Annual Comedy Gala — The Shovel

Annual Comedy Gala

The War on 2023: Annual Comedy Gala

Some of the biggest names in Australian satire are once again joining forces for their annual assault on politics, current events and the absurdity of modern life.

Join Mark Humphries (ABC’s 7:30), Charles Firth (The Chaser), James Schloeffel (The Shovel), and musical comedy genius Gabbi Bolt (“Best Newcomer” – Sydney Comedy Festival) as they dissect the best and worst bits of 2023, live on stage.

Now in its seventh year, the show is a non-stop barrage of one-liners, satirical sketches, audience quizzes, musical numbers and the best headlines from The Chaser and The Shovel. Touring nationally at the end of each year, the ‘War on’ Gala has become one of the must-see shows of the year.

Praise for previous shows:

★★★★ “A cut above the rest” – The Adelaide Advertiser

★★★★★ “Exquisite” – Weekend Notes

★★★★★ “The second best satirical supergroup after Sky News After Dark” – Peta Credlin

★ “Needs more detail” – Peter Dutton

Tickets – on sale soon

CENTRAL COAST
Laycock Street Theatre, Wednesday 22nd November, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

NEWCASTLE
City Hall, Thursday 23rd November, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

WOLLONGONG
Town Hall, Friday 24th November, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

PERTH
Regal Theatre, Saturday 25th November, 7:00pm BUY TICKETS

HOBART
Theatre Royal, Wednesday 29th November, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

ADELAIDE
Royalty Theatre, Thursday 30th November, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

BRISBANE
Brisbane Powerhouse, Friday 1st December, 8:15pm BUY TICKETS

CAIRNS
Tanks Arts Centre, Saturday 2nd December, 7pm BUY TICKETS

BATHURST
BMEC, Tuesday 5th December, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

CANBERRA
Canberra Theatre, Wednesday 6th December, 7:30pm BUY TICKETS

SYDNEY
Enmore Theatre, Thursday 7th December, 7:30pm BOOK TICKETS

MELBOURNE
The Atheneaum, Friday 8th and Saturday 9th December, 6pm BOOK TICKETS

Meet the cast

Mark Humphries

Best known for his viral political sketches, Mark is the resident satirist on ABC’s 7.30. He was the host of the quiz show Pointless on Network 10, and has also made appearances on Celebrity Letters and Numbers, The Cook Up, Show Me The Movie, and Hughesy We Have A Problem. He presented a weekly comedy segment on ABC News’ The World in 2018 and has been a regular on ABC’s Insiders since 2016.

Mark has also worked in radio on the ABC and Triple M, created the Audible Original series Riot Act and co-authored the book On Politics and Stuff.

Most recently Mark co-wrote and co-hosted the ABC90 Special, celebrating 90 years of the ABC, and hosted the 2023 Parliamentary Midwinter Ball. He also won Celebrity Mastermind but never likes to bring it up.

 

 

Gabbi Bolt

Gabbi became on overnight sensation in 2020 when she started posting one-minute auspol musicals on TikTok. She even sang a duet with Kevin Rudd.

Her fame then expanded globally when she was involved with the Broadway fundraiser “Ratatouille; the TikTok Musical”, where her song Trash is our Treasure was performed by Whose Line is it Anyway star Wayne Brady.

Her debut solo comedy show, I Hope My Keyboard Doesn’t Break won her the 2022 Moosehead Award, the Adelaide Fringe weekly award and Best Newcomer at the Sydney Comedy Festival. The Adelaide Advertiser described Gabbi as ‘an icon in the making’.

When asked about Gabbi, Wil Anderson said “If you want to be the kind of person that can say ‘I saw Tim Minchin before he was big’ Gabbi’s that sort of act.”

 

Charles Firth

Charles is a founding member of The Chaser, the inventor of the decimal system and the co-host of The Chaser Report, a top-30 Australian podcast.

He is author of the bestselling non-fiction narrative, American Hoax and currently managing editor of The Chaser website and The Chaser Annuals.

Charles has produced television comedy for almost two decades. He was executive producer of ABC-TV’s daily news satire show The Roast and the comedy documentary Mr Firth Goes to Washington (nominated for Most Outstanding Comedy Logie). Before that he was the US correspondent for the Logie winning The Chaser’s War on Everything. He was a presenter and writer on CNNNN, The Chaser Decides and The Election Chaser. In 2020, he produced, and co-wrote The War on 2020 online series.

 

James Schloeffel

James Schloeffel is the brains behind The Shovel, a side project he started in 2012 which has since grown to become one of the most influential comedy outlets in the country.

James’s work has been referred to in Parliament, Senate Estimates, The Economist and, most notably, Insight English Skills Year 9, Queensland edition.

James has written and performed in a number of critically acclaimed live shows including ‘The Anti Experts Guide to Everything’, ‘Spin’, ‘The War On’ series and ‘Wankernomics’.

In a previous life, James worked as a copywriter, gained a degree in Economics and was an extra in a direct-to-DVD movie starring Kylie Minogue. Although the less said about that the better.

Some of our previous work