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Stand up comedy by day and the best in burlesque and cabaret at night from an array of weird and wonderful performers…  with lots of disco dancing thrown in the mix.

  • Hott Roxx will be bringing their hilarious travelling radio roadshow to the festival, expect fun, games and lots of silliness from the faux Hawkesbury Hot Roxx FM.  Running a mok on Saturday, the tag team of Chocolate Greg Sivic and Jeff Stroker will be presenting an awards special, with all the glitz and glamour of the Logies, they will be crowning a winner of the Interpretive Dance Championships (the infamous IDCs).


 

  • Love Bombs will be hosting Friday night’s kooky entertainment. What started out as an idea on the way home from a Stevie concert while listening to softrock ballads, expect tunes that inspire passion, body rolls, smiles, the occasional sing-along, high fives and fist pumps. 
  • Catch the naughty nuns from East London who will be running riot down at Del Rio. Tasked with sorting the sinners from the saints, they’ll entice you to reveal all in their strictly confidential Confession Booth.

  • Fresh from throwing down “the funk” in laneways & park side block parties, the Soul of Sydney DJs will be dropping everything from afro-funk, latin breaks and boogie vibrations in Sunday’s extended party set. Pick your afro & iron those those flairs as because they will be joined by the iniquitous Block Party Soul Train Dancers who will also be paying special compliment to the late Don Cornelius with their own Playground Weekender Riverside Soul Train…departing anywhere you can hear bass!
  • Matt Tremoni’s Wedding Disco Roadshow - Direct from the wine bars and community centres of suburban west London –  and a recent misunderstanding with the UK tax authorities – Matt Tremoni brings his legendary wedding disco experience to Australian shores. So young or old, hipster or hip replacement, expect to kick off your stilettos, tie your ties around your heads and walk like an Egyptian…with a love of communal dancing, pop and novelty classics from yesteryear and the works of Dennis Waterman and Diamond Lights expect the time of your life as we kick off the weekend with the warmest of receptions…
  • Shake n Bake Allstars -  They’re back, although they’ve never been here before, for a night of anthems – from rock anthems to dance anthems to national anthems. Door prizes, musical statues and beat mixing will all be on display! “If I didn’t have a proper career these guys are who I would aspire to be like” David Guetta.

  • ‘Hoop Girl’ Adriana creates a hooping storm wherever she performs. Incorporating hula-hoops and luminous lassos, try and keep up as this little pocket rocket uses her hands, arms, feet, legs, neck, head and more to spin her magical glowing web, leaving spectators spell bound!

  • Ellika, roving performer, live installation, teacher and hula hoop extraordinaire will be wondering the Playground Weekender festival mesmerizing all with her rhythmic hips and spell binding performances.Catch just a single glimpse of Ellika’s act and you too will want to learn the art of Hula! Which is lucky because Ellika is ready and willing to share all her hooping secrets with you through her workshops! Grab your mates, have a play and let the festival fun begin!
    Like her on Facebook

 

  • Like your Dolly Barton mixed in with your Biggie Smalls? Well you’re not alone! The Essential Stix, a geezer from London town, wouldn’t serve it up to you any other way.Having played alongside some of the big boys including The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and Justice, The Essential Stix knows his ‘party rocking’ from his ‘power mixing’.Find him throwing down shapes tarted up and ready to strut in Strictly Prancing!http://www.notanotherdiscoparty.com
  • Matt and Angel of Future Sound of Yoga will be bringing their fusion of yoga, dance and music to a live DJ to the Strictly Prancing. Their classes which have attracted a cult following, combine Hatha poses, Viyasa sequences and freeform dance to a cutting edge soundtrack.   Their sessions at last year’s Playground Weekender saw an unprecedented number of people get involved, make sure you don’t miss the action – this is yoga as you’ve never seen it before.They will be running 2 sessions in the Strictly Prancing tent: Saturday 10am Flow Class, Sunday 11am Yin Yoga.Stretch off, chill out and start the day afresh!www.futuresoundofyoga.com


 

    • Picking up on the tastes of Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Colin Curtis, and Arthur Fenn it’s no surprise that Rob Goodburn’s selection of music is limited by simply one thing, it’s got to be good!Sharing a residency with Jose Padilla at the legendary Cafe Del Mar Ibiza get ready to be taken to the Balearic’s!

