Radio Ha Ha

Episode 36: Chuck Boyd, Gavin Baskerville, Lila Tillman and Lano & Woodley

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PREAMBLE

Realising, courtesy of the MOSH! website, that Flacco was performing a Melbourne season of Releasing the Imbecile Within , my initial thought was to dust off an old interview I had conducted with his alter ego, Paul Livingston, for his Sydney run. Alas, it was not to be - I had somehow misplaced (ie lent, and never retrieved) the perfect source for Flacco soundbites: my Doug Anthony Allstars Live at National Theatre video and the bunch of episodes of DAAS Kapital I’d taped off the telly more than a decade-and-a-half now… Thankfully, Flacco’s Melbourne run doesn’t begin for a little while yet, and my comedy buddy Dani has agreed to lend me her collection of DAAS vids. So that interview may be included next week.

However, all of this came to pass after the show had been mostly recorded, with co-host Chuck Boyd. The references the the Flacco interview were easy enough to remove, but inserting a replacement, a little more difficult. But at least there was a fall-back plan: Lano & Woodley took out the inaugural Helpmann Award for Comedy on July 31st (listen to Episode 32 for more details!) and so there was something to put in its place, that would still segue as nicely as Flacco would have. See if you can spot the join!

In addition to Lano & Woodley, and Chuck Boyd, the comedy of Gavin Baskerville and Lila Tillman features!

Episode 36 was uploaded on Thursday 3rd August.



OPENING THEME

Frank Zappa (?): The way I see it, Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

This line is sampled from ‘Lumpy Gravy Pt 1’, from the Frank Zappa album Lumpy Gravy, and plays over the wow and flutter of bad radio reception sampled from ‘Reception’, from the Paul McCartney & wings album Back to the Egg. It is followed by the static and noise of a radio tuner being spun through various stations, and then gives way to ‘Holiday for Strings’ by Spike Jones and his City Slickers, until:

Deep ‘Announcer’ Voice: And now it’s time for Radio Ha Ha with Dom Romeo.

LAUGHTER

Soundbite: Louis the Turkey laughs, as featured in the track ‘They Made Me Eat It’ from the Frank Zappa album Civilization Phase III [1]

INTRODUCTION

Dom Romeo: Hello and welcome to Radio Ha Ha, this is Dom Romeo, and I’m joined this week by a very special guest host, stand-up comic and audio/visual producer, Chuck Boyd.

Chuck Boyd: Thank you very much, Dom. What a title! I can’t fit that on a business card, can I?

Dom Romeo: Big business card…

Chuck Boyd: Yeah.

Dom Romeo: Big title!

Chuck, we’ll talk about your many pursuits, because in addition to doing stand-up, you tend to author stand-up DVDs [2] and CDs [3] and all sorts of lovely things. But that’ll come later — in a show that also includes some stand-up from Lila Tillman…

Chuck Boyd: Aah.

Dom Romeo: But first, some stand-up comedy from Gavin Baskerville, a Melbourne comic, turned Hobart comic, who was recorded while he was up in Sydney, talking about friends and dreams!



LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Gavin Baskerville talks about friends and the annoying way they relate the content of their dreams… As this is taken from towards the end of his set, if you listen carefully you get to hear the time-keeper’s bell, telling him that he’s near the end of his time…

Station ID: Radio Ha Ha… It’s so funny it should be against the law! Radio Ha Ha.

Dom Romeo: And that was Gavin Baskerville, recorded live at the Friend in Hand Hotel, on their Mic in Hand comedy night.

Chuck Boyd: That was the Friend in Hand…? I recognise that bell!

Dom Romeo: Now, let’s face it, Chuck, you’ve been that bell-ringer a number of times!

Chuck Boyd: I have been! I’m everything but the humpback…

Dom Romeo: Ha-ha! ’Cause you’ve done sound there…

Chuck Boyd: Yep!

Dom Romeo: …you’ve been the time-keeper and the guy who says ‘time to get off’… [4]

Chuck Boyd: Yep! That was the way I weasled my way in: just help on a comedy night, and they’ll throw you up whenever someone drops out.

Dom Romeo: Is that how you started doing stand-up?

Chuck Boyd: No, but that’s how I first started doing it every week.

Dom Romeo: Because one of the things you’re responsible for is the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD, that we’ve talked about on this show… [5] in fact with you! You were our guest TeeHeeJay in a very early episode…[6]

Chuck Boyd: That’s right.

Dom Romeo: And at the time, you very generously allowed us to give away copies. Let’s talk about that DVD for a moment.

Chuck Boyd: All right.

Dom Romeo: You’re still, if I may be so bold, ‘flogging it’.

Chuck Boyd: Still flogging it!

Dom Romeo: So to speak.

Chuck Boyd: Still flogging the DVD. It’s still funny!

Dom Romeo: Yep.

Chuck Boyd: So that’s why I’m still flogging it. We still have stock.

Dom Romeo: Yeah…

Chuck Boyd: We’re still in the hole… laughs so BUY THE DVD!

Dom Romeo: Well why wouldn’t you buy the DVD? Who’s on it?

Chuck Boyd: It’s two hours — over two hours! Two hours and twenty-two minutes, in fact — twenty-four of Sydney’s newest, best, hottest comics, all compressed into one DVD: Sydney Underground Comedy DVD. Just a who’s who in Sydney underground comedy. Sam Bowring, Kent Valentine, Daniel Townes, all those guys… Dave Jory…

Dom Romeo: Lots of people we’ve heard on this show!

