Lano and Woodley<\/p>\n
First MICF: 1988<\/p>\n
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\u2019s faces. Hilarious!<\/p>\n
Then a guy in the front row put his hand up. We went, \u201cAlright mate, stop interrupting.\u201d And he goes, \u201cI just thought that you should know that a towel was thrown onto the bar heater, and now it\u2019s on fire.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s making me feel sick just thinking about it. Luckily, those kinds of unhinged improvisations are a thing of the past. I\u2019ve got a semblance of impulse control now.<\/p>\n
Then, I thought it\u2019d 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\u2019t get decapitated \u2013 though that would have made a much better story.<\/p>\n
That was only the second MICF ever; there were about six shows at the festival back then. I was only 19 \u2013 I\u2019m 58 now! It\u2019s just great to see that the festival has lasted so long. We\u2019re so lucky to have it.<\/p>\n
Denise Scott<\/p>\n
First MICF: 1996<\/p>\n
It was the first time my uncle Len had come to see my show, which was on at the Swiss Club. And he had a heart attack due to laughing and had to go to emergency. What an attention seeker uncle Len was!<\/p>\n
He seriously had a heart attack and he\u2019s never been able to come to a show since, just in case he died. He loved it – well, that\u2019s what he told everyone, that it was from laughing. I can\u2019t remember what the show was. I did a whole hour on local council rules \u2013 uncle Len was probably desperate to have a heart attack.<\/p>\n
Rich Hall<\/p>\n
First MICF: 1996<\/p>\n
I was part of the Great Debate at Town Hall. The topic was \u201cMoney Is the Root of All Evil\u201d. At some point I invoked the biblical metaphor from Matthew: \u201cIt is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter Heaven.\u201d On paper, looks dicey. But I figured we should at least give the camel a stab at it.<\/p>\n
The director, Ted Robinson, who never met a comic challenge he didn\u2019t like, made a few calls and secured a camel. They coaxed it into the Town Hall. He pronated, I climbed on his back. Then he slowly stood up and I think my head touched the roof. Someone held a needle in front of his nose. I said something stupid like, \u201cGiddyup.\u201d The camel was fairly benign about the whole experience. Looked a little pissed off to be honest. Turns out, Matthew was pretty accurate on this one.<\/p>\n
Wil Anderson<\/p>\n
First MICF: 1997<\/p>\n
I was a kid from a dairy farm in country Victoria<\/a>, so standup to me was the big Bills \u2013 Cosby and Connolly. One of those is okay now! But I remember seeing Miss Itchy at MICF and it blew my mind. These two incredible women would be described as cutting edge now; there are people in hip LA comedy rooms right now who think they\u2019re inventing what Linda Haggar and Fahey Younger were doing 30 years ago.<\/p>\n All I ever really wanted to do was MICF. I\u2019ve done 30 in a row. The first year, I was the support for the Canadian musical group Corky and the Juice Pigs. Most of my material at the time was heavily political \u2013 lots of Victorian state politics and Pauline Hanson had just arrived on the scene. But Corky would set me a challenge every night where I would have to do a thing during my set, like fall over 10 times while never explaining why, or insert a phrase into my set without it being too obvious. The hardest one they got me to say was: \u201cI like tits, but I\u2019m really an arse man.\u201d I need to point out this wasn\u2019t okay to say then, let alone now! To this day, it was probably the most difficult thing I\u2019ve ever had to do. They were all at the back, losing it.<\/p>\n Josh Thomas<\/p>\n First MICF: 2000<\/p>\n I did my first MICF show when I was 14 – I did [MICF\u2019s teen comedy workshop] Class Clowns with my friend Tom Ward. We went on as a duo wearing suits, because we were just copying Lano and Woodley.<\/p>\n It was an absolute shock to find out the audience thought I was funny. When I was older I did [emerging standup competition] Raw Comedy; I had a bit about how everyone thinks I\u2019m gay, but I\u2019m not gay. Spoiler alert, I am gay. I also talked about how my mum went crazy one day and bought me all these condoms at the supermarket. That was before she was diagnosed bipolar \u2013 looking back, I realise now she was having a manic episode. We didn\u2019t know that I was gay, and we didn\u2019t know that she was bipolar. And that was the next 10 years of my career!<\/p>\n Mark Watson<\/p>\n First MICF: 2006<\/p>\n The first time I came, I couldn\u2019t believe I was in Australia; I\u2019d only been doing comedy for four years. I was amazed to walk out on the first night and find a crowd waiting for me. With hindsight I think they were all given free tickets to get the ball rolling, but it didn\u2019t matter. I remember hearing the \u201cting\u201d from the tram going down Swanston Street, ad-libbing around it, and getting a laugh. I thought: maybe this could work.<\/p>\n In about 2015 I did the Gala, as usual, where you are limited to a very strict four minutes on stage. It\u2019s one of the highest-pressure gigs you can do; such a huge crowd, so little actual time to impress them. There was an act, since turned sober, who was at the time quite hammered. He did, not just four minutes, not even 10 \u2013 but 17 minutes to a nearly silent crowd. Everyone was either agog or appalled. It was the greatest onstage car crash I\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n