  • The Sydney University Recreational Circus Arts Society, or SURCAS for short, features members teaching and performing an array of crazy and daring circus acts. From magic tricks and complex object manipulation, to juggling, acrobatic performances and areal trapeze. Come and get in on the act with SURCAS at Strictly Prancing.
  • ‘Umbrella Theatre‘ is a mini pop-up theatre that can go anywhere your imagination can take you!Performing along side a range of unique performers, Sydney based puppetry collective Thunderkat & Lady Koko, bring their intimate audience a variety of twisted, funny and absurd puppetry shows.http://umbrellatheatre.com.au

 

 

AMANDA GRAY

She’s one of the Wild Women of Comedy. A deadpan super bitch with brilliant timing. She’s dynamite with a laser beam and guaranteed to blow your mind.

 

 

ANDREW WOLFE

One of many unwanted births in the 1980’s

Awards:
5 stars=***** not **** ; Green Faces National Finalist 2011;

Quotes:
“Put the knife down you sick f$ck!” – NSW Police Constable: Kings Cross (near water fountain)

“I saw you eating shit up there” & later “Just walk away” – Wil Anderson

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” – Oscar Wilde

 

 

ARNIE PIE

Arnold has been embarrassing himself on stage for a few years now, bombing at comedy venues across the city of Sydney. He’s even stretched his failures over to Melbourne & New York City.

In other news, Bruce Griffiths (Stand up comic, Writer for Good News Week) has stated that Arnold, “Walked on like he was born to do it & proceeded to tear the roof off” & “Think an Asian Jim Carrey – the best aspects of Jim Carrey”.
Growing up as a kid, Arnold had a phobia of buttons.

 

 

CHRISTINA VAN LOOK

History teacher by day, comedy star by night, in her first two years alone Christina Van Look launched from the Raw Comedy Finals to share the main stage with local and international comedy greats including Danny Bhoy, Fiona O’laoughlin and Good News Week’s Mikey Robbins. You may have seen her in The World’s Biggest Comedy Show, Best in Live Comedy, 60 in 60 and the 2011 Comedy Festival’s ‘Mother of All Galas’.

“One of the funniest women in comedy!”  - Mikey Robbins

“The difference between Christina and other new comics is that Christina is actually funny.”  - Chris Wainhouse

“Her gag about her ex-husband is now one of my all-time favourites. Genius!” - Fiona O’Loughlin

 

 

DAIN HEDGPETH

Dain Hedgpeth’s cheeky antagonism is energizing and improves libido. Ever since placing as a state finalist in Triple J’s nationwide Raw Comedy Competition, Dain has thrust onto (and sometimes, off of) stages around Australia, as well as Europe and the US for the last seven years.

A Playground Weekender veteran, he has supported the likes of Steve Hughes, Kitty Flanagan and Eddie Ifft. Dain is a charming new comic on the rise.

“Deeply and profoundly funny” -Dave Jory, Triple J

 

 

FRANCINE FERRERA

Francine Ferrera, is an American stand-up comedian currently living and performing in Sydney, Australia. Relatively new to the circuit, Francine has performed all over Sydney this past year. Francine’s jokes revolve around being an American in Australia, office work, popular culture and dating.

 

LUKE ESCOMBE 

From sweaty tin shacks in rural Queensland to a speaker’s podium at Parliament House by way of the Melbourne Comedy Festival and Edinburgh Fringe, Luke Escombe was all over the place in 2011. His one-man show CHRONIC was filmed by the ABC and picked up 5-star reviews , while his rocking 4-piece band “Luke Escombe and The Corporation” stormed the national radio charts and made new friends up and down the East coast with their hit song “Drop tha Bomb”. Luke ended the year with headline shows at the Peats Ridge Festival and the title of “Sydney’s sexiest man voice”, as voted for by the listeners of Mix 106.5FM. His one man show CHRONIC was recently nominated for a Green Room award in the category of “best original songs” and he has started 2012 with headline slots at the Northern Beaches music festival and Adelaide Fringe.