Chuck Boyd: Yep. And people whose star is rising.

Dom Romeo: Now, tell me, Chuck: how did the DVD come about?

Chuck Boyd: Well, let’s see; how did it come about? Well, I moved here to Sydney in 2001 and started doing stand-up, and after speaking to some of the other comics I realised that we were in the middle of a comedy boom: there were more open mic rooms in Sydney than there had ever been. So we thought it was a good time to capture whose who on the Sydney comedy scene during that time. We booked out the Mic in Hand comedy room two nights in a row, packed it full of comics — we still didn’t get all the comics we wanted on there, but hopefully there’ll be a Volume Two one of these days — and we were able to compress all five hours of tape down to about two hours and twenty-two minutes, and we’re quite happy with the end product. Twenty-four of Sydney’s newest, hottest comics on one DVD.

Dom Romeo: Okay. A sceptic might ask, why did it take an American — with respect — to come over here and get this thing happening?

Chuck Boyd: Well, professionally, see, comedy isn’t my only ‘thing’. I mean, as most comics do, I have a day-job. I’m a project manager, I’m an organiser, and I’ve always been that way. So maybe it just took someone with that type of skill and a little bit of cash to risk to be able to do it.

Dom Romeo: Welcome, valued customer!

Chuck Boyd: That’s right!

Station ID: Radio Ha Ha — just for laughs!



LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Chuck Boyd, on a news report of a shark attack, and bathroom habits, as recorded at the Mic in Hand…

Station ID: You won’t die laughing, but you might mess your pants. Radio Ha Ha!

Dom Romeo: Now, Chuck, I’ve got to say, I was familiar with you as a stand-up comic long before the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD came out. I judged you a number of times in Raw Comedy heats, and I’ve gotta say, between the first time I saw you, and the last time, when you made it to the national final in Melbourne, you improved amazingly.

Chuck Boyd: Oh, thanks. There was this period of time when I’d just moved here that I sponged off my wife. For six months, all I did was I went out to open mic nights five and six nights a week if I could do it, and signed up. I tried to get up any forum or venue that I could and I just worked my ass off for six months. And I think the very end of that was when Raw started, so I really feel that the way I made it to Melbourne was just to work hard for those six months prior.

Dom Romeo: Okay, so any listeners who are aspiring comics, there’s the secret: sponge off Chuck Boyd’s wife for five or six months…

Chuck Boyd: That’s right!

Dom Romeo: … and get to the Raw final in Melbourne.

Chuck Boyd: She doesn’t have nearly as much money as she used to have, so you may have to bring a packed lunch!

Dom Romeo: In the meantime, here’s a bit of Chuck’s comedy, recorded live at the Mic in Hand. [7]



LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Some great material from what was, essentially, Chuck’s Raw Comedy set, as excerpted from the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD…

Sation ID: Just for laughs — “Identify yourself, please…” — This is Radio Ha Ha!

Dom Romeo: And that was Chuck Boyd, recorded at the Mic in Hand, at the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe.

Now Chuck, we were just talking about Raw, before we had a listen to your work…

Chuck Boyd: RAW!

Dom Romeo: There’s another competition that’s started up. There’s a competition called ‘Quest for the Best’ that happens at the Roxbury Hotel, on their Wednesday night Comedy on the Rox.

Chuck Boyd: Yep! Great comedy night.

Dom Romeo: Great comedy night, great little venue.

Chuck Boyd: Absolutely.

Dom Romeo: Nice theatre.

Chuck Boyd: Yep.

Dom Romeo: And they’re offering five thousand dollars as the first prize to the winner — whoever the ‘best’ is that they find in their ‘quest’.

Chuck Boyd: Geez, that’s like ten years’ pay for a comedian!

Dom Romeo: It’s massive, isn’t it. I kind of want to enter. But it’d mean having to write material.

Chuck Boyd: Yeah.

Dom Romeo: And being funny. Anyway, I…

Chuck Boyd: You can sponge off my wife!

Dom Romeo: laughing If she can fit me in, ’cause there’s gonna be a lot of comedians rising to the call…

Chuck Boyd: Yeah, that’s okay, she has a palm pilot.

Dom Romeo: All right. Apart from that, the Roxbury is a great room. People should check it out on a Wednesday night.

Chuck Boyd: Yep.

Dom Romeo: I want to play a bit of a comedian I saw there a couple of weeks ago, a woman called Lila Tillman.

Chuck Boyd: Yes, absolutely hilarious…

Dom Romeo: Yeah? You rate her?

Chuck Boyd: Absolutely. Lila’s all good in my book.



LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Lila Tillman talks about her parents… and children…

Sation ID: Shennanigans, wisecracks, tom-foolery… ha ha ha. Radio Ha Ha! What’s your excuse?

Dom Romeo: And that was Lila Tillman recorded live at Comedy on the Rox, at the Roxbury Hotel in Glebe.

And Chuck, her whole take on children is an interesting one to relate back to you, because it’s one that you don’t share.

Chuck Boyd: Clearly! Well, you’re givin’ out all my secrets, Dom. Yes, that’s right, I’m getting ready to be a father.

Dom Romeo: And you might have mentioned to me that you’re going to let the comedy take a little bit of a back seat?

