Cheese Shop Live Xmas Show #5 (1996)
The 1996 Xmas Show featured some newer performers who had cut their teeth at the Prince Pat during the year and who had impressed Dave no end: Meshel Laurie and Wil Anderson. The Scared Weird Little Guys and Lano and Woodley created a disturbingly enjoyable musical experience, simply called PLOP! Alan Brough also enjoyed his Cheese Shop Xmas Show debut in 1996, as did an act I was a part of (with Fred Rowan) called Dick and Larry, a comedy act about comedy. Cheese Shop favourites Flacco and Tim Harris beamed in as well.
During Cheese Shop Live in 1996 Dave introduced a concept that saw him able to creep into the role of performer. The Chat was a concept involving a group of comedians gathering on stage to debate a given topic and trying to wring whatever comic gems they could from it. Here Dave was challenging stand-ups to let their rope go and fly a little while (hopefully) providing something new for his beloved Cheeseshoppers - a constant challenge. He knew that stand-ups had the capacity to bang on a bit so he stood in as mediator, thereby giving himself the chance to play on stage with people whose work he respected.
But 1996 must be remembered as the year Dave first used the phrase most connected to him, inspired by the night the lights went out at Waverley Park football ground and punters there did what Dave considered the most stupid thing they could: take all their clothes off and start a bonfire. So, whenever Dave sought to encourage his audience to get excited he would remind them that comedy is the celebration of our limitless potential for idiocy by using the phrase "let's nude up and burn shit!" in honour of what the Herald-Sun called "football's darkest hour." The phrase became the unofficial mission statement of The Cheese Shop.
 
THE SET LIST
First Bracket
Dave Taranto (MC) - Alan Brough - Meshel Laurie - Wil Anderson
Second Bracket
Dave Taranto (MC) - Tim Harris with the Cheese Shop Inc Letters - Flacco
Third Bracket
Dave Taranto (MC) - Dick and Larry (Fred Rowan & Paul McCarthy) - PLOP! (Scared Weird Little Guys and Lano & Woodley) - The Xmas Chat with Lynda Gibson, Sue-Ann Post, Dave Taranto, Greg Fleet, Brad Oakes and Marty Sheargold |
