The Laugh Stand

Every month on a Wednesday night The Laugh Stand gets people together for a night of stand up comedy at the FBi Social in Kings Cross.
Dane Hiser is the man behind The Laugh Stand. His motivation is to give, up and coming comics a night to perform and also give audiences a quality night with the addition of a more seasoned MC! FBi Social is a great venue for stand up, it is small and dark and has a array of seating options!
I went last Wednesday with my husband, we sat towards the back just to make sure, that  if any of the comedians were going to pick on an audience member it wasn't us! We weren't the only ones I spotted a few that we trying to blend in with the black background. There was your usual array of audience members men with large fluffy beards and strangely most of the women had long black straight hair! We weren't the easiest of audiences to warm up and even the MC Mikey Robins seemed a little afraid when he first saw us. But things did get going, probably helped slightly by the $5 Magners who sponsor the event!
It was well organised with Mikey then a few comedians then a break, and repeat. I am not too sure how many times that happened as I did have a couple of Magners! The up and comings for the night were James Colley, Richard Lindesay, Alex Waisel, Matthew McKenna and Jazz Twemlow (ABC2’s ‘The Roast’), though there did seem more than that, Dane did a spot too. All the comedians performed well considering the audience were all trying to pretend they weren't really there! Actually, there was little crowd questioning so we all could have relaxed!
It was a good night out, cheap too at just $15 which includes a Magners! So, if you fancy a laugh or trying to disguise yourself as a black wall for the night head to the Laugh Stand at the FBi Social. The next show is on Wednesday 18 September.

Dane Hiser: Settle Down - Review

Reviewed by Jasmine Crittenden
Dane Hiser’s comedic style is of the self-deprecating variety. His Sydney Comedy Festival show, held at Marrickville’s Factory Theatre in April, set the tone from the get-go.

While the audience watched a dark stage, embellished with only a television and a microphone stand, a voiceover struggled to announce the name of the main act, stumbling over several absurd yet laughable variations until Dane emerged.

Awkwardly introducing himself as a ‘ladies’ man’, the kind that women yearn to take home, he proved his point with the evidence: ‘Just look at me.’This ironic type of self-assessment resurfaced again and again during the next hour.

Dane certainly has the wry expressions and appropriate sense of timing to carry off such characterisation, but there were moments when the ‘ladies’ man’ quip lost its effect, simply because it was too-oft repeated.

Some of the most entertaining moments were those featuring the more quirky and creative ideas. The television was employed as a conduit for a series of rather bizarre and amusing, ‘self-promoting’ ads, and a song about a romance with an ‘IKEA’ girl, whose ‘heart comes in fifteen parts’ was undeniably clever, provoking quite a few laughs.

Dane is a comedian with promise. His script could do with some tightening and polishing, in order to cut out redundancies and increase the frequency of the wittier, more original material.