Chuck Boyd: It’s got to. I mean, we’re getting ready to have the kid around October, so I’m slowly bringing my calendar down to attend to that. But I’m figuring I’ll probably pop back out of it around February with about another thirty minutes of diaper material.

Dom Romeo: Excellent! Something to look forward to.

Chuck Boyd: Yes, absolutely, getting out of the house! I’m really looking forward to that.

Dom Romeo: But until then — wife and baby get to sponge off Dad for a while.

Chuck Boyd: That’s right — in more ways than one, too.

Dom Romeo: Now look, I don’t really have a really easy segue into this, but maybe the child can get us into child-like comedy.

A couple of weeks ago we announced on Radio Ha Ha the fact that the annual Helpmann Awards — named after Sir Robert Helpmann, and recognising excellence in the performing arts — were finally recognising comedy. [8]

Nominees for the inaugural Helpmann Award for Comedy were Akmal Saleh, the Umbilical Brothers, Judith Lucy — who hosted last week’s episode of Radio Ha Ha — and Lano & Woodley, who are currently touring Australia with their farewell show, Goodbye.

Well the winners of the inaugural Helpmann Award for Comedy, were Lano & Woodley, whose stage personas are child-like. Colin Lane’s ‘Lano’ is the more bullying of the two, and Frank Wood’s ‘Woodley’ is the naive, innocent one. So, in recognition of their achievement, I think we should listen to their final song from the show The Island.



LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Lano & Woodley perform the song from the end of their show The Island. [9]

Station ID: Radio Ha Ha: not for the faint-hearted, but definitely for the fun-at-heart. Haw-haw-haw-haw…

Dom Romeo: Hey Chuck…

Chuck Boyd: Hmm?

Dom Romeo: We’re about to go, but I think you have something important to tell me before we do.

Chuck Boyd: Oh, I…

Dom Romeo: Something about…

Chuck Boyd: The baby’s yours?

Dom Romeo: I’m dumb-struck, Chuck!

No, something about the Sydney Underground DVD, copies thereof, you might let me give some more away of…

Chuck Boyd: Oh, would you like to give some copies away to your listeners, there, Dom?

Dom Romeo: What a great idea, Chuck!

Chuck Boyd: All right, what do you want… what hoops should you make them jump through to make them get the DVDs? What do you want? Three of ’em? Give away three DVDs?

Dom Romeo: As many as you want to give away.

Chuck Boyd: Let’s give away three. That’s fair enough.

Dom Romeo: Okay. What do they have to do? They have to write to us via [email protected] and they’ve got to tell us… what?

Chuck Boyd: Aaaah… tell us what you do when you listen to Radio Ha Ha. And make it clean, too! Something we can read on the air.

Dom Romeo: Apart from ‘laugh’, of course. [10]

Chuck Boyd: Absolutely. Make ’em funny, and clean. Nah, don’t make ’em clean.

Dom Romeo: They have to be clean so I can read ’em on the air.

Chuck Boyd: Yeah, that’s right. You want me to say that?

Dom Romeo: No, I said that.

Chuck Boyd: I’m not seeing the edit points in here!

Dom Romeo: There are none, Chuck. I’m just gonna go.

Chuck Boyd: You’re just gonna go?

Dom Romeo: See ya!



CLOSING THEME

Soundbite: Last segment of ‘Holiday for Strings’ by Spike Jones and His City Slickers.



TAG

Chuck Boyd: We’re not gonna keep it like that, are we?

Dom Romeo: It’s kept!



PIMPING THE WEBSITE

Soundbite: If you’d like more free information and entertainment podcasts, log onto www.freedigitalcontent.com. That’s www.freedigitalcontent.com.



ANOTHER TAG

Chuck Boyd: I thought this was a quality show!



FOOTNOTES

1. If this laugh sounds familiar to regular, hardcore listeners, it’s because a very similar laugh — courtesy, once again, of Louis the Turkey, though featured on a track from the Frank Zappa album Lumpy Gravy — opens another episode of Radio Ha Ha. When I get around to working out which one, and transcribing it, there will be a link to that episode here as well.

2. The Sydney Underground ComedyDVD, for example.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. The soon-to-be-issued Sydney underground Comedy - Live In Maroubra CD. More of this anon.

4. Astute listeners would of course be aware of the tautology at play here: the bell-ringer, the time-keeper and the guy who says ‘it’s time to get off’ are in fact all the same person. This wasn’t a clever use of overstatement to undermine Chuck’s role at the Mic in Hand, rather just an instance of Dom waffling because of lack of preparation, no idea where he was going, and a lack of Tammy Tantschev to step in and bail him out…

5. The first time was in our very first episode, in fact…

6. In Episode 3, in fact, when Chuck selected some Groucho Marx for us to play.

7. It is in fact excerpts from his Sydney Underground Comedy set.

8. In Episode 32, to be precise.

9. There’s a visual gag that gets a massive laugh towards the end of this song, that just didn’t work for radio: silence, followed by big laugh. I’ve done a bit of deft editing that nobody seems to have ever noticed, or at least, chosen to comment upon.

