Radio Ha Ha

Episode 37: Shane Dundas, Kent Valentine, The Umbilical Brothers, Paul Livingston

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



PREAMBLE

This episode may appear a tad indulgent — perhaps conversation with both Shane Dundas and Paul Livingstone should have been curtailed, particularly towards the end, in favour for more, really funny, stand-up, but the fact is nobody’s really had the opportunity to draw either of them out at length about their work. So this is a real treat for comedy nerds, although casual punters might find it a bit heavy going. There is of course some excellent stand-up from Kent Valentine.

This episode was uploaded on Friday 10th 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: Richard Richard (Rik Mayall) laughs briefly, followed by the live studio audience, from an episode of Bottom. [1]

INTRODUCTION

Dom Romeo: Well, welcome to this episode of Radio Ha Ha. I’m happy to say that I’m joined in the studio by co-host Shane Dundas. He’s the guy without the wavy hair, from the Umbilical Brothers.

Shane Dundas: [in flombouyant, theatrical voice] Why, thank you!

[in normal voice] It’s great to see you, Dom! [2]

Dom Romeo: Same here!

Shane Dundas: It’s great to see you…? Or it’s great to see me?

Dom Romeo: Well, I’m not looking at me, it’s great…

Shane Dundas: Right, you’re looking at [me]… oh, yeah, right.

Dom Romeo: It’s great to see you!

Shane Dundas: It’s good to see you, too. I’ve already said that…

Dom Romeo: And it’s… it’s good to be working with you, so to speak.

Shane Dundas: Yeah, after all these years…

Listeners, Dom actually knows comedy; he understands comedy, which is why I’ve agreed to do this by myself, without Dave.

Dom Romeo: Thank you!

Well, we’ve got a very full episode. We’ll be talking at length, Shane, about your work: how the Umbilical Brothers came to be, we’ll talk about that great show, Speedmouse — because there’s a great DVD for the poor people who missed out on Speedmouse — and of course we’ve got to talk about the great new show, The Rehearsal.

Shane Dundas: Yeah, real excited about that because it’s so different from our other shows!

Dom Romeo: Fantastic! And somewhere in all of this, I’ve got to slip in a Flacco interview…

Shane Dundas: All right.

Dom Romeo: And I hope we can segue well to that…

Shane Dundas: Sure!

Dom Romeo: I’m not particularly strong on the segues away from the talent in the studio, to the talent not in the studio!

Shane Dundas: I’m intrigued as to how you can interview Flacco, you know, because he exists in another universe altogether.

Dom Romeo: Indeed.

Shane Dundas: It’s a cross-universe interview.

Dom Romeo: Before we move into that, though…

Shane Dundas: Yep.

Dom Romeo: … here’s a bit of comedy that was recorded recently, [3] by Kent Valentine!

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Kent Valentine talks about recent shark attacks, as an entré into doing some fantastic material about the ‘mysterious way’ in which God works…

Station ID: Someone call an ambulance, I’ve just split my sides! Radio Ha Ha.

Dom Romeo: And that was Kent Valentine, talking about God, recorded live at the Mic in Hand [4], the room he co-runs with Sam Bowring, at the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe.

Shane Dundas: I was there just the other night, for the first time, actually. It’s a great little room, you should check it out. It’s intimate, very supportive and the Harold Park Hotel in Sydney used to have that vibe before they kind of… demolished it. So it’s really good that there is somewhere like that.

Dom Romeo: In fact, the great thing about those sorts of comedy clubs all over Australia is, you’re there at the coal face.

Shane Dundas: Yeah.

Dom Romeo: I mean, to get to the point where you can put a show like The Rehearsal on in a big theatre, you’ve got to start somewhere. There’s got to be those gigs that aren’t the official show.

Shane Dundas: And those are the gigs – the places, the pubs that we’re talking about. They start there. We started at the Harold Park Hotel in Sydney, when it was operating, and it was open mic night. Which is what these nights often are, you know. You get a chance to show that you’ve got something different to offer.

Dom Romeo: What got you to the point, Shane, because you and Dave met in acting school. You’ve never said which acting school; it’s always, ‘we met in acting school, we played up and were a bit silly together…’ so first things first: where were you training?

