Lunchbox/Soapbox: Melbourne International Comedy Festival

Jamie Kilstein

‘Watching Jamie reminds me of why I got into comedy. It is like watching a combination of George Carlin and Bill Hicks’ Janeane Garofalo 

‘There are few truly insightful, passionate and hysterically funny political comedians around, and even fewer coming out of the States. New Yorker Jamie Kilstein is a shining light probing into the murkier corners of the religious right and corrupt politics of his homeland. Funny and penetrating, he’s taken Bill Hicks’ baton and run with it.’ Time Out London 

‘Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny have created an important political radio show that balances humor and unreported news. At a time when media conglomerates dominate the airwaves, independent media like Citizen Radio is vital to national discourse.’ Naom Chomsky

‘Jamie Kilstein is one of the funniest and smartest humans on the planet: his rocket-powered wit leaves you gasping – for more: sheer brilliance.’ Philosopher and Professor A.C Grayling

Lunchbox/Soapbox is a simple idea; an old-fashioned Speakers’ Corner in the middle of the city, in the middle of the day.

At the Wheeler Centre we’re keen to showcase our writers as thinkers and as artists, as people with passions and peccadilloes. So we’ve come up with Lunchbox/Soapbox: a weekly space for them to sound off on a topic of their choice. Think of it as a 20-minute piece of polemic to give lunching CBD folk something to chew on.

The themes will be idiosyncratic: from pop-cultural analysis to high cultural criticism; from political grandstanding to personal mischief-making. But they’ll all be thought-provoking. Bring your lunch along to this bite-sized session.