10. Well, you hope people laugh when they listen to Radio Ha Ha.

Episode 3:Emma Driver, Grahame Bond, Rory O’Donoghue, Spike Milligan, Chuck Boyd, Groucho Marx

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PREAMBLE

The Goodies’ Aussie tours seemed to set a precedent for comedians (and, no doubt, other ‘light entertainers’) who had built a television audience in the 70s; drawing from the same nostalgic and comedic unconscious in the Australian television public, Grahame Bond and Rory O’Donoghue — Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur, respectively — announced both the release of the first season of The Aunty Jack Show on DVD and a live tour — The Aunty Jack Show And Tell — to coincide with it. And there was much rejoicing. Not least of all for Radio Ha Ha since Dom had been granted an interview (ostensibly for print, since he also writes for FilmInk magazine, but clearly, one that could also be used for sound).

And so Episode 3 of Radio Ha Ha came to feature an in-depth interview with local talent. Hooray!

Episode 3 went to air Friday9th December.



OPENING THEME

Frank Zappa (?): The way I see it, Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

This line is sample from ‘Lumpy Gravy Pt 1’, from the Frank Zappa album Lumpy Gravy, and plays over the wow and flutter of bad radio reception sampled from ‘Reception’, from the Paul McCartney & wings album Back to the Egg. It is followed by the static and noise of a radio tuner being spun through various stations, and then gives way to ‘Holiday for Strings’ by Spike Jones and his City Slickers, until:

Deep ‘Announcer’ Voice: And now it’s time for Radio Ha Ha with Tammy Tantschev and Dom Romeo.

LAUGHTER

Terry Jones (and a little bit of John Cleese): insane cackle sampled from the track ‘The Visitors’, from the very first Monty Python album Monty Python’s Flying Circus

INTRODUCTION

Tammy Tantschev: Welcome, Dom, to Episdoe 3 of Radio Ha Ha!

Dom Romeo: It’s good to be back, Tammy.

Tammy Tantschev: It’s great to be back. We’ve got a lot coming up on the show today. We’re going to hear the unique blend of musical comedy from Miss Emma Driver…

Dom Romeo: And then I’ll be talking to Grahame Bond and Rory O’Donoghue — A.K.A. Aunty Jack and Thing Arthur — who have not only released the first season of The Aunty Jack Show on DVD, but this week tickets went on sale for The Aunty Jack Show And Tell…

Tammy Tantschev: Very exciting stuff! And I’m also going to tell you where you can find what’s funny in Sydney with this week’s gig guide…

Dom Romeo: And then we’ll hear from stand-up comic Chuck Boyd, who’s gonna be this week’s Teehee Jay — he’s gonna choose the classic comedy clip.

SELF INDULGENT SELF-REFERENTIAL GAG [1]

Dom Romeo: But Tammy, first of all, I’m really sorry, I need to have a little bit of a whinge!

Tammy Tantschev: Dom, you look very serious.

Dom Romeo: I am very serious. I’ll tell you what happened: I decided to have a listen to the last could of weeks’ shows — because I can.

Tammy Tantschev: That’s probably a good idea.

Dom Romeo: Yeah. I went to the 2GB Plus dot com website… [2]

Tammy Tantschev: Mm-hmm.

Dom Romeo: I clicked on the Radio Ha Ha link.

Tammy Tantschev: Fantastic.

Dom Romeo: It went to iTunes to start downloading the first two episodes…

Tammy Tantschev: As it should.

Dom Romeo: … And I saw the word ‘explicit’ next to both of them.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh!

Dom Romeo: Now, come on. We go to great lengths not to be explicit. I mean, we work really hard not to be explicit. Tammy, I wanna know which complete and utter @#$%…

Soundbite: the @#$% is covered by the sound effects of ting, cuckoo, brassband, arooogah lifted from a game show sketch by Eric Idle, from the Monty Python album Monty Python’s Previous Record.

Dom Romeo continuing: … considers this show explicit?!

Tammy Tantschev: Oh my goodness, Dom!

Dom Romeo: I mean, I agree with Clive James: a sword is kept sharpest when mostly kept in scabbard; I go out of my way to…

Dom’s rant coninues as before, and is again faded down as before in order to allow the following to occur over the top:

Tammy Tantschev: Now Dom, that‘s very cute, but don’t you think it’s probably a little early to do that kind of self-referential material on Radio Ha Ha? Isn’t that the kind of thing you do a little further down the track when we’re struggling?

Dom Romeo hesitantly: Errr… I guess… I mean @#$%…

Soundbite: the ting, cuckoo, brassband, aroogah from Monty Python’s Previous Record, as before.

Dom Romeo continuing: … if that’s how you feel.

Station ID: Dom Romeo and Tammy Tantschev on @#$%

Soundbite: just the aroogah this time, from Monty Python’s Previous Record.

Soundbite continuing: Radio Ha Ha

LIVE STAND-UP

Dom Romeo: Okay Tammy, having gotten that off my chest, I think we can move along now. Now look, in the first two weeks we featured a bit of stand-up comedy, and it was hilarious, but this week I think we should do something a little different. I think we should feature some musical comedy, because at the moment musical comedy is on the rise in the comedy industry. [3] Now, Emma Driver is the person that we’re gonna hear from.

Tammy Tantschev: Yes Dom, and what I love about Emma is the fact that she’s a very talented, serious singer-songwriter, but she obviously has this streak about her that is quite cheeky and I saw her live for the first time last week and I thought that she was really very, very talented and very funny.

Song: Emma Driver performs her ‘Sultry Sexy Jazzy’, live at Sydney’s Original Comedy Store, at the launch of Dom Romeo’s Have Your Heard The One About… [4]

Station ID: 2GB Plus; Radio Ha Ha

INTERVIEW WITH GRAHAME BOND (AUNTY JACK) AND RORY O’DONOGHUE (THIN ARTHUR)

Tammy Tantschev: So Dom, you’ve recently caught up with Aunty Jack.

