If there's one thing people like more than a laugh it's the chance to talk your ear off, and Yack Fest will have both. For their inaugural comedy bonanza, or "two weeks of banging on" as they've put it, Giant Dwarf has gathered the country's most celebrated chatty Cathys and gabby Garys.
Get Krakin and The Katering Show's amazing Kates, McCartney and McLennan, will be there in Konversation with author and journalist Benjamin Law. Zan Rowe and Myf Warhurst are recording the first ever live edition of Bang On and The Chaser will open up on their epic APEC motorcade stunt. Tom Ballard will discuss "race, history, China and Australian identity" with Stan Grant for his podcast Like I'm A Six-Year-Old. "The podcast has been running for almost three years now," says Ballard. "For our live show people will be able to see and smell and potentially feel us in the flesh, plus ask questions in an audience Q&A."
It's a genuine cavalcade of comedians, authors, filmmakers, podcasters and panellists, the only binding requirement being that they not be able to shut up - something that the Reilly sisters happily ascribe to. "When Eliza was in kindergarten she was terrified because she legit thought that she talked so much she would use up her quota of words," shares Hannah Reilly. "We're happy to announce she hasn't and she's still yacking away at an unprecedented rate." For Yack Fest, the Growing Up Gracefully co-creators plan to finally put the question 'is sport cool?' to bed in The Yarramadoon PS Debaters Night, which will stick two teams in kinda unflattering costumes and pit them against each other in "fierce debate".
"Set in the fictitious town of Yarramadoon," expands Hannah, "the night takes place in a rural junior school consisting of not much more than a funnel web-infested sandpit and concrete toilet block.
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"We've been doing Yarramadoon for a couple of years now. It's a fun, bonkers spectacle watching your favourite writers and comics dressed up in uniforms and floppy hats! A highlight was selling out at Sydney Writers Fest last year and we're so excited to ramp it up for Yack Fest."
As a co-founder of The Chaser, Dom Knight admits he rarely zips it unless "ordered to do so by a court or by the mandate of the British royal family". Knight has been double billed for the festival - hosting both The Double Disillusionists and Festival of Genuinely Dangerous Ideas.
"The Double Disillusionists," tells Knight, "is a comedy talk show slash podcast about Australian politics that brings together renowned commentators and avowed smartarses for discussion and drinking. It's strictly for political tragics. Whereas the Festival of Genuinely Dangerous Ideas is a long-overdue parody of a ridiculous festival that's now been cancelled anyway."
When asked what it takes to make a comedy festival standout from the pack Knight jokes, "Many hundreds of events in and around the Melbourne Town Hall, of course. But I'm really excited about Yack too - it has heaps of my favourite comedians and Giant Dwarf events all in the one line-up. Oh, and it has those Chaser idiots banging on about APEC again."
