University of New South Wales Revues

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Poster for UNSW Law Revue's 2005 show, The Chronicles of Canberra: The Liar, The Bitch & The Xenophobe.
Isaac Dela Torre performing at the 2017 Law Revue show, Lady and the Trump.

Students produce a number of comedy revues at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia each year. Written and performed by students, the shows comment satirically on current affairs, pop culture, dating and university life. They feature song parodies, short sketches, video segments and dance numbers. The first revue at the university, entitled Low Notes, was organised by the Students' Union in 1956.[1] The first revue by the UNSW Medical Society Revue, held in 1975, was entitled Rumpleforeskin and was quickly followed by the UNSW Law Revue Society's The Assault and Battery Operated Show.

Shows are typically named with a pun on a then-current pop culture reference: usually a movie but computer games, political slogans, television shows and books have also featured.

Since 1975, revues from the Law, Built Environment and Arts faculties, the School of Computer Science, and the university's Jewish community, have all been held. Notably, the UNSW Law Revue Society's 2020 and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Law and Justice Revue was the first video revue and the only revue to be held in 2020 due to disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Operationally, each of the three largest revues (Med, Law and CSE) is a club affiliated to UNSW Arc and subject to the latter's oversight. Revues retain their institutional memory through 'old revuers', participants who come back year after year. Former directors are often invited back to perform voice-overs and critique shows before they go to stage.

Past shows[edit]

Medical Revue[edit]

UNSW Medical Revues[2]
1975 Rumpleforeskin 1976 Pandemonia, or Thanks for the Mammary! 1977 It's Epidemic! 1978 Gross Encounters of the Turd Kind 1979 The Sound of Mucus 1980 My Brilliant Diahorrea
1981 A Wet Summer Night's Dream 1982 Merry Maladies: What's up Doc? 1983 ET: The Extra Testicle 1984 Doctopussy 1985 All Crotches Great & Small 1986 Twilight Moan
1987 Dark Side Of The Toast 1988 Gastro Boy 1989 The Satanic Nurses 1990 Zen Cabbage 1991 Presumed Impotent 1992 Herniator 2
1993 Missing In Traction 1994 All the President's Phlegm 1995 The Symptoms 1996 Glitter 1997 12 Junkies 1998 South Cark
1999 Pre-Millennium Tension 2000 American Booty 2001 Medicator 2002 Stool Wards Episode Poo: Attack Of The Colons 2003 8 Inch 2004 The Cat With The Fat
2005 Mary's Poppin 2006 Thrush Hour 2007 Kill Bulk Bill 2008 Happy Foetus 2009 Pirates of Cardiology: Dead Man's Chest 2010 Procrastinator Infection
2011 Surgery Street 2012 PokéMed: Gotta Cure Ém All 2013 Cirque du Surgery 2014 Peter Pandemic 2015 Super Cardio Bros 2016 Doctor Flu
2017 Booty and the Beast 2018 The Incredipills 2019 The Golden Probe Awards 2021 Breaking Bones 2022 Alice in Rabidland 2023 Despicable Measles

Law Revue[edit]

UNSW Law Revues
1976 The Assault and Battery Operated Show 1977 As Crime Goes Bi 1978 Don't Give me the Writz 1979 Justice You Like It 1980 Evicta: featuring "Don't Lie for me on Subpoena" 1981 A Penny for your Torts
1982 If They Could Sue Me Now 1983 Commission Impossible 1984 Rebel without a Clause 1985 Gone With the Briese 1986 The Good, The Bad and The Unsworth 1987 Police State Your Business or Rollover Trimbole
1988 Witless for the Prosecution 1989 Simply Inadmissible 1990 Sex, Bribes and Magistrates 1991 QC Hammer: U Can't Judge This! 1992 Republic Enemy 1993 Juristic Perk
1994 Faheywatch 1995 Bombe Perignon 1996 Coalition: Impossible 1997 So Sue Me Street 1998 Godzillaw 1999 The Last Judgment
2000 Bored of the Rings 2001 Dude, Where's Bob Carr? 2002 Illegally Bombed featuring Detention Island 2003 Midget John's Diary 2004 Iraqi Horror Picture Show 2005 The Chronicles of Canberra: The Liar, The Bitch & The Xenophobe
2006 Hostile Powers: International Plan for Misery 2007 Poll Fiction 2008 Bar Wars Episode QC: Revenge of the Silks 2009 Harried Prosecutor and the Prisoner in Afghanistan 2010 Abbott In Blunderland 2011 Law Story
2012 The Lying King 2013 Lexis Case Law Massacre 2014 The Abbott: The Desolation of Aus 2015 The Blunder Games: Catching Liars 2016 21 Judge Street 2017 Lady and the Trump
2018 The Bachelawyer 2019 Chilling Adventures of Subpoena 2020 2020 & The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Law & Justice Revue 2022 No Crime to Lie 2023 Barbie: Life in the Jailhouse

