Bob Franlkin: Sir Robert's History of Horror, MICF, Melbourne town hall

Bob Franklin is probably not the hippest or edgiest of comedians - his style of surrealist-dad-joke territory probably feels hopelessly old-fashioned to some. But I still like it - it's got a kinda retro-comfort to it, and he's never entirely resting on his laurels as I've seen some legacy comedians do. His latest show is a combined history-of-horror with its own side little horror story embedded in it. Part of the charm of the show is the obviousness of some of the jokes - and there's a good attempt to build atmosphere between the set, lighting and sound design. That atmosphere is slightly broken by location (a room on the corner of the Melbourne town hall means that it gets sound bleed both from the tram noises in the street, and a louder show elsewhere in the venue) - but Franklin still manages to get the tone between horror and comedy pretty much right - it's a show that keeps you right up until the final twist.