Shane Dundas: It was at the University of Western Sydney, Theatre Nepean, the course was. It was a three-year, full time acting course. So it was your garden variety acting course. You've got your acting classes, movement, voice, singing… all that stuff. And we really clicked. We understood each other very early on. And we started making fun of the mime classes, because, you know, it's a very traditional art. Anything that’s super traditional and super-respected, we kind of feel an urge to twist, and demonstrate that there shouldn’t be that much respect: don’t take it as seriously as a lot of people do. There are some groups in Europe that we’ve come across that are really serious about their comedy, and, I don’t know — it just seems to close doors, to me. So we made fun of the mime classes, and it started as a joke, really.

Soundbite: excerpt from the DVD of Speedmouse in which Shane and David, in serious Germanic accents, undertake serious mime [5]

Shane: Velcome to ze hilarious vorld of European vizual komedy. My name is Hans, and zis is my assistant, Klaus.

David: Hello! I…

Shane: Klaus does not speak!

Und so ze first piece zat Klaus vill perform for you tonight: ze traditional European Valkink Against Ze Vind…

Dom Romeo: What I find interesting is, I’ve described what you do as coming from a mime tradition, and you guys kind of backed off a bit at that point, because you don’t want to be known as ‘mime’. I would go further, though. It’s not just mime. There’s a little bit of ventriloquism happening — you’re each other’s ventriloquist’s dummy, and there’s that misdirection that goes on, because it’s your lips that are moving, but it’s David’s sounds, or the microphone’s being held against David’s head, but you’re doing all the different radio voices that he’s somehow channelling in his brain…

Soundbite: excerpt from the DVD of Speedmouse in which the microphone David moves around the surface of his head picks up various radio frequencies, until it lands upon the following conversation, spoken offstage by Shane —

Voice 1: Okay. I want a status report right away. What’s going on out there?

Voice 2: Well, Sir, according to our instruments, he just seems to be standing there with a microphone to his head.

Voice 1: A microphone to his head?

Voice 2: That’s right, Sir.

Voice 1: Okay. Everybody just… just stay calm.

Voice 2: What’s the problem, Sir?

Voice 1: Shut up! I think he’s listening to this conversation. Grab the plans, we’re getting out of here.

Voice 2: What about the hand lotion?

Voice 1: Forget the hand lotion!

Voice 3: consists of monkey chattering

Voice 1: And for Christ’s sake, leave the damn monkey. Come on!

sound effect (created by Shane with his mouth) of running footsteps and car door opening

Shane Dundas: Yeah, we’re mucking around with what you’re perceiving, what you think you’re perceiving, what you think you should be perceiving, and we’re mucking around with the very process of performing. So it’s not just a story that you’re watching, it’s us doing a story, and that, generally, becomes the story: us trying to achieve the show, is the story of the show. So it’s like a narrative that’s on the outside of the show. It’s very weird. And I don’t know how that evolved, but I think it happened because we just don’t take these things seriously. So we’re always looking at it from the outside, you know? “This is just a big joke!” “All right, let’s make that big joke into the story.” I don’t know, it just evolved that way. Well, it actually came from a broken nose!

Dom Romeo: We were going to get onto that!

Shane Dundas: You were going to mention the broken nose?

Dom Romeo: I’ve got to ask about the broken nose — it’s even in your bio on your website!

Shane Dundas: Yeah… yeah.

Dom Romeo: Now, as I understand it, it was a dance class…

Shane Dundas: Yep!

Dom Romeo: And you choreographed some Jackie Chan moves in…

Shane Dundas: Yeah. We used to go down to China Town on the weekends and check out the Jackie Chan movies. These are the old ones, where he really seriously injured himself in great fight scenes. We used to muck around and just create our own fight scenes. We’d videotape them — there are some very embarrassing videotapes out there that, I don’t know, if we get enough guts up, we’ll put ’em as a DVD extra maybe on the next DVD… but this dance class was [singing] “Baby, you can Dom Romeo:ive my car… beep, beep, beep, beep, yeah!” We’re doing this dance routine to it, and the teacher said, “just choreograph your own moves” in the middle section of the song. So we put this flying kick in. David spun — a beautiful spinning kick in the air — and just smaaaaacked directly — [does sound effect of ‘splattering flesh’-type carnage] — into my nose. My nose went to the other side of my face. It was delicious. The sound effect was delicious. I can appreciate a good sound effect.

