Nicholas J Johnson, Australia's Honest Conman, staged the second edition of Mellbourne's monthly variety show on Wednesday.
A packed house at 303 High St Northcote enjoyed a diverse collection of some of Melbourne's strangest acts.
The night kicked off at 7.30pm at with Nicholas J Johnson warming the audience up with some great comedy before introducing DJ and Christy Shelper, the world's only fork-throwing act. No gimmicks, just real forks and real danger. Where else can you see an act like that?
Chris Morant was up next with a frenetic display of juggling and balancing with hats, cups and canes, and he was followed, oddly enough, by pikelet cooking... (you had to be there). Comedian Michael Connell closed act 1 with a set of very original comedy. I loved his take on having a work-experience comedian.
Act 2 began with me, Tim Ellis, doing razorblade eating, and enhancing the effect with live video and a big screen. This really helped the next trick as well as I sliced my finger with a stanley knife. I wrapped up my set with 'Insanity', Russian Roulette with a broken beer bottle. (I love that trick!)
Nicholas returned and re-introduced Chris Morant who gave a dazzling display of whip-cracking, and glammed up the act with a sexy apron for his volunteer. Nicholas challenged the audience to a game of poker, and won with six of a kind, and then introduced the musical act of the night, The Melbourne Ukulele Kollective. Eleven ukelelists playing classic tunes like '5 foot 2' and 'You Are My Sunshine' mixed up with tunes by The Kinks and Elvis Presley.
That brought the night to a reluctant close, but fear not, the Catch Penny Club returns to 303 on July 27 with even more amazing acts. Take a look at next month's line up HERE.
