It’s musical comedy, but not as you’ve ever seen it. “I come from a very musical family, and I’ve always loved musical theatre,” Wall explains. “I kind of hate that I love it because it’s corny and dumb, but music is such a glorious vessel to put comedy in. For me, the ideal show is a mash-up of a pop concert and stand-up.”

While it’s their first time at this festival, this is Wall’s seventh show overall. They describe it as their most distinctive work to date: “It sounds a little braggy, but I really think now I’ve found my niche and am doing something that not a lot of people are doing.”

Lou Wall vs The Internet is at Factory Theatre on May 4, 6 and 7.

ANDREW PORTELLI

“When I started out, I wanted to be Louis CK,” Melbourne-based stand-up Andrew Portelli says. “But for a variety of reasons, I’ve, ah, gone away from that.”

It’s now some 11 years since he first tried comedy, and after his acclaimed debut last year, he’s now hitting his straps as an observational comic unafraid of injecting darkness into his work: “I’d say in the last two years, I’ve started to be a little bit more myself.”

Before pursuing comedy full-time, Portelli worked as a criminal prosecutor. He says his legal background has given him perspective and helped him get comfortable in the spotlight.

“I was never a natural public speaker; I was always more of a writer. But once you go to court and speak in front of a judge, there is a real risk of humiliation and lasting repercussions, not just for you but for someone else. That’s a level of pressure so extreme that going back to some gig in front of four people at a bar, the pressure is just gone.”

Andrew Portelli’s ‘Hey Great to Catch Up’ is at the Enmore Theatre, May 20-21.

BRONWYN KUSS

Queenslander Bronwyn Kuss’s delivery is as dry as the Simpson Desert. But her winning deadpan style wasn’t initially a stylistic choice: “When I first started, I was way more nervous so [that performance style] was out of necessity; I couldn’t move that much.”

These days, her perfectly calibrated and laconic presentation is matched with deft writing; her latest, Sounds Good, lands punchlines with aplomb as it relates her upbringing in Pauline Hanson’s electorate, an underwhelming response to her coming out and her time working in prisons.

This is only Kuss’s second solo show, but she’s already making inroads into the industry. Last year, she won the Director’s Choice Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, sharing the prize with one Wil Anderson.

Sounds Good heavily features her eccentric family, and they love the attention. “I can’t go home without someone being like: ‘Ah, you get a lot of material out of us!’,” she says. “Now, I’m done with them. It’ll be something else next year.”

Bronwyn Kuss’s Sounds Good is at Enmore Theatre, May 11-14.

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