Have you ever wanted to attend karaoke, yet don’t want the pressure of standing in front of everyone to sing, but still want to sing along and have a great time? Well, Two Hearts have your karaoke needs covered! Hosted on Friday and Saturday nights, Two Hearts have put together a crazy good session karaoke that you cannot miss!
This is more than just your regular karaoke night. Heartcore Karaoke delivers from the moment you step into the room, where Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore welcome you as upbeat party favourites play over the speakers. The vibe is electric, and I was beyond excited for the show to begin. But, oh my, I had severely underestimated how much fun that this was going to be!
So, the deal is, Two Hearts invite comedians from the festival to sing some karaoke tunes with a song of their choosing. We, the audience, have no idea what the song is going to be, nor are we aware of who the special guest is. And the best part is that we all get to sing along too! There’s also a QR code on the screen you can scan and fill out a form. It asks what our singing ability is like, if we wanted to sing a song, and what song we should suggest for Eli Matthewson inspire a parody version.
For those that don’t know, Eli Matthewson is known colloquially as ‘The Parody Prince’. Eli has this crazy skill where he can write a parody on anything to any song. For this show, he was given the task of writing a parody about incels to the melody of Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’. Crazy? Yes! Eli was then sent to the corner to create and would return at the end of the evening.
Opening the evening’s entertainment was Amy Annette who sung a duet with Joseph to Pitbull and Kesha’s ‘Timber’. It was so much fun singing along with the sold-out room at the top of our lung, and without a care in the world. Little did we know, but Amy would remain on stage the entire evening due to Laura being on “vocal rest” and needing someone to step in as a “surrogate” for the evening. It is as wacky as it sounds and provided some hilarious comedy moments throughout the show. Amy’s co-hosting ability was fun, her comic timing is top notch and, her natural ability to become Laura was just as hilarious.
The first special guest of the evening was none other than Noah Szto! Having seen his new show Med School and knowing that this talented human has the skills to not just sing, but perform, I was excited to see what song he had chosen. Well, his choice for the night was Dead or Alive’s 80s anthem, ‘You Spin Me Right Round’. The audience were in full volume and Noah was having the time of his life! And yes, Noah did indeed spin around many, many times!
Other guests of the evening included Ben Russell with an extremely over enthusiastic performance of Dean Martin’s ‘That’s Amore’. I tried so hard to sing along, but I found myself laughing more! There was also British comedian Emmanuel Sonubi with a belting rendition of the Frank Sinatra famed ‘My Way’ where he found himself in an impromptu sing-off with a member of the audience. Plus chaotic duo Hot Department brought on the show tunes with ‘Maybe This Time’ from Cabaret with hilarious results.
About halfway through, the audience were given a chance to sing on stage too. One audience member took on the challenge with gusto and was given the option of a duet with an unknown guest comedian. He chose Dolly Parton and Kenny Rodgers’ duet ‘Islands in the Stream’ because he felt it would suit his voice well, and his surprise duet partner was none other than Ray O’Leary! The audience member seemed very excited to have Ray sing with him and the performance that the pair put on was outstanding! I don’t know who you are mystery audience member, but you were bloody fantastic!
It wasn’t all fun and games though. We were rudely interrupted by an annoyed neighbour that was apparently living upstairs. Dressed in a bathrobe and clutching at a roll of toilet paper, this angry neighbour demanded we keep the noise down. Of course, we didn’t, and it only prompted his return. Eventually, he was revealed to be comedian Rhys Mathewson who stepped up to the microphone to sing Robyn’s ‘Call Your Girlfriend’.
Remember Eli? Well, he was back at the end of the show with a hilariously crazy tune about incels to the tune of Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’. I don’t know how Eli makes it work, but he does, and this parody was insane. Even the Jay-Z rap part in the middle of the song made a feature! I now know why Eli is called the ‘Parody Prince’!
There was one performance that outshined everyone else’s… Supposedly stumbling onto the karaoke party because he was just walking by, a dark-haired man dressed in an Essendon AFL jumper, shorts and trainers appeared in the room and made his way to the stage, wanting to sing. But there was something a little strange, he was wearing professional in-ear monitors! Yes! Legit IEM’s that professional artists wear on stage.
Well, this mystery person turned out to be comedian Paul Williams and his song of choice, ‘It’s Hard to Speak my Heart’ was from the musical Parade. Normally, the lyrics would be on screen for the guest and the audience to sing along. No, not Paul! Paul knows all the lyrics off by heart (as also hilariously stated by the karaoke screens which flashed this note before going completely dark) and my god, the man can sing! Parade is also stunning musical, and Paul Williams absolutely smashed the song out of the park! Bravo!
Heartcore Karaoke is some of the best fun I’ve had after midnight in a long time! Every night is different. The show is funny, exciting, energetic, surprising, sweetly chaotic, wholesome in all the right ways, and is just a damn good time all round. There’s just something so special about laughing loudly and smiling to your heart’s content while unashamedly singing at the top of your lungs with everyone else in the room during crazy hours. So, if you are looking for something to do late on a Friday or Saturday night, Two Hearts’ Heartcore Karaoke is where the party’s at at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Heartcore Karaoke is currently on Fridays and Saturday evenings at the Comedy Republic, as part of the 2025 Melbourne International Festival. This show does sell out, so please, please, please do yourself a favour get your tickets early to avoid missing out altogether.
For more information and ticketing, visit:
https://www.comedyfestival.com.au/browse-shows/heartcore-karaoke
https://www.comedyrepublic.com.au/event/38:430
https://www.instagram.com/twoheartscomedy
https://www.instagram.com/elimatthewson
Photography supplied.