Grumbling, achy, but still funny

STAND-UP comedian Daniel Connell rounded out the line up at this year’s Bendigo Comedy Festival, with solo show I’m Always Sore.

The comedian is a frequent performer in Bendigo and said he loved being a part of the festival.

“I hosted the gala out there last year and that was such a fun show,” Connell said. “I just find the community really gets behind things like that, and starting small I think is the way to go.”

The line up for this year’s festival includes a mix of new and established names in comedy.

“They’ve picked it really well,” Connell said. “Like Gillian Cosgriff who got the top award at the comedy festival this year, so to be able to get her to come out, that’s a great win for their festival.”

Connell often tours to regional cities like Bendigo, as the comedian found his own start in the small comedy scene of Canberra.

“There was probably only about 15 comics in Canberra and about four venues you could get up at, so it’s very similar to the Bendigo scene,” he said.

“They started the Canberra comedy festival from scratch there, which is very similar to what Bendigo is doing now.”

Inspiration for Connell’s latest hour of comedy I’m Always Sore came from his journey into fatherhood and the steady approach to turning 40.

“I said to my wife, ‘I’m just always sore at the moment,” he said.

“There’s just always something, you lift the toilet seat up and twinge your back, you know, it’s all these little things as you get older.”

Over the course of his 14-year career, Connell has become known for his observational and occasionally dark style of comedy.

The comedian said he recorded everyday encounters and stories he found on the news, but that he favoured oddball humour over controversy.

“Like I had some cats fighting in my neighbourhood that I got a good story out of,” he said.

“Just about these cats fighting at all hours of the night and waking me up with that classic cat sound, which I do onstage and that gets a good laugh.”

Connell said he followed the ginger cat home to tell its owner to stop letting the cat fight on his lawn.

“He said it was common for cats to fight on other people’s lawns because it’s neutral ground, and I said ‘you’re an idiot.’

“That went straight in my phone,” he said.

I’m Always Sore is in the final days of its tour, which Connell said had gone well despite slow ticket sales at the beginning of the year.

“It is a nice little escape and I think when you have a good laugh, and laugh at the expense of the comedian or what’s going on in the world, it’s definitely good for you, and good for your mind.”