 

 

MARTY BRIGHT

He is 23 years of age, he is on his L’s and has possums in his roof but that’s not all folks…

Marty Bright is a rising comic of Sydney Stand Up scene, performing all over the city and beyond with his unique blend of observational humor mixed with some bizzarely accurate physical caricatures.

Venues in Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle have hosted Marty “Habib” Bright with performances soon to come at Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festivals.

Catch this young gun, or if you don’t believe in guns, catch this young personification of non-violent resistence, so you can say ” I knew him when…..he struggled to write his own bio”

 

 

MAT WAKEFIELD

Mat Wakefield’s comedy career began back in the 1980s at the ripe old age of 7, re-citing monologues from Eddie Murphy ‘Raw’ to horrified onlookers. 20 years on he decided he better write some of his own material.

In 2009, his first year as a ‘real’ comedian he made the final for ‘Quest for the Best’ and won ‘Comedy Court’.In 2010 he co-wrote, directed and starred in the sold out sketch comedy showcase ‘Shenanigans’ at the Sydney Comedy Festival, which received ”rave” reviews, despite being a comedy show. In 2011 he has continued progressing through the comedy ranks, taking on regular MC gigs around Sydney.

Most recently, he wrote this blurb about himself and felt like a bit of a tosser.

 

 

FRANCINE FERRERA

Francine Ferrera, is an American stand-up comedian currently living and performing in Sydney, Australia. Relatively new to the circuit, Francine has performed all over Sydney this past year. Francine’s jokes revolve around being an American in Australia, office work, popular culture and dating.


MICK MEREDITH

Mick Meredith began performing his strange and unique no-frills brand of comedy in 1998. With a truckload of one-liners, bizzare observations and a guitar, Mick is now a regular on the NRL Footy Show and the prestigious cruise ship gigs comedians aspire to. He’s been chosen to feature for the likes of Anh Do, Adam Hills and Kath & Kim’s Peter Rowsthorn as well as touring regularly as a headliner in his own right.

 

 

PRETTY PLAIN

Two girls, two guitars, too much information.

Pretty Plain is a musical comedy duo made up of Hayley Neal and Lucy Mills. Their songs range from sarcastic commentaries to clever, catch parodies. Runners-Up in their Raw Comedy heat for the second year running, these chicks are going places

 

 

RAY BADRAN

- Regular at the Laugh Garage Comedy Club and Sydney Comedy Store
- Performed on the Footy Show
- Performed at the Homebake Music Festival
- Performed across Australia
- Performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival & Sydney Comedy Festival
- Grand finals of the World Strawberry Eating Championship.

 

 

SASHA MARX

In the space of 18 months, Sacha Marx has become a regular on the Sydney Comedy scene and has performed with the likes of Tony Woods, Gabriel Iglesias, Will Anderson and Jim Gaffigan. Marx has a unique stage presence and his clever take on the world has made many take notice.

 

 

UMIT BALI

Umit Bali is a rising star in the Australian stand-up comedy scene and a regular favourite at the Sydney Comedy Clubs… Umit hits the stage so excitable and dedicated to making audiences laugh that he has to pace himself just to get through his set. He is one of Sydney’s most entertaining new comedians; Umit Bali is one to watch.

 

 

ZOE PELBART

Zoe has the look of a newsreader, the body of a cheerleader and the brain of an astronaut. But Zoe ain’t a laurel resting kind of girl, she happily leaves all these natural attributes in her handbag once she walks onstage. Audiences will laugh, cry and wonder whether they have been kidnapped as Zoe imparts the Pelbartan version of life.  ”Where the hell does she come up with this? Where are we?  Who are we? HELP’. Zoe doesn’t just entertain her audience, she slaps them into a new reality. Zoe frequents all top rooms in Sydney and has been fortunate enough to support big names, including Wil Anderson, Akmal Saleh and Claire Hooper.