers in a painted world
True Flowers on the Headland
From the creators of the film El Mar, Mi Alma and the LP Headland soundtrack comes a new visual album centred on the Lennox/Byron coastline. True Flowers from this Painted World is an emotive portrait and spacious soundscape that builds on traditional notions of landscape and seascape, combining gorgeous guitar-layered compositions and captivating cinematic fragments. A hypnotic, meditative and spellbinding live experience.
Headland began in 2013 as a soundtrack to a collection of Super8 film pictures depicting surfing and coastal culture in the1970s. Contemporary footage by award-winning filmmaker Stephen L Jones, El Mar, Mi Alma (2012) overscores each composition for their second full-length release. This fine-art collaboration is performed as a visual album, consisting of original musical scores played to projected film sequences.
Also featuring (in order of appearance) Dave Rastovich, Terepai Richmond, Joel Fitzgerald, Torren Martyn, Ellis Ericson, Araucaria Velasco and the mystery surfer. Screening with Headland playing the score on Friday at the Brunswick Picture House.
Spirit Festival moves to Byron
This year Byron Spirit Festival moves their festival of barefoot elegance into their namesake town for their sixth year, leaving the nurturing years in the arms of Mullumbimby. On offer is an extensive yoga program that includes world-renowned yoga teacher and author of The Yoga of Heart and The Promise of Love, Sex and Intimacy, Mark Whitwell, who has been working to make yoga accessible to everyone for the past 25 years, teaching in the US, Asia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Zenthai Shiatsu founder Gwyn Williams began his first steps into the foundation of Zenthai as a teenager. A self-confessed lifeforce fanatic, Gwyn developed this unique therapy that combines yoga, partner flow, bodywork infused with features of Chinese medicine. Bondi Rescue Lifeguard, star of the Channel Ten hit reality TV series, and Lululemon ambassador, Deano Gladstone started his wellness journey as a result of a recovery mission from injury. It led him to yoga and a more rounded view of fitness and nutrition. He completed his yoga teacher training recently and is now sharing all of that knowledge. Founder of the Byron Yoga Centre, John Ogilvie is one of Australia’s most respected practitioners with more than 30 years of experience to share. Learning from a number of masters over this time, he developed his signature style, Purna Yoga, after practising both the Iyengar method and Astanga. Dena Kingsberg is a devoted practitioner of Astanga yoga and a senior student of the late Sri K Patabhi Jois. With 30 years of unwavering practice she is deeply inspired and committed to the immense healing potential of this practice.
Also having 30 years of practice under her belt, Sydney teacher Beth Borosky invites you to move at a slower pace, giving time for muscles to heat, energy to build and an opportunity to delve deeper within, both physically and emotionally, and so discover the true medicine that is yoga.
Sophie Sofree is a collector of ethnic rhythms, tribal vibes, downtempo BPMs and soul-healing elements. She is the resident DJ for ecstatic dance at Bali’s Yoga Barn. Her Kundalini yoga classes are active meditations focused on raising and transforming energy. Weaving movement, mantra, dance, pranayam, mudra and drishti alongside uplifting soul-shaking playlists.
Since her mid-twenties, Flo Fenton has been on a quest for healing and transformation. Yoga has been a constant ally since then and, along with meditation, homeopathy and ayurveda, has been the means to achieving happy and functional relationships and life in general. Her style is both meditative and enlivening, balancing the active and the passive sides of our nature.
This is just a taste of what is on offer for the Byron Spirit Festival. For more program info for this 20–22 April festival go to spiritfestival.com.au