Dom Romeo: That’s right. Living legends of Australian television, Aunty Jack — as played by Grahame Bond — and his sidekick Thin Arthur — played by Rory O’Donoghue — were doing a bit of publicity this week for two reasons: they’ve got a new show that they’re doing live, called The Aunty Jack Show and Tell, so it’s going to be a bit like one of those lecture shows, like the Goodies have done twice now in Australia [5]. But they’ve also released the first season of their television show on DVD.

Now I never actually saw the show, I was too young to see it and it hasn’t been repeated much. It was rumoured that it had actually been wiped so it’s very interesting that it is now on DVD. And I’ve just got to say, before we listen to the interview, that Grahame and Rory talk about going on Nude Radio; I don’t know about the digital possibilities of that — we’ll have to discuss that some other time.

Tammy Tantschev: It’s a potential special episode for Radio Ha Ha

We’ll see. It will be radio HA HA, let me tell you. [6]

And they also talk about something called GTK that I’d never heard about. The initials stand for Get To Know, and it was a ten-minute segment that used to play on the ABC between 1970 and 1975. So when Aunty Jack was at its height, Rory and Grahame would appear on Nude Radio — which was part of Double J, back when Triple J was an AM station — and they were on Get To Know, doing publicity things.

I just thought I should just explain that straight up, since, when they get to that, I’m one of the people going, “What? What are they talking about?” So, without any further ado, Grahame Bond and Rory O’Donoghue, A.K.A. Aunty Jack and Thin Arthur.

Soundbite: ‘Head of the Pack’ — performed by Thin Arthur (Rory O’Donoghue)

There was Aunty Jack
At the head of the pack
As they went their merry way
As they rode along
And they sand their song
She’s meaner than an atom bomb

Her Golden Glove it stood for right
She’d rip your arms off in the night
If she tried, and she would,
And she could, and she should.
Wheeeee…

Dom Romeo: Grahame, Rory, I know it must be the bane of your existence, but a lot of the time, Aunty Jack’s referred to as Australia’s own Monty Python, and I can see parallels — part of the thing is that you both came out of university revue. Considering the fact that Aunty Jack appeared on Australian television screens first, how do you feel about the comparison, and how do you explain that kind of comedy, that common silliness, cleverness and absurdity that was about in your comedy at the time.

Grahame Bond: Well, I think there are lots of parallels in time where people on either side of the world are doing the same kind of thing. I think what differentiated our material from their material — both our material was surreal — but our material had one great strength and Rory brought that the show — well, the two of us brought it to the show — and that was music. That’s what made Monty Python and The Aunty Jack Show quite different, and I think Aunty Jack used something else they didn’t do — and I’m not saying that it’s better, I’m saying it’s different — was that we were particularly Australian in 1971 when we first started and most Australian comedy was English comedy. Monty Python came on two years after Aunty Jack, we’d never seen it, and, as I said, a lot of shows in those days were particularly English, and even Australian shows were buying English sketch material to perform in Australian comedy shows.

Soundbite: ‘I’ve Been Everywhere, Man’, performed by the Farrelly Brothers

I’ve travelled, I’ve had my share,
I’ve been everywhere.
I’ve been to:
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Wollongong, Wollongong,
Dapto, Wollongong,
Dapto, Dapto, Dapto
And Wollongong!

Dom Romeo: Now the music is an important point. Rory, I watch the material in these shows and I’m amazed that even the things that could be throw-away ideas are fantastic show-stopping numbers…

Soundbite: excerpt from ‘Tarzan Super Ape’ (an Origami Rock Opera)

Chorus: Big white man from out of the sky,
Big white man — it was Tarzan!

Witch Doctor: But to me he’s still brave,
Gone to his watery grave.
All the lives he could save —
He was Tarzan…

Dom Romeo: Now I know that you’ve got a history in showbusiness – you were in Oliver! as a very young lad — tell me a bit about how the music developed for you, and how you developed it for Aunty Jack.

Rory O’Donoghue: Well, I would say from the outset that both Grahame and myself composed various themes and motifs for the show and they were developed into full-scale songs, et cetera et cetera. We had little themes that we’d done for film soundtracks before, that we developed and used in the show.

Soundbite: ‘Neil & Erroll’ sketch from The Aunty Jack Show

Neil: Hello
Erroll: Hello
Neil: Hello
Erroll: Do you mind if I sit down?
Neil: No, by all means, sit down.
Erroll: Do you know that gorilla sitting next to you?
Neil: Yes I do. He’s a very close, personal friend of mine.
Erroll: Well, as he is, I was wondering if you could possibly introduce me to him.
Neil: Oh no, I couldn’t possibly do that.
Erroll: Why not?
Neil: Because I haven’t been introduced to you yet. You see, gorillas are very formal about introductions.
Erroll: Oh, I see. Well, my name’s Erroll, Erroll B. Dan…

Rory O’Donoghue: The ‘Introductions’ with my character on the park bench — I do believe in that one I didn’t actually play the guitar in that one; I think Grahame was the guitarist in that and came and sat down. The Neil and Erroll characters on the park bench slipped in and out of song seamlessly. The songs were simple — normally three- and four-chord little ditties — that we used to go in and out of and we would launch into these easy harmonies. That’s how it worked.

