‘Luckily, I wasn’t decapitated’: 17 comedians’ stories from 40 years of Melbourne international comedy festival

‘Luckily, I wasn’t decapitated’: 17 comedians’ stories from 40 years of Melbourne international comedy festival Wil Anderson, Lano and Woodley, Aaron Chen, Urzila Carlson and more share memories from 40 years at MICF, including fires, camels and weddings Lano and Woodley First MICF: 1988 Colin Lane: Frank and I did our first MICF as The Found Objects [with Scott Casley]. Our show was at The Last Laugh in Collingwood. We thought it would be hilarious if we pulled out all this camping equipment from our backpacks, including a little bar heater which we plugged in on stage. We then did this routine where we put bathing caps and goggles on and spit water into each other’s faces. Hilarious! Then a guy in the front row put his hand up. We went, “Alright mate, stop interrupting.” And he goes, “I just thought that you should know that a towel was thrown onto the bar heater, and now it’s on fire.” We were a bit pissed off he was interrupting us, but our backdrop was painted in acrylics - that whole place would have gone up very, very quickly. Frank Woodley: I still have nightmares about that fire occasionally, but it all ended okay. You could smoke in venues back then and I remember reaching down and picking up a packet of cigarettes off a table in the front row. I was acting like I was going to smoke a cigarette to deal with my shock from the fire. And then I just ate the cigarette? I can still feel the tobacco burning in my throat. It’s making me feel sick just thinking about it. Luckily, those kinds of unhinged improvisations are a thing of the past. I’ve got a semblance of impulse control now. Then, I thought it’d be funny to step out onto one of tables and I got hit in the head by the ceiling fan. It was very funny for the audience. Luckily, I didn’t get decapitated – though that would have made a much better story. That was only the second MICF ever; there were about six shows at the festival back then. I was only 19 – I’m 58 now! It’s just great to see that the festiv...