Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2021 will see the debut of Limbrick’s show, The Last Blockbuster on Earth.
After being stuck in Perth for much of 2020, Scott Limbrick is back in Melbourne to debut his new comedy show, The Last Blockbuster on Earth, at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
If Limbrick had to describe the show in one word, it’d be “unexpected”.
Limbrick recently performed it at Perth’s Fringe World Festival, and says he’s excited to be back in Melbourne where he can showcase it before friends and family.
“[I’m] looking forward to performing and sharing it with people here, and especially with friends, and people on the comedy scene here as well. In Perth, I didn’t really know anyone, so it was kind of all to strangers,” he says.
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In his latest show, which invites its audience inside a Blockbuster store (the last on earth) perched atop a mountain, Limbrick examines movie genres and tropes that “feel weird” or “don’t match each other”. He promises that the show will be “a pretty fast-paced run of different characters in genres, in a strange setting”.
“Just strange, odd, sad people just trying to deal with where they are in their lives in crazy, odd ways, and with very different energies.”
Some such characters include an assassin/Microsoft Excel champion, the calmest, most relaxing nightmare you’ve ever seen, and the world’s most famous (and only) math prodigy turned synth superstar.
For Limbrick, it feels good to finally be able to perform at MICF, especially after last year’s festival, when he was originally supposed to debut The Last Blockbuster on Earth, was cancelled.
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The silver lining of a 2020 stuck in Perth? Limbrick admits last year’s downturn gave him the opportunity to refine his material.
“I brainstormed a few [sketches] while in quarantine, but it’s hard ‘cos you can’t test the material live, or do it in any way,” he says. “But doing Perth, I got to test it, and then between now and then I’ve been able to change a few things. Definitely while writing some of the stories and things, I adapted some of those into characters or shifted things around.
“[COVID] definitely gave me almost too much time to think about it, and also try things at home that I wouldn’t usually do. I had a lot of time to think about it. It’s different to what it would have been last year, but I think for the better.”
When he’s not performing surreal character sketches, Limbrick is a writer, and has previously had his fictional work published in The Suburban Review and Westerly. His non-fictional works have appeared in publications like VICE, Junkee and Meanjin, among many others. Limbrick has also presented for Comedy Central UK, and contributed to the BBC, ABC and SBS Comedy.
The thing Limbrick is most looking forward to at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival is the return of collaboration – one of the many beauties of having hundreds of talented comedians in the one place at the one time.
“[Comedy is] always collaborative, and getting to test things and try it at different nights, and see what other people are doing is always really exciting. I’ve made a big list of shows to see as well, which is exciting to be able to see those and kind of build that community back into the comedy scene, and in Melbourne as well,” he says.
The Last Blockbuster on Earth comes to Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2021 from Friday March 26 to Sunday April 18 (Fridays to Sundays only). Grab tix here.