Soundbite: ‘Neil & Erroll’ sketch from The Aunty Jack Show

Erroll: But look, it’s very important for me to meet that gorilla — I feel I’m almost destined to meet that gorilla.
Neil: Well there’s just one thing that we could possibly do:
Erroll: Really?
Neil: The gorilla knows a lady that he formally knew, and there she is, sitting on that seat!
Erroll: Oh…!

Rory O’Donoghue: But all the characters in the show had their own musical ambience that would seemlessly get underway. It wasn’t a big deal that Kev Kevanagh would have the rock music kicking away and the Farrelly brothers would have the Country and Western Suburbs Music and Aunty Jack had the anthems…

Grahame Bond:The Big Bopperrrrr…

Rory O’Donoghue: The Big Bopperrrrr…

Dom Romeo: Neil and Erroll have been likened to Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s ‘Pete ’n’ Dud’, but I actually see elements of Marty Feldman and even Kenneth Williams from Around the Horne.

Grahame Bond:We loved Kenneth Williams — My God, what a funny man! And Marty Feldman — Great! No, I think the interesting thing is that Neil and Erroll examined —I hate people analysing material — but I think the nice thing about Neil and Erroll is that they were whimsical and they dealt with pathos. And not many people dealt with pathos. I think that one of the reasons people liked it was that it was sad. It was lovely and melancholy and sad.

Soundbite: Neil and Errol:

Neil: We had some good times, we had some bad times that we wished he never had.
Neil and Erroll: Now he’s free but not like me. He seemed a nice man, but a sad man. I’m sad that he’s happy…

Dom Romeo: Fans for a long time have been bemoaning the lack of Aunty Jack on video and DVD; there were rumours that the ABC in its wisdom had taped over episodes or destroyed them. I don’t know what the true story is, but I’d love you to tell me.

Rory O’Donoghue: The true story, and this is just for you, is that Four Corners taped over three episodes and we found out twenty-five years after they did that, so we had to dig up the costumes, go out and re-shoot three of the episodes and now there’s a little competition where you have to work out which three episodes…

Grahame Bond:I’m the right size now, I can actually play Aunty Jack without the padding! No, the fabulous thing about this, I’d say, the heroes of this whole thing of getting Aunty Jack back and putting it on DVD are National Australian Archives and ABC Archives. They went into deep search mode. And yes, there were three video tapes that were wiped, but National Australian Archives had it all saved on film. Plus the ABC found huge amounts of colour footage that was shot for the first series. Like the War episode — ninety percent of that show is in colour. So those people did the hard yards and they really searched it out. And their restoration, at National Archives, is fantastic.

Dom Romeo: Did you find anything that you’d forgotten about in the archives; were there any gems that you couldn’t even recall recording?

Grahame Bond:There were so many that I can’t remember them!

Rory O’Donoghue: Well I was in the theatre just yesterday when we did the press launch and there was footage there that I can’t remember doing and I was watching it almost for the first time. It’s interesting. We did a lot of stuff. Maurice Murphy, our director, came up to us the other day and said, “I saw some footage that you guys did with GTK and you were interviewing each other and it was mad and hysterical, but I can’t remember it; do you remember it?” And I said, “I can’t remember it!”

Grahame Bond:I actually saw the footage of GTK and it’s really bizarre. Rory is off-screen, but playing the most pretentious interviewer in the world, interviewing Graeme Bond, and saying, “so, a lot of your cerebral work was monolithic in its essential nature…” and I said, “No, I just do comedy, mate”. So he’s doing all this really, really heavy-weight stuff, and we were just sending up GTK. Like when we went to Nude Radio, we sent up all the jocks on Double J. They used to beg in meetings in Double J to get us off the air, because we were too anarchistic.

Dom Romeo: Okay, that’s the big question: how did doing Aunty Jack change you?

Grahame Bond:Rory — ‘Thin Arthur’ — got all the fan mail, I’ve got to say. Women wrote to Thin Arthur… Aunty Jack got about three or four but they were mainly male pensioners, and I went out with a couple of them but it didn’t work out. It was a bit tragic, really.

Rory O’Donoghue: How did it change me, doing Aunty Jack? I guess it changed me to the extent that I was very lucky to get that experience to learn so much about the craft of making television, because television is craft, just as stage is a craft. Stage is a dimension, and television acting is another dimension. And the opportunity to work in some great recording studios and to work with some great people… and that stands you in great stead in this business.

Grahame Bond:We had a perfect run; we didn’t know that it was difficult to be on television because our director and producer took all the hard hits. He was in there battling in board rooms, trying to hide it and trying to bury it, and Rory and I were saying, ‘Gee, this is easy, doing a television show…’ and we got the freedom to do everything we wanted to do. That was what was remarkable about the show: we had the freedom to do everything that we wanted to do, and we had no accountants or noone looking over our shoulder… I once spoke to Channel 7 about doing Aunty Jack for that station, and they said, ‘what’s this ‘Thin Arthur’ character?’ and I said, ‘it’s a comedia del’arte character’ and they thought ‘de latté’ was a kind of flat white coffee…”

Soundbite: ‘Farewell Aunty Jack’

Thin Arthur (Rory O’Donoghue): Farewell Aunty Jack,
We know you’ll be back.
Though you’re ten feet tall,
You don’t scare us at all.
You’re big, bold and tough
But you’re not so rough.
There’s a scream as you plummet away.

