Comics stand up to the screen test Ben Pobjie SLAP bang in the middle of the Melbourne Comedy Festival seems an apt time to examine the symbiotic relationship between Australia's stand-up comedy scene and Australia's TV industry. Every year, when you look at the festival program, it's clear how highly valued is the opportunity to put ''as seen on ... '' on your poster - but even more apparent to anyone watching TV in this country is how heavily our televisual landscape depends on the live-comedy scene for its fuel supply. Take away the stand-ups from Australian TV and it's doubtful you'd even have Australian TV, apart from Packed to the Rafters and the news. Each week the local line-up is wall-to-wall practitioners of the gentle art of standing on stages and talking at people. It could be Wil Anderson on Gruen , or the unnaturally amiable Adam Hills and his lethally deadpan sidekick Hannah Gadsby on In Gordon Street Tonight ; it could be Frank Woodley transferring his sweet slapstick to the small screen, or Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes dissecting the news. Or it could be one of the stand-up legion, from Dave O'Neil and Fiona O'Loughlin to Cal Wilson and Colin Lane popping up on chat shows and panels across the land. And the stand-up takeover of our screens is not restricted to talking heads, or comedians doing their shtick in front of a camera. Witness Celia Pacquola's stellar turn in Laid , or Denise Scott in