Many serious environmental issues face our world today. This session will not seriously explore any of them. Instead, Claudia O’Doherty, winner of the 2010 Best Newcomer Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, will warm up your brain muscle and equip you with some of the skills required to get the most out of the Ideas Festival: the ability to tell serious from satirical, the ability to engage your neighbour in conversation, and the ability to be amazed by lasers. There will be lasers.

Claudia O’Doherty
Winner of the Best Newcomer 2010 at the Melbourne Comedy Festival and Best Comedy 2009 at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Claudia O’Doherty is well qualified to make you laugh. Daughter of musician, Reg Mombassa, Claudia has inherited a strong grasp of the absurd, a trait that is on show in her performances. Her latest show, What is soil erosion? brings to the table Claudia’s clever brand of silliness, acting and comedy.