Aunty Jack (Grahame Bond): Hello, me li’l lovelies!

So remember, you’d better listen to this song real close, because if ya don’t, I’m gonna jump through these speakers and rip yer bloody arms orf! And I will, too… Don’t forget it. Especially you, stupid!

Tammy Tantschev: Now Dom, I get a little bit nostalgic listening to that because when I was a little tacker — I never saw the TV show either, obviously, I was too young, but — my parents did have the picture disc with the themesong on it, ‘Farewell Aunty Jack’, which I loved and used to play over and over again, not even knowing who these people were or what the show was about.

Dom Romeo: Well that’s very interesting, because I, too, managed to get a copy of ‘Farewell Aunty Jack’, not knowing much about the character, only linking Aunty Jack to Kev Kevanagh — “Eh! Eh!” — later on.

Soundbite: ‘Farewell Aunty Jack’

Thin Arthur (Rory O’Donoghue): We really, really love you
And we think the world about you.
Won’t you please come back to our house?
Please come back, dear Aunty Jack.

Grahame Bond (as Aunty Jack): Hello, me little lovelies, this is your old, fat Aunty Jack, and you’d better listen to Radio Ha Ha ’cause if you don’t, I’m gonna jump through your speakers and rip your bloody arms off.

Rory O’Donoghue (as Thin Arthur): And she will, too!

GIG GUIDE

Soundbite: ‘Q5 Piano Theme’ by Spike Milligan, from Spike Milligan - A Collection of Spikes.

As soon as Spike clears his throat and plays the opening piano figure, fade down for…

Tammy Tantschev: And now it’s that part of the program where I tell you what’s funny in Sydney this week.

So at the Sydney Comedy Store in the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, Friday 9th, Anthony Mir headlines, and Saturday 10th Tommy Dean is your headline act, with Brett Nichols and Russel Gilbert appearing on both nights. And a favourite comic of mine, Mr Chris Wainhouse, headlines at the Comedy Store from 13th December.

At the Laugh Garage, Parramatta Peter Meisel and Adam Molds will be on with your headline act, the delightful Mr Darren Sanders.

The Comedy Hole at the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown features Akmal Saleh on Monday 12th December with your MC Daniel Townes and I’ll be there that night as support — as in, doing stand-up on the night, not just yelling words of encouragement at the stage.

The Fringe Bar in Paddington again offers comedy on Monday night so get down there to see Mark My Words, Chris Franklin and Adam Molds on Monday 12th December.

Wednesday 14th December, Blacktown RSL features Gary Bradbury, Nick Johns and Dan More.

On Thursday 15th December at the Epping Hotel, don’t miss Mick Meredith, and if you enjoyed hearing Dave Jory who featured on our show last week, then a great opportunity is there to go along and see him live at the Epping Hotel.

Also on Thursday 15th December, it’s a very special event at the Friend In Hand Hotel’s comedy night, ‘Mic In Hand’: Adam Spencer and Wil Anderson are getting together again to headline that night, and their expecting a large audience so get there early on the night to avoid disappointment.

The Mic In Hand is one of the venues offering an ‘open mic’ section, and that’s a section for brand new comics. Some are first-timers and some are established comics trying new material — it’s that kind of thing. So if you want to support new comedy or have a go at it yourself, get along to that night or any of the other open mic nights around the city, which are:

Pear Shaped with Jonas Holt, held at the East Village Hotel every Monday.

Tuesday you’ll find open mic at the Sydney Comedy Store and often Wil Anderson gets down there to MC on the night.

And you should most definitely take yourself down to Paddy Maguires in the city on Wednesday nights to join Mr Nick Johns, some other open micers, and other guest comedians.

That’s what’s funny in Sydney this week.

Soundbite: conclusion of ‘Q5 Piano Theme’ by Spike Milligan, from Spike Milligan Comedy Collection.

Staion ID: Laugh out loud: it’s okay; this is Radio Ha Ha on 2GB Plus.

CLASSIC COMEDY

Dom Romeo: Now Tammy, it’s time for the part of the show where we play a classic comedy clip, but this week, I’m not going to choose it. This week we have a Guest TeeHee Jay; that’s right, someone else is going to choose the classic comedy clip for us, and that man is Chuck Boyd, who I think you know quite well.

Tammy Tantschev: I do know Chuck. In fact, Chuck is the guy who is behind the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD which we first introduced in Episode 1.

Dom Romeo: That’s right. So Chuck’s a stand-up comic.

Tammy Tantschev: Yes he is. He’s a very good stand-up comic, and it was his idea to showcase the talent that’s in Sydney at the moment…

Dom Romeo: Uh-huh.

Tammy Tantschev: … And we’ve got Chuck on the line right now.

How are you doing, Chuck?

Chuck Boyd: I’m doing great, Tammy, Dom. How are you guys?

Dom Romeo: Good.

Tammy Tantschev: Excellent, excellent.

Dom Romeo: Now the first question, of course, Chuck, is, what have you chosen?

Chuck Boyd: Ah, well I’ve selected some Groucho Marx.

Tammy Tantschev: Ooh!

Chuck Boyd: I love Groucho, and I believe he is absolutely vital to today’s comedy scene.

Dom Romeo: Why do you say that?

Chuck Boyd: Oh, well, the roots of comedy – spoken comedy — began with the talkies [7] and vaudeville and Groucho Marx was pretty much there from the get-go.