Dom Romeo: Did you fall to the ground?

Shane Dundas: Aah, no. I just kind of looked in one direction — that is, the direction that my nose just went. And Dave said, “My teacher told me you’ve got to straighten your nose up immediately, when you get a broken nose.” I went into the changeroom and I straightened my nose up — [does sound effect of moving ‘splattered flesh’-type carnage back into place] — immediately on my face, because it was seriously pointing in another direction, and blood just gushed. It was like it was releasing a tap — [does sound effect of tap gushing] — I looked down into the sink and it was like the shower scene from Psycho. It was all disappearing down there. And apparently it was David’s Maths teacher that told him that; he didn’t give me that extra detail. And we just went to the hospital and, yes, it was broken, and then we went back to class and we did the assessment — it was a dance assessment — and we passed. I think they were being generous.

Dom Romeo: Did you get into trouble? Did you get separated? Did you…

Shane Dundas: Yep. They tried to keep us apart after that. They put us in different groups: different movement groups, different acting groups. But we started just mucking around, filming these videos, inventing routines. The mime classes were boring: they weren’t loud enough, for a start. Mime is simply not loud enough, and I think that’s most people’s problem with it. So we started creeping back into the lecture theatres after each lecture, and mucking around with the PA system. And these two things — making fun of the mime classes and mucking around with the PA, just fused, and we created this sort of ‘cartoon’ — it’s like a human cartoon. [6]

Soundbite: The Umbilical Brothers’ single Don’t Dance To This.

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

Dom Romeo: That was, of course, your single, Don’t Dance To This.

Shane Dundas: Yeah, I think it sold something in the region of… six.

Dom Romeo: Well, I think I bought one of those…

Shane Dundas: That was you! You were one of the buyers… Congratulations, that’s a collector’s item, now.

Dom Romeo: I’ve gotta say, we played this a few weeks ago when you were nominated for a Helpmann Award… [7]

Shane Dundas: Oh yeah.

Dom Romeo: … and listening back, without the visuals, without the film clip which also came on the CD single, I actually like listening to what you do more. The ‘cartoon’ stuff is great when I get to put my own images to it, to a certain extent.

Shane Dundas: Thanks for that, that’s a good point. And it really was created just on its own terms, as a sound project. We had to create some kind of video for it, so we shot this thing, and it’s a pretty dodgy video, so it belongs squarely on the DVD… we whacked it on the DVD because the Speedmouse DVD, part of the joke is, how much rubbish can you put on a DVD to make people buy it? That was just part of the instrinsic joke. So it’s like the unnecessary video clip. But I appreciate that you enjoy it purely on ‘sound’ terms, because it is just all our voices cut up and sampled and moved around and stuff.

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



Dom Romeo: Now, Shane, I warned you early on: I’m not gonna have a good segue. I’ve got an interview with Flacco that I want us to play. He’s doing his show, Releasing the Imbecile Within in Melbourne. It’s already had a Sydney run, it’s done the Adelaide Cabaret Festival… here I’m talking to his alter ego, Paul Livingston, who discusses the difficulties of being Flacco’s alter ego, and the fact that Flacco tends to take over.

Shane Dundas: I can’t wait to hear this, ’cause I’ve talked to him about the same thing.

Dom Romeo Cool!



INTERVIEW WITH PAUL LIVINGSTON (FLACCO)





Soundbite: some of Flacco’s stand-up from the video The Doug Anthony Allstars Live at the National Theatre New York

Dom Romeo: Paul, where does the Flacco character come from?

Paul Livingston: That’s a good question, isn’t it. I don’t know if he discovered me or I discovered him. It’s been twenty years now since I actually started him. I was an animator before that for eight years, so he kind of came off the page. I was going to turn him into a cartoon character, but I sort of decided that I’d do him myself. He constructs his own world; he has that frame around his world and he’s quite confident within that. I mean, Flacco is one of the most confident people I’ve ever met. He’s quite the opposite of me, really. Within his world, it is very self-contained, and everything seems to make sense to him. Which is interesting, because nothing makes sense to me.

Dom Romeo: It is interesting, because Flacco amazingly says dumb things in a very intelligent way that actually betray genius. I can give you some examples off the top of my head — and I’m sorry, I’m dragging them from way back…

Paul Livingston: Oh, he’s been around for a long time!

