The guidebooks rave about how friendly and relaxed people in Brisbane are. It is true apart from if you are standup comic doing new act gigs on the Sit Down Comedy Club Nursery circuit. My first gig was in Kedron. It was a decent space and a big crowd. Unfortunately there were a group of lager swilling, middle-aged lawn bowlers, who had decided to get wasted and weren't interested in the comedy. There were alot of them and they dominated the room. They were also vocal in their disinterest in the comedy. Somewhat ironically the most obnoxious and loud members of the group were policemen. I was on in the second half and I didn't grab their attention so they just talked amongst themselves. To be fair every act struggled, and those that tried to take them on came across poorly. The MC was the only guy who managed to do a decent job and I think that was partly down to him looking like an Aussie bloke. My second gig was in New Farm. I was on first and seemed to make as much impression on the audience as someone farting. Noticeable, somewhat worth a chuckle, but not important. I did make a bit of a foolish choice in my intro by deciding to rant about the rudeness of staff at Queensland Rail, possibly not the best thing for an outsider to do. The frustrating thing with both gigs is that with the audience not interested and not reacting your routine comes across as over-rehearsed and tired. Whereas infront of a crowd who are hanging off your every word it appears that you are a great improviser making it up as you go along. It was worth doing the gigs to get more experience under the belt, but that doesn't stop it from being irritating.
Brisbane is a great city. The central business district has all the flashiness of Sydney & Melbourne but is much smaller. There are lots of cafes and green spaces with the river following the southern edge of the city centre. There are lots of things to do and see. I prefered Brisbane to Melbourne, which is a controversial opinion to hold. I stayed in Banana Benders backpackers, not a gay nightclub, though it is packed with Germans (apparently it features on a German backpacking website). Next door to the hostel is a Gentlemens Club, Bad Girls, and next door to that is a born again Christian centre, 'Christ is coming to reign over us'. I would like to know who in the council decided that putting these 3 establishments next to each other would be a good idea. I watched the FA Cup Final in the hostel, which was a bit strange. I didn't realise how much Germans enjoy England getting knocked out of football competitions. I thought the rivalry was more on our side, but apparently not. The girls from Byron persuaded me to go with them to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It was much better than I expected. There were a ridiculous number of Koalas, so much so that after a couple of hours the girls were no longer that impressed by them. I also saw Koalas walking around and jumping (I didn't realise that they could). They have a Kangaroo enclosure where you can walk among them and feed them. They are just like dogs and completely indifferent to people. It was amazing to see Joeys', hiding in Mum's pouch. They also fed Rainbow Lorikeet Parrots which was amazing. You see them along the coast but to get that close to them was brilliant.
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