New Years Day Laughs at the Country Club
Ocean Shores Country Club | Tuesday January 1, 2019 | 7pm | FREE
What better way to kick off your new year than with a night of laughs at the Ocean Shores Country Club. Mandy Nolan heads up the first Country Club Comedy for the year with special guest Dusty Rich. Hailing from South Africa where he was the regular support for international super star Trevor Noah, Rich was renowned for his off-the-wall style of his shows, for throwing the rehearsed, practised standup format out the window and replacing it with the fire-and-ice rollercoaster of continual spontaneous improvisation and crowd interaction. No two shows are the same with Rich on stage; in fact no two minutes are the same! Rich’s wild and unpredictable improvisation ranges from stories of growing up poor and skinny in post-apartheid South Africa to the perils of relationships, embracing his own ‘crazy’, marrying far above his means and moving to Australia.
Rich is supported on the night by Brisbane’s best comedy duo Release the Bees. Tuesday at 7pm at the Ocean Shores Country Club. Free.
Emerging Visionaries
Earth Frequency Festival | Ivory Rock, SE QLD | 15-18 Feb, 2019 | $0-350
The Luminarium is the home of visionary art at Earth Frequency Festival – with vibrant psychedelic visions on display by artists from around the world and from the best of Australia’s visionary community. The 2019 lineup is our biggest to date and includes work by Android Jones of the US, Luis Tamani of Peru, Spectralyeyes from Bali, Luna Charlotte from Canada, and Australian artists Byran Itch, Light Wizard, and Stiff Ives to name just a few. There will also be live painting displays in the gallery and around the festival, and art and merchandise for sale from the guest artists to give everyone the chance to take some of this incredible art home!
Earth Frequency Festival 2019 runs over 15–18 February at Ivory Rock in southeast Queensland. Tix via: earthfrequency.com.au
Liberating Our Minds From Fear
Byron Theatre | Jan 9-11 2019 | 7.30pm | $15-25
In a night of spiritual-political satire and activist entertainment, Alan Clements ignites conscience by celebrating freedom of expression and the power of the human heart. A former director of Amnesty International called Clements ‘one of the most compelling voices of our times’. As a former Buddhist monk in dictatorship-ravaged Burma and a journalist in areas of extreme conflict, including the former Yugoslavia, Clements riffs on issues of violence and nonviolence, compassion and greed, servitude and freedom, meditation and indoctrination, from his personal experience and a rare satirical humour, while giving audiences a captivating expression on how WE – THE PEOPLE can safeguard ourselves from spiritual and political propaganda. And in so doing relearn active citizenry by liberating our own minds from fear, apathy, and cynicism.
He performs Spiritually Incorrect Meets Relationship Incorrect: The Great Reckoning at the Byron Theatre. Tix at byroncentre.com.au.
Dirty Dancing and a Silent Disco!
Brunswick Picture House | Jan 4-5 2019 | 7pm | $18-20 or $30 for both
Cast your ‘Hungry Eyes’ over the story of Johnny and Baby and have ‘the Time of Your Life’.
Pull out the legwarmers for a repeat-viewing-required classic Dirty Dancing at the Brunswick Picture House. The screening is sure to have a theatrical twist with live performances and permission to sing along, dance along and swoon.
Silent Disco will take place after the Dirty Dancing film events, so why not come to both?
Dirty Dancing film event is on Friday 4 January and Saturday 5 January at 7pm
Special price of $30 for both events.
Tix via brunswickpicturehouse.com
Many Austen Tayshus returns!
Byron Services Club – Monday Jan 7 2019 & Lennox Bowlo – Thursday Jan 10 | 8pm | $30
There are few comics with the tenacity and killer instinct of Austen Tayshus. The comedy superstar who first came into being in 1981 has the ability to take a room hostage just with his tongue. He’s the closest thing the Australian comedy scene has to its very own Bill Hicks. Topical, dangerous, irreverent; he’s the High Priest of Satire, unflappable and relentless. Every Austen show is unique. He has the ability to weave current politics, what’s happening in the room, philosophy, anthropology, religion, and of course sport – and let’s not forget the pope – into one gag.
Tayshus is a man of controversy. There is no subject he won’t dissect. Uncomfortable, confronting, but always illuminating, an Austen Tayshus show is both comic and cleansing. Austen remarked once that he sees his role as being a social agitator, as the prickle in the paw that makes the public think. He doesn’t need you to like him. In fact he’d probably prefer that you didn’t.
He performs with Mandy Nolan at the Byron Services Club on Monday 7 January and the Lennox Bowlo on Thursday 10 January; both shows are at 8pm.
Tix are $30 and can be bought either at the club or online at
mandynolan.com.au.
Just imagine!
Ballina RSL | Thursday Jan 10 2019 | 10.30am | $15-45
It’s magic! It’s hilarious and extremely contagious… It’s time to let your imagination run wild!
Imaginitis is a colourful, extremely silly, funny, and highly interactive show. It’s a colourful adventure created to entertain the youngest audience, 3–8-year-olds. The show includes magic, bubbles, comedy and extreme slapstick.
Starring Shorty Brown, who has travelled the world entertaining all walks of life, small or tall…
Thursday 10 January, 10.30am at the Ballina RSL.