Local laughs to take over stage at Engine room

BENDIGO Comedy Festival organisers have announced the list of performers for Big Grebby and Poppa’s Local Line Up Show.

Described by festival organisers as “crazy basement bin laughs” the show will see some of the region’s funniest take to the stage at the Engine Room.

Patti Fawcett will be on stage at the Comedy Festival Gala, and the Local Line Up Show as well as performing in a split bill with Dane Knowles.

She said she looked forward to seeing the locals perform the most.

“The Gala’s always fun, but the local show is Poppa and [Ash] Greblo’s show, and those guys are so much fun to work with,” she said.

The Bendigo Comedy Festival’s Saturday night local show is aimed at giving local acts in the scene a stage, as well as encouraging unknown comedians to step into the spotlight.

The line-up for this year also includes locals Mike Elliott, Jim Hallawell, Kasey Mills and Kladdin Fotherington, but Fawcett said she’s avoiding looking at the full bill to keep the set list a surprise.

Fawcett, who performed in the Festival’s Gala last year, said she and fellow comedian Dane Knowles had been asked to join the organising committee and perform as a duo in their own show.

“It’s called In Cooperation, and it’s on Friday the 13th,” she said, “I feel like we can make it work for us, I feel safe, because Dane’s quite tall so if anything goes wrong I can just hide behind him and hope for the best.”

The comedian described her style as “curated anxiety” and said the process of writing the split show had been enjoyable.

“It’s always interesting to compare two very different comedic styles and try to intertwine them into one show and one narrative,” Fawcett said.

She also said it was great to be bringing more comedy to Bendigo.

“I think it’s a rare thing to spend an hour consistently laughing. It’s quite cathartic and it’s something that in Bendigo and Castlemaine is not really available all the time so making use of the festival is really nice,” Fawcett said.

Big Grebby and Poppa’s Local Line Up Show will be on Saturday 14 October at the Engine room.

Tickets and more info are available at the Bendigo Comedy Festival website