Following this year’s 23-venue national tour of ‘Make Some Noise!’, The Listies are busy creating a brand new show for 2025…. 110% Ready! Buckle up for 55 minutes of The Listies’ signature puns, gags, improvisation, and slapstick humour.
“Nobody else does kids comedy this brilliantly, what’s more astounding is that adults have just as much fun.”
In this show The Listies perform a miracle! 110% Ready sees Rich and Matt do something no family in Australia has ever done before: leave the house on time!
Well, that’s what Rich thinks anyway. Matt on the other hand has a different plan. He may or may not have accidentally flushed the car keys down the toilet.
Featuring a poop-load of puns, silly slapstick sight gags, and a splash of improvisational idiocy, 110% Ready sees Melbourne’s masters of mirth do what they do best for 55 solid minutes of full family lols.
This brand-new show is all about the joys of the average morning routine: sleeping through the alarm, not having any milk, fishing dirty clothes out of the hamper, burning the toast, and then finding the front door is glued shut, the shower won’t switch off, and the house is filling with water.
Dedicated to anyone who has ever been in charge of someone who is impossible to get out the front door in the am.
★★★★★ - Time Out
★★★★★ - Herald Sun
★★★★★ - Fest Mag UK
★★★★★ - FringeReview UK
★★★★★ - Broadway Baby
★★★★★ - The List
★★★★½ “...an hour of rambunctious fun so clever, and so perfectly attuned to its audience, it wouldn’t surprise me if The Listies became the first children’s comedy act to win top gong at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.”
Cameron Woodhead, The Age
“In short... hilarious.”
Sydney Morning Herald
“The only downside of seeing The Listies is that kids may be disappointed the next time they go to the theatre because it isn’t always this awesomely excellent.”
Sometimes Melbourne
“When I saw The Listies, it affected my thinking because I really related to the comedy craft they were exercising...it got me a little bit excited to realise that when you are performing for kids, it’s just as delicate and just as sophisticated.”
Frank Woodley, The Australian
“If the Wiggles are the Eagles then The Listies are the Sex Pistols.”
Dave O’Neil, The Age
“Australian duo The Listies have conquered children’s comedy through deep respect for their audience, with a focus on the subversion of the adult desire for control — with hilarious results.”
Sue Giles, The Australian
“The Listies know all the right buttons to push to make children shriek with laughter.”
The Guardian
“If your kids have never been to the theatre before, do them a favour and make this their first experience. It’s something they will never forget.”
The Scotsman
“Australian duo The Listies have conquered children’s comedy through deep respect for their audience, with a focus on the subversion of the adult desire for control — with hilarious results.”
The Listies are Richard Higgins and Matthew Kelly, a comedy double act who are serious about being silly. They formed during the latest Ice Age (2008) to perform absurdist comedy to elderly people (i.e. 18+) but switched to full time kids comedy in 2011, and finding it to be a wondrous and rewarding sphere full of joy, and have never looked back (plus the hours are heaps better).
To date, they have claimed to have written nine-ish award-winning & critically acclaimed live shows, collaborated with most major theatre companies and festivals in Australia, toured three continents, recorded four albums, and published two books with Penguin - and they have four books on the way. Though we only have their word for it. Oh, and their podcast has over 220,000 downloads but most of them are Matt’s Dad trying to work out how to use the internet.
On Australian television you can see them on ABC with their shows Art Blast, What’s With The Listies, The Listies Work For Peanuts, and occasionally in the background of outside weather broadcasts.
They performed over 120 shows a year to tens of thousands of people all over Australia and the UK. Nearly all of them stayed awake and only some of them vomited. Recently, in what may have been an administrative error, they won the Best Children’s Show at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
In the past they have received a Sydney Theatre Award, ‘The HarperCollins Best Designed Children’s Fiction Book’, and the Best Independent show (Golden Gibbo Award) at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, (and they are still the only kids act to have been nommed for the Comedy Festival’s ‘Best Show’ award).
For more information visit www.thelisties.com
Touring 2025
CREATIVE CREDITS
Writers/Performers
Matt Kelly & Rich Higgins
Director Mish Gregor
Lighting Design El Edie
Sound Design Iva Lottagas
If you are interested in touring get in contact!
Arts on Tour
02 8038 1880
touring@artsontour.com.au
Arts on Tour is based in Redfern NSW and we respectfully acknowledge the Gadigal people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the unceded land on which we work.
As we tour artists and productions across these vast lands, we pay our respect to all First Nations Elders, past, present and future.
We celebrate their continuing connection and contribution to culture, country and community, and thank all First Nations peoples for their wisdom in caring for the land, the sky, the rivers and the sea.