Daniel Herborn

Many works at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival ask how  the dream of a creative existence can survive the reality of making a living.

After supposedly quitting television two years ago, Shaun Micallef returns next week with a new show on SBS – although these days he’s more interested in helping younger comics.

Tim Minchin’s career has been a mixture of luck and hard work – and now, with the release of his new book, he’s coming out from behind the piano.

Comedian and cabaret performer Reuben Kaye is a collection of paradoxes, but mostly he’s an introvert pretending to be an extrovert.

With a broad program of new and experimental works, this year’s Melbourne Fringe is a playground for performance.

The best performers at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival bring a new buoyancy to observations of social ills and private sorrows.

Over 40 years, radical inclusiveness has always been at the core of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

The real treasures of this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival are its local acts.

As 3x3 basketball makes its way into the Olympic arena, the Australian women’s team is hoping to get a shot at a history-making medal in Tokyo.

Point guard Shyla Heal, who started in the WNBL at 14 and has just become a top 10 WNBA pick for Chicago Sky, is ready to step up her game.

Where once elite athletes were encouraged to show no chinks in their armour, today’s sporting heroes are keen to share their vulnerabilities in the hope of reducing the stigma surrounding mental health challenges.

Magic – one of the most traditional arts – has been slow to embrace inclusivity, but magicians such as James Galea are changing the culture.

While many sporting bodies have begun actively promoting LGBTQIA+ inclusion, queer youth are still dropping out of sport at a higher rate than their straight peers and openly out male elite athletes remain a rarity.

The WNBL turned 40 this season and stands as Australia’s oldest semi-professional female sporting competition. But with women’s AFL, rugby league and cricket surging, is it losing ground?