Putting the Pen Away for Another Year

Tony Martin, Charlie Pickering and Steve Tolz

Saturday at the Fest was an easy one with just the one session, a look at comedy with Tony Martin, Charlie Pickering (oh come on, he's cute as a button,but surely he can only be 12) and Steve Tolz. Sadly the session was chaired by the person who put twit into twitter, the vile Catherine Deveny.  If I'd known she would be part of the session I wouldn't have booked for it! Self serving comes to mind when the theme of the session turned out to be 'offense'.  Yes let's all talk about how sensitive people are when all a comic is trying to do is make us laugh, sure it can sometimes be uncomfortable but don't we all secretly enjoy being made to 'squirm'.  Oh dear. Of course I agree no-one actually has a right to not be offended in life but that doesn't mean that we all don't have the right to feel offended when an insensitive, inappropriate joke is made by some half witted smart ass who has lost all sense of decency and thinks the world revolves arround them and the are the centre of the comedy universe. Yes I know some people take it too far (the offensirati)and can't laugh at anything a bit 'out there' but so what, why not let us just laugh at what is funny,life and people are absurd enough we don't have to be outrageous always to make people laugh. Maybe a bit of growing up sometimes would not go astray.

Now the rant is out of the way, the boys were pretty entertaining and the topic obviously peaked my interest. I chatted to tony afterwards as I had loved his latest book and he was as pleasant in reality as he comes across in his writing, oh and he's genuinely funny. Ms D - give it a rest, you screwed up badly and you unfortunately showed your cards, live with it.

Today two sessions to finish off the Fest for me.

Luang Namtha - Jack Faine photo

First up the streets of Melbourne were all but deserted as I walked from near the Arts Centre to Fed Square to ACMI 1 for a slide night with Jon and Jack Faine.  Some great stories (and slides) of their driving holiday that took them from Melbourne, through China, Mongolia the 'Stans', Turkey, France and into London over six months.  A brave and challenging trip with great stories.I waiver in my liking for Faine but this was a charming and absorbing hour and loved the photos. This was one of the few 'full house' sessions I went to at the Fest.  Don't know if it's just my imagination that the numbers seem to be down this year.

After a short coffee break it was into the BMW Edge for a session featuring William Shawcross.  most recently he wrote the mammoth 'official' biography of the Queen Mother but has also written bios of the Shah, Rupert Murdoch and Alexander Dubcek.  Lots of interesting stuff: the tradition is that the official biography of a Royal can only be written after the death of the subject and that person is selected by the 'firm'. He was given total unhindered access to the Royal archives, the QM;s letters and papers and his book contains a lot of her personal letters. The only real 'intervention' came when he submitted the text to the Queen for review.  It  came back with only a couple of fact corrections ( a date here and there) but no edits or requests for changes. He read one very moving journal entry she wrote in 1939 on the day Hitler invaded Poland and the British PM announced they were now at war with Germany.  She speaks of going back to her room and praying with the King for peace and then feeling the tears on her cheeks and she thinks of the affect the war will have on 'the people' and how hard it will be for many of them. Interesting to think this was someone who had no formal education and was from immense privilege and yet had compassion for others.  She had been brought up to know obligation, discretion and restraint and to have a love of family, a love of God and a love of Country. Towards the end the family called her the 'Imperial Ostrich' because she simply wouldn't involve herself in any of the dramas the family went through. She seems to have copped criticism for not taking a stand when Charles and Di were splitting up but this was a 92 year old woman, what would she think she might add?

So another Fest over for another year.  Readings can pack up its store, Fed Square tenants can get back to the normal , the writers probably have a few more stories to swap at dinner parties and the literary luvvies can take it easy again for a while. Maybe they can stop and think how to queue properly, why it might not be nicer if they didn't yabber when event speakers are having their say, check the times of events (never known so many late comers as this year) and use a bit of common sense when getting into a signing line (shouldn't have been as hard as some made it this year, the lines were never very long), try saying 'excuse me' when you step in front of someone to get to a seat (and try staying in that seat when there are people still finding theirs) and if yo bump someone with your bag might I recommend a courteous apology? Ignorance is not always bliss and it's NEVER becoming, no matter what age you are.

It's been, for me, one of the best Fests...I'm looking forward to 2011 already.