CSE (Computer Science and Engineering) Revue[edit]

UNSW CSE (Computer Science & Engineering) Revues [3]
2002 Minority Revue 2003 Revue Reloaded 2004 Star Key and Hash 2005 Sin CSE 2006 The teXt Files: Close Encounters of the Nerd Kind 2007 Sand Theft Auto: Agrabah City
2008 CSE++ // Revue goes large 2009 Gossip Geek 2010 Pacman: The Dark Byte 2011 Hack to the Future 2012 Codebusters 2013 The Infringers
2014 Game of Codes 2015 The Lego Revue 2016 ST*R WARS: The Source Awakens 2017 Avatar: The Last MacBook Airbender 2018 Mycrosoft Shrexcel 2019 Aladdin: Arraybian bytes[]
2022 Pirates of the Blue Screen: Deadlocked Chest

AUJS Revue[edit]

AUJS Revues
1984 Broadway Funny Nose 1985 Katz 1986 The Challah Purple 1987 Little Shop of Schnorrers 1988 Three Men and a Bagel 1989 Licence to Spiel / 21 Flood St
1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Rabbis 1991 Spartuchus 1992 Hook 1993 Miss Shugina 1994 Foreskins and a Funeral 1995 A Fish Called Gefillte
1996 Mishna Impossible 1997 Shema Wars 1998 The Full Montefiore 1999 Austin Payos - The Spy who Schtupped Me 2000 X-Mensch 2001 Revue Live: Off Broadway
2002 Debbie Does Double Bay 2003 8 Moyel 2006 Diaspora Housewives 2007 Harry Pottervich and the Order of the Seder 2011 The Lambshank Redemption 2012 Curb Your Judaism
2013 Jew Fast, Jew Furious 2014 Torah the Explorer 2015 Sabathday night fever 2016 Mad Max Brenner

Arts & Social Sciences Revue[edit]

An Arts & Social Sciences Revue was held in 2006, entitled It's Time. Arts Revue returned in 2013 and again in 2014, entitled 10 Things I Hate About Arts Revue

Engineering Revue[edit]

An engineering revue was held in 1991 entitled Gorillas On The Piss.

Other shows[edit]

"Best of" revues typically combine selected material from previous shows, sometimes updated or adapted to take into account the intervening period of time. A "Best of" show, featuring material from both Med Revues and Law Revues from the years 1984–1989, was held in the Bondi Pavilion in 1990. The show was called A Fabulous Set of Steak Knives. A "Best of" called Heart Rate High: the Bex Years of Our Lives was held at the Figtree Theatre in 1996, but covered material from Med Revues only from 1990 to 1995. In 1998, a show was put on by revuers off-campus called Dead Fish are Fun, which featured some material from past Law and Med Revues, as well as original material. In 2001, a "Best of" show called Comedy for the Chemical Generation was held at the Figtree theatre covering material from Med Revues 1996–2000.

In 2006, Law & Orderlies, a "Best of" show covering both Med and Law Revue, was held at the Figtree Theatre. The bulk of material was drawn from Revues from 2000 to 2005, however the show also featured sketches from Med Revue 1975, Law Revue 1989, and Law Revue 1998.

In 2011, another "Best of" show was staged, again in the Fig Tree Theatre. The title of the show was "Deja Revue", and featured content mostly from 2006 - 2010 Med & Law Revues. The show had a 4 night run, and sold out every single seat for every single night, before the curtain had even opened on the first night.

In 2012, CSE Revue held their first "Best of" show, featuring the best sketches from the previous 10 shows.

Other revues at the university are held from time to time: students from New College, the Faculty of the Built Environment and the university's Buddhist club organise smaller-scale shows. Sketch comedy shows have also been hosted by the New South Wales University Theatrical Society (NUTS), the UNSW comedy club Studio Four, and other groups.

A medical-student-only production called UNSW Medshow (or sometimes Med Show) was established in 2000 by former Med Revuer Neil Jeyasingam, after the Med Revue stopped donating proceeds to charity, and due to the onerous rehearsal schedule that made it difficult for medical students to participate. Med Show has been held annually since.[4]

UNSW Revue alumni[edit]

See also[edit]

Revues are also held at:

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Posters Exhibition | Records & Archives - UNSW Sydney".
  2. ^ "History". UNSW Medical Revue Society. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  3. ^ "CSE Revue: History". CSE Revue. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  4. ^ "Tharunka on Facebook". Facebook. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022.[user-generated source]
  5. ^ "CSE Revue - 500 Yards". YouTube. Archived from the original on 3 August 2010. Retrieved 12 February 2009.
  6. ^ "Good Game - Aiyiah". ABC Television. Retrieved 12 February 2009.

External links[edit]