It’s here to taunt us for the 7th time, with an arsenal of five class comics: 2011 Melbourne Comedy Festival Best Newcomer Michael Workman; Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation star Josh Thomas; Edinburgh Spirit of the Fringe Award winner Felicity Ward; The Librarians star Bob Franklin; and best of all, Melbourne International Comedy Festival veteran Dave Williams, who threatened to outshine all the others with his own riotously smooth and theatrical 15-minute stand-up routines before introducing each comedian. We dare say the naughty superhero Tree Man jingle will stay with you after the show.

That’s not to say the four he introduced did not hold their own during their 30-minute slots. Michael Workman was brilliant as the snarky, surrealist Goth, from whom you can expect to hear about crack-dealing monkeys, penguins, deaf people and why smokers should just keep smoking. Josh Thomas’s musings on his life experiences were brilliantly bitchy. Felicity Ward’s impressions were just hilarious—her mom, dad and her own hometown of origin are not spared. Bob Franklin played up the weathered, sometimes sleazy, old guy image, delivering his routine quietly with long pauses in between. All this elicited thunderous laughs, even the part where he read poetry sounding like a creepy serial killer.

The topics these comics covered weren’t necessarily “safe”—there were dirty jokes aplenty, mixed with animal rights issues and a hilarious critique on one of our laws affecting homosexuals. However none were Russell Brand-crude or offensive; that may be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you like his, erm, brand of comedy or not. Still, all were side-splittingly funny throughout—well worth the $46 ticket.