Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 5 April
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Jeez Louise began in Melbourne in 2002 out of a necessity in the comedy industry to hear more stories and laughs from the perspective of women. But we keep learning the same things and having the same discussions. It’s 2018, and we’re done with talking about whether women are as funny as men: we know the answer. For those who don’t vote, it’s yes.
This year’s Jeez Louise conversation will address the #MeToo movement, and what it means for women working in comedy today. In an industry that encourages rawness and vulnerability via humour and personal storytelling, where is the ‘too far’ line in terms of personal revelations? What’s funny and what’s not, when it comes to the sensitive subjects raised by #MeToo – and is there space for respectful disagreement on where we draw the line?
Join a panel of Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s best comedy talent for a civilised discussion about … being uncivil.
This event will be Auslan interpreted.
Presented in partnership with Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Featuring
Nelly Thomas
Nelly Thomas has been described as one of Australia’s most natural comedians. An award-winning performer, she was listed as one of Australia’s 'most innovative thinkers' in the Age's The Zone and was featured on the ABC’s Big Ideas: The Smartest Stuff on TV, Radio and Online.
Nelly is a regular guest on ABC Local Radio and Radio National and writes extensively in the print and online media, including as a columnist for New Matilda.
She has published a memoir, What Women Want (Random House, 2012) and has just released her first children’s book Some Girls (Piccolo Nero, 2018). Some Girls is an early childhood book aimed at fulfilling one of Nelly’s life-long passions – instilling confidence in little girls through challenging gender and other stereotypes. An accompanying book for boys is due out in mid-2018.
Nelly has been a stand-up comedian for 16 years. She stumbled into comedy after winning the Triple J Raw Comedy competition in 2003. Since then she’s done all the things comedians normally do – toured Australia and overseas, established a Melbourne Comedy room and performed at hundreds of gigs and a couple of dozen festivals. She’s also directed shows by some incredible comedians including Maria Bamford, Candy Bowers and Stella Young.
But alongside her normal comedy work, Nelly has forged a specialist career in comedic health promotion and is highly sought after as a health promotion speaker and MC. It is here that she can combine her comedic and communication skills with her passion for health and well-being; as understood in a whole-of-society context.
In 2016 Nelly was very proud to be named an Ambassador for Jean Hailes for Women’s Health – Australia’s leading women’s health organisation.
Nelly lives in Melbourne with her partner Lachlan, their two daughters, a grumpy poodle, a stupid labradoodle and one very resilient goldfish. She is a devotee of terrible reality television and was once an under-13s Girl’s BMX Champion.
Melinda Buttle
Mel Buttle is a comedian and writer. She has a weekly column in the Courier Mail and has written for ABC’s Ronny Chieng International Student, the Drum, ABC3’s You’re Skitting Me, Please Like Me and Network Ten’s This Week Live. Mel has also appeared on Network Ten’s The Project and as a weekly guest on This Week Live, ABC TV’s Tractor Monkeys, Back Seat Drivers and The Weekly with Charlie Pickering.
In 2010 Mel scored a nomination for Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. From then on, she has continued to take her comedy all over Australia, appearing at all of the major comedy festivals, visiting the regions on the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow and supporting the likes of Steven K Amos, Wil Anderson and Josh Thomas on tour. In 2012 she walked away from the Sydney Fringe Festival with their Best Comedy Award for her show Mel Buttle, Stop It You Are! and in 2013 she picked up the Directors’ Choice Award in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for How Embarassment.
Mel has been heard across Australia’s airwaves with Mel’s Strongly Worded Letters, which was a regular segment on triple j’s Breakfast with Tom and Alex. You also may have heard her as a regular guest on ABC Brisbane and on various networks across the country.
In 2015, Mel co-hosted of The Great Australian Bake Off for Foxtel’s LifeStyle Channel alongside Claire Hooper and judges Maggie Beer and Matt Moran. The show’s third season will go to air in early 2018.
Steph Tisdell
Deadly Funny Comedy National Winner 2014, Steph was named Funniest Aboriginal Woman in Australia. She then moved to Scotland and was runner-up in Hilarity Bites Best Newcomer and a semi-finalist in the prestigious ...
Susan Provan
Susan Provan is the Director of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival which, along with the comedy program of the Edinburgh Fringe and the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, makes up a trio of the largest comedy events in the world.
In 2017 the Festival sold over 560,000 tickets, was attended by almost 770,000, and broadcast to millions more across prime time television specials on ABC and SBS. Post-festival the Festival’s Roadshow visited almost 80 tiny towns and big cities from one end of Australia to the other as well as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and four major cities in India.
Susan’s previous roles include Associate Producer of State Theatre Company SA and General Manager of Circus Oz. She is a member of the Administrative Committee and chairs the Comedy Panel for the Helpmann Performing Arts awards as well as regularly judging high-profile comedy awards in the UK and North America. She has served on the boards of Neonheart and Strange Fruit performing arts companies and on the Playing Australia Committee for the Federal Department for the Arts and the Myer Performing Arts Awards Committee.
In 2017 Susan was inducted to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women and earlier this year was acknowledged with a Live Performance Australia Centenary Award for lifetime achievement to Australia’s performing arts industry.
Claire Marshall
Claire is the Principal Advisor for Phase 3 of the Independent Review into sexual harassment, sex discrimination and predatory behaviour in Victoria Police conducted by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. She was Senior Legal Adviser at the Commission for the Phase 2 Review.
Before working at the Commission, Claire worked as a Senior Advisor with a focus on human rights in detention and implementation of the Harper Review at the Department of Justice, and prior to this worked as a solicitor in criminal prosecutions and civil litigation.