Stand-up duo present powerful comedy

IF you’ve ever felt personally victimised by a boring Microsoft PowerPoint slideshow, then there’s a comedy antidote for that.

Stand-up comedians Ethan Cavanagh and Sweeney Preston are bringing their split-bill Presentation is Everything – An Hour of Power(Point Comedy) to the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute on Saturday 26 August for a special live taping.

“We find the topic is a beautiful equaliser of all people,” Cavanagh said. “We get students who sat through lectures, corporates who have to sit and listen to KPIs, and the TikTok generation who need constant stimulus.

“It’s fast-paced, chaotic, and the promise is that every single joke in the show has a PowerPoint slide to go with it.”

Twenty-four-year-old Cavanagh has been performing stand-up for about seven years, first getting up on stage to tell his jokes when he was a student at Ballarat Grammar.

“It’s important for me to be bringing our show home to Ballarat,” he said. “It’s really good for touring comics to put regional centres on the touring map a bit, because the reception’s always so great.

“The crowds are often a lot more fun, and it’s also easier to sell tickets, because you’re not competing with thousands of events in Melbourne every night.”

Cavanagh has become a regular on the Melbourne scene, based in the city for the last couple of years. Alongside 25-year-old Preston, he hopes to take comedy full-time soon.

But there’s no lack of success, with Presentation is Everything winning Best Comedy at the 2023 Dunedin Fringe in New Zealand and selling out at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2022 and 2023.

“The show’s really found its legs,” Cavanagh said. “We’re really happy with where it is now, so there’s something nice about bringing it home to Ballarat.

“I understand the crowds best and there’s a nice relationship there. It feels like a win.

“Sweeney also can’t wait to come to Ballarat because he always gets a home-cooked meal at my mum’s house,” he laughed.

Visit bit.ly/3OCMUZ2 for tickets. Once the show is filmed, it will likely be published on YouTube as a special, and clipped up to promote the comics’ work on social media.