Author: lawrence

A brand new live show for the Melbourne and Sydney comedy festivals!

LAWRENCE LEUNG’S PART TIME DETECTIVE AGENCY

Lawrence wants to be like Sherlock. All he needs is a case to solve, a loyal assistant and a nemesis. Apply within.

Taking cues from the world’s greatest sleuth, Lawrence battles wits, exposes lies and uncovers hidden truths. Can anyone become a great detective or is he just deceiving himself?

The new show from the beardy guy behind Lawrence Wants A Jetpack and Lawrence Learns to Breakdance (Winner Age Critics’ Award 2007 Melbourne International Comedy Festival) and the ABC TV comedy shows Choose Your Own Adventure and Unbelievable.

Nice words about his previous show:

“FOUR STARS” – The Times (UK)

“Leung really knocks it out of the park. FOUR STARS” – Herald Sun

“A master storyteller with spot-on comic timing.” – The West Australian

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9Gvs9Mh8SA

MELBOURNE COMEDY FESTIVAL

Tickets CLICK HERE

March 28-April 21

Swiss Club, 89 Flinders Lane, Melbourne CBD

Tue-Sat 9.30pm, Sun 8.30pm

SYDNEY COMEDY FESTIVAL

Tickets  CLICK HERE

Wednesday 24 – 28 April

The Factory Theatre, Marrickville

Wed-Sat 9:15pm, Sunday 8:15pm

Plus extra show just announced for Sydney:

Tue 30 April, 7:15PM

The Concourse, Chatswood, NSW

CLICK HERE

Three weeks before the Mayan Calendar’s Apocalypse, Lawrence was a guest speaker at the 2012 Australian Skeptics National Convention.

photo: Mark Hassed

Despite the title, skeptics do seem to believe in things – like defending science and ‘calling bullshit’ over media myths, medical hoaxes and bogus scientific claims. They do this online, in courtrooms, in the media and mostly over beers in the pub, but this time they gathered at Melbourne Uni’s Spot Theatre for two days of panels with scientists, educators, critical thinking activists and exposers of quackery.

photo: Mark Hassed

Speakers include McKinnon Secondary’s maths teacher Adam Van Langenberg who set up a lunchtime “Sceptic School”, US blogger Rebecca Watson gave a fantastic talk on social media activism. ‘Point of Inquiry’ host and JREF President, DJ Grothe painted picture of pro-science activism in every corner of the globe from US to India. Renowned skeptic James Randi gave a keynote address about his adventurous career as a stage-magician-turned-crusader exposing fraudulant “psychics”, pseudoscientific claims and superstition.

James Randi and Lawrence who hasn’t perfected his sceptical face.

Lawrence spoke about his experiences making “Unbelievable” a globe-trotting 6-part comedy documentary series that investigated the impossible and irrational. Originally pitched as “Ghostbusters meets Mythbusters”, the ABC1 series became a unique and beloved combination of science, psychology and comedy.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnShlXi7gw

Via Powerpoint, nice font choice and painstaking research into what makes TED Talks so “inspirational” (lots of pacing of the stage and ironed shirts tucked in jeans), Lawrence’s presentation went back to where it all began: from debunking Santa at his primary school to explaining how a geek managed to convince a TV network to make a comedy series promoting science and reason. He also covered some fun behind-the-scenes encounters, the reaction to the series both positive and negative, and argued that a vital mix of “entertainment and education” can be so much more than your Year 10 science teacher doing Uranus jokes.

Big congrats to the VicSkeptics for convening the event.

What is a writer? Someone who writes, not talks about writing.

Lawrence is a contributor to the new anthology The Emerging Writer. His piece is about mistaken identity and the funny job of finding ideas for comedy. If you aspire to be a novelist, journalist, blogger, comedian, critic or screenwriter – or just someone who wants to learn how not to procrastinate – this book has some very useful tips from some pretty ace people who do the writing thing for a living.

A better description of the book can be found here and it’s also available in ebook form for those annoying people on trains with cool gadgets.

Lawrence will also appear at the The Emerging Writers’ Festival (May 24 – June 3, 2012) a Melbourne institution that prides on calling itself the “Festival For Writers”.  There’s forums, panels, performances and cerebral piss-ups. There’s even a Spelling Bee competition where editors and writers can go head-to-head, arguing over the correct letters in “bivouacking” and “haemorrhage”.

As one of the “ambassadors” for writers’ conference, Lawrence will appear on panels and workshops about industry relationships, advice for emerging writers and the nitty-gritty of comedy performance. Come and heckle him.