The Laugh Resort – WA’s uniquely not-for-profit comedy club – is back (after last year’s eight-month hiatus) to celebrate 35 years of bringing Perth laughs, with a fresh mix of new and fave comics in its 15th Fringe World season.
A mainstay comedy hub at the city’s heart, the Club – still the southern hemisphere’s most enduring – exists to champion WA comedic talent (having spawned some of the industry’s biggest names), ensuring its annual summer programme of >19 shows heroes at least 50 per cent WA artists alongside its hand-picked visiting acts.
Manager Di Star emphasises it’s not just touring artists who’ll you only see once a year (if you’re lucky) in this international fringe; it frequently brings out homegrown works of brilliance specifically for this festival context.
“For every name you know, there are dozens as great, the trick’s finding them among 600+; we’ve selected 70 local and international comedians for our 20-day programme who are top of their class – in stand-up, improv, musical, character, sketch and storytelling comedy – virtually guaranteeing you can’t go wrong,” Di says.
This year, audiences can expect the likes of Laura Davis ('Despair Is Beneath Us'), Kuah Jenhan ('Like This, Like Dad (Still)'), Two Little Dickheads ('The Time For Fun Is MEOW!'), Wyatt Nixon-Lloyd's 'Saturday Night Dive', Nadia Collins ('Virgin Bloody Mary') and more.
To help you out further, The Laugh Resort’s 9 AT 9 is a weekly 90-minute sampler of the programme’s featured and drop-in guest comics (much like its monthly year-round showcase, resuming in March), with nine acts at 9pm each Wednesday of the fest. Ideal for the indecisive or those simply wanting maximum bang for buck, you can see 36(!) comics in just four outings by making this your weekly go-to, the first edition being 21 January.
The Laugh Resort's Fringe World (Perth) programming is on from 21 January-15 February.
