Carnival Spirit

04Feb

New Baby!

My wife Sharni and I are proud to announce a new addition to our family – Tarquin Marlo Cameron born 18th Jan 2014. He’s a very healthy little boy weighing in at 4.72 kg (10.4lb)! So it’s fair to say that life has changed quickly around here already. Felix and Sadie are very excited to have a little baby brother and are constantly fascinated by everything from the bathing ritual to the vibrating baby bouncer. The bad news is that after a break of 1 year we’re back in to nappies again and all parents with multiple children know how much that hurts!!

With more mouths to feed I need to bring on the gigs! Luckily there’s lots going on. I’ll be back on the Carnival Spirit cruise ship at the end of February and also at the end of March. I should have many more stories for the crowd by then.

As far as Corporate MCing goes, I’m off to Okinawa, Japan in April followed by Prague, Czech Republic in May. Both are conferences for Citibank South East Asia. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival hits somewhere in the middle and while not performing a show I will be jumping up on stage in a few select rooms.

I also have my new comedy keynote presentation called ‘Brainstuff’ which I’m looking forward to performing around the country this year.

Phew… bring on Feb!


I’ve been having a ball working as a featured comedian on the Carnival Spirit in the last few weeks. Trips to Noumea, Vanuatu and most recently New Zealand. The best part about heading to the ‘land of the long white cloud’ was that it was the first time for most of the international crew onboard. They poured onto the crew only front deck of the huge ship as we entered Milford Sound. Luckily the weather cleared in time for us to take some great pics.

My last trip was Christchurch to Sydney arriving at Circular Quay. By a stroke of good fortune one of my favourite corporate clients called asking me to MC her corporate awards night at the Sydney Opera House. As luck would have it the dates aligned and I stepped off the ship, into a hotel alongside the ship and then I walked to the venue. Perfect! It was a sensational night which ended with a rockin’ set from Mahalia Barnes and Prinnie Stevens.

Finally, I have just returned from MCing the AIME conference ‘Hosted Buyers Breakfast’ for my 3rd year in a row. My job was to write a little comedy spot, warm up the 300+ international guests and introduce the various speakers. The most fun happens at the end when I have to send the audience off into small groups. This year I created a novel way of sending them off. Rather than just calling out their tour numbers I played a song to the whole room. They then had to identify the number referenced in the song before leaving if was theirs. Songs included ‘One’, ‘Four to the Floor’ and ‘Knock Three Times’. They really enjoyed the challenge as some songs were way harder to pick than others.


I don’t know what it is but a crowd on holidays on a ship is something really special. They’re not necessarily comedy experts but they just love to laugh and so make a really honest, committed crowd. Not to mention a large crowd. I tried to count the Versailles Lounge capacity and got lost around 350ish. The mad rush to get in the lounge helps with the sense of anticipation. Especially when there’s up to 1500 upstairs in the main theatre with only a small percentage of the most athletic getting in to my show.

My last cruise from Vanuatu to Sydney had a great group of passengers including lots of large groups; 50 from Sydney, 14 from Adelaide and a whole bunch from QLD. These guys were in great spirits considering many of them didn’t know what they were to find on returning home after the floods.

I had some ripper shows in the Punchliners Comedy Club, especially my late adult shows. Thanks to the crew and my fellow performers Hung Le (see below) and Ben Murphy. Great Fellas!

 

 

Hung Le and friends

Hung Le at Melb Airport with 2 lovely girls off the ship!


It’s been a much busier January than I’m used to. Generally the city slows down and so do I but this year I’ve been on the ship to Noumea then back for some gigs and I’m off again near the end of the month. Feb will be much the same with the Carnival Spirit heading on a new route to New Zealand. The international crew are very excited with many counting the days. I filled a few of them in on Milford Sound and they can’t wait. Actually either can I. Last time I was there was 3 years ago with my brother. We drove for ages only to find it totally fogged in. We snapped a pic of a post card and framed it so it looked real. I can’t wait to be in the middle of it on a 300m long ship! This is the Sapphire Princess not the Carnival Spirit but you get the idea.

Sapphire-Princess-Milford-Sound-420x0

 

Imagine working all day in the galley and missing this view outside. Lucky our stand up shows are at night! Ahh go comedy!