Dom Romeo: Do you still see elements of Groucho’s work in other people’s humour nowadays?

Chuck Boyd: Oh, absolutely; the sniding comments; taking down the authority figures; yeah, he was there seventy years before we were.

Tammy Tantschev: And is there a particular bit of Groucho’s that you would like to hear today?

Chuck Boyd: Oh, there’s so much Groucho to choose from, but I’d probably say, if not one of his monologue bits, one of his musical bits, like ‘Lydia the Tatoo’d Lady’.

Dom Romeo: Funnily enough, Chuck, you’re not the only person to have requested that piece:

Soundbite: ‘Lydia The Tatoo’d Lady’ from the Groucho Marx disc Gregariously Groucho

Groucho Marx: While we’re on the subject, I’ve got a couple of requests to sing, myself. Oddly enough, the requests were sent in by a couple of strangers named Chico and Harpo. Audience laughs. Zeppo doesn’t care what I do, which is alright by me, because I don’t care what Zeppo does — and he’s the guy that can do it. Sing Groucho…

Groucho delivers the song, that includes such great lines as…

When she stands, the world grows littler;
When she sits, she sits on Hitler…

Dom Romeo: Chuck…

Chuck Boyd: Yes, hi Dom.

Dom Romeo: I’ve got one thing to say you:

Chuck Boyd: Yes…

Dom Romeo (in a cheesy Groucho Marx voice): I’d horsewhip you — if I had a horse!

Chuck Boyd: I wish I could sit on Hitler! Fantastic. Well, thank you, you guys!

Dom Romeo: Thank you.

Tammy Tantschev: Thanks so much, Chuck.

Station ID: A whole world of laughs: Radio Ha Ha on 2GB Plus.

Dom Romeo: Okay, Tammy, that was Chuck Boyd, the man behind the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD. And guess what: Chuck is so good, he’s actually giving us a bunch of copies of the DVD to give away. So, people, if you’re listening, go to www.2gbplus.com, send us an e-mail requesting some classic comedy. If we play it, you get a free DVD. Can’t ask for more than that.

Tammy Tantschev: Is it heading towars that time of the show, Dom, where I get you to read one of your hilarious jokes from your joke book, Have You Heard The One About…?

Dom Romeo: Normally, I’d say ‘yes’, but this time I’m gonna say ‘no’, Tammy, because what I wanna do, I wanna hear a bit more from Emma Driver, because she actually helped me launch the book.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh, excellent.

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Emma Driver, recorded live at the Comedy Store launch of Have You Heard The One About…

Emma Driver: How many roadies does it take to change a lightbulb?
Two. Two. One, two. Two.

This is a song that I learnt when I was in Italy. A beautiful Italian man taught me this song and he said, beautiful lady, take it back to your country…

Emma performs ‘Mi Piace Culli’, which translates to, and features prominantly, the line…

I like bottoms…

Tammy Tantschev: And that was Emma with ‘I Like Bottoms’.

Dom Romeo: The word ‘bottom’ appeared quite a few times in that song.

Tammy Tantschev: It did, and is it worthy, if you have enough bottoms that maybe we deserve the explicit rating. Maybe we just have to live with that.

Dom Romeo: I think you’re right.

Tammy Tantschev: Well that’s all we have time for. Thank you everyone for listening to Radio Ha Ha

Soundbite: Last segment of ‘Holiday for Strings’ by Spike Jones and His City Slickers.


FOOTNOTES

1. There was genuine dismay at the decision to label the Radio Ha Ha podcasts ‘explicit’ when, early on, great pains were taken to ensure that they were not. So Dom thought it would be fun to inform listeners of the fact that the podcasts could be subscribed to, for free download via iTunes, while at the same time perpetrating the tried-and-true self conscious, self-referential ‘censorship’ gag (eg “who the @#$% thinks I ought to be censored?”). So the joke itself is that, in the process of bemoaning unnecessary censorship, there is some cursing that requires censorship. So far so ordinary.

   The clever ‘extra layer’: underneath the censorship tones, there is, in fact, nothing that requires censoring. Okay, not earth-shatteringly funny, no great work of genius, but it does at least satirise the unnecessary ‘explicit’ warning label.

   Better still is the manner in which it is perpetrated: temporal transgression, with a bit of simulated ‘let’s go back and hear what really happened’ nonsense. Again, nothing that’s going to win the Nobel Prize for Humour, but a bit of fun, some studio experimentation to boot, and heightened awareness of the ability to subscribe to the Radio Ha Ha podcast.

2. Now the www.freedigitalcontent.com website.
3. An obvious observation for anyone familiar with the contemporary state of the comedy industry, and one that becomes far more common about half a year later, when the likes of Tim Minchin, Tripod, Porthole Into The Minds of the Vanquished, Sam Simmons, The Scared Weird Little Guys (with and without their Superband), HipHop 4 Dummeez, Freestyle Love Supreme, Tom Gleeson, The Renegades of Folk, Sammy J, Demetri Martin, Geraldine Quinn, Cliffy and Lovie, to name several (but not enough and certainly not all) do amazing things at the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Mighty pleased it was a contention held and shared by Radio Ha Ha way back in November.
4. For more information on Emma Driver, check out her fully sick webpage and HerSpace. As for the launch itself, it was spoken of in Episode 1.
5. See Episode 1 for the interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor, regarding the Goodies’ return tour of Australia.
6. Oh goody, an implied dick joke (possibly the best kind).