Dom Romeo: Well, when I first discovered him, when he used to hang around the Doug Anthony Allstars…

Paul Livingston: Yep.

Dom Romeo: … so I remember episodes of Daas Kapital [8] when he’d say things like “I could have been a container”. That’s a dumb mis-remembering of “I coulda been a contender” from On the Waterfront, but because it’s from On the Waterfront a ‘container’ makes perfect sense.

Paul Livingston: I know, and it’s one of my favourite quotes, actually. I’m glad you liked that one.

Soundbite: from Season I Episode 2, Avarice, of DAAS Kapital, in a scene in which Flacco is writing to his mum…

Flacco: So, Mama, I don’t know when I’ll see you again. It’s hard to know when to apply for parole when you’re cast out for eternity… but Mama, I could have been somebody… I could have been somebody... I could have been a container... But what do I end up with? A one way ticket to Pallookaville... But what can I do? I cough up, I come clean, I spill the bean... and the first thing you know... Old Jed’s a millionaire!

Paul Livingston: Flacco does have the appearance of knowledge. He seems to know something, but at the same time, appear completely dumb.
That is something that I picked up off the Doug Anthony Allstars, too, because they do their shows and they’d be throwing in names like Nietzche and stuff like that and people would suddenly think they’re intelligent because you’ve mentioned certain people and a lot of it is just playing at it, a lot of it is just that ‘trickster’ character who’s pretending to be something that they’re not. In Flacco’s case, one second he’s pretending he’s really intelligent, and in the next, he’s pretending he’s really dumb. He’s probably really both of those things.

Dom Romeo: Now, does Flacco come a tradition of clowning? I’d swear that I’ve seen images that look like Flacco that come from late 18th Century or 19th Century or maybe even early 20th Century illustrations.

Paul Livingston: It’s pretty hard to get away from the ‘clown’ image when you’ve got a bald head with just hair on the sides. When he first started he had those strands of hair stringing out around his head which is very clown, and also wearing the make-up. I never intended to look like a clown because I don’t really like clowning. The idea of the make-up and stuff was pretty much from the animation side of things, it was an outline. It was more like a ‘Daffy Duck’ kind of thing. I wanted to give the character more of an outline and take him outside of the real world, rather than clowning. I really don’t like clowns at all; they scared me as a kid and they scare me now. But a lot of that old imagery of the 19th Century is certainly where Flacco comes from. One of my favourite illustrators or artists is Edward Gorey. He was actually working in the 50s, but he was drawing in that style. I don’t know if you’re familiar with his work, but it is that creepy Victorian world, that strangely Gothic kind of look.

Soundbite: excerpt of the solo Flacco stand-up sections — illustrating his clever stupidity — taken from the album Flacco and the Sandman Live in the Corridor of Uncertainty, predominantly a live recording of a split show by Flacco and the Sandman

Dom Romeo: Your work as an author – I notice that sometimes you publish as Paul Livingston, and sometimes as Flacco. I see that The Dirt Bath is under your name, but Burnt Offerings is Flacco’s book.

Paul Livingston: Yeah. All it is is attempts to escape from Flacco, but it never really works. I’ve been trying to retire Flacco every year for twenty years, but he just keeps bouncing back and he’s always been much more successful than I am.
The Dirt Bath was a novel and I thought, “I’m not going to let Flacco take the credit for that; I’m gonna do it myself.” And the last book, Releasing the Imbecile Within, was written as Paul Livingston, and Flacco’s taken over that as well. So as much as I try to get away from him, he just keeps coming back. We can’t split up, unfortunately.

Soundbite: excerpt of one of the linking passages by Flacco and the Sandman taken from the album Flacco and the Sandman Live in the Corridor of Uncertainty

Dom Romeo: Flacco has worked a lot with the Doug Anthony Allstars, Flacco has appeared on shows that [Andrew] Denton has hosted, and Flacco also had a long partnership with the Sandman.

Paul Livingston: Flacco’s always been a solo character. When I worked with the Dougs, it was more-or-less I held my own little sections in their show and in the live shows as well, rather than interact too much with them. But with the Sandman it was amazing, because we are two completely different characters and we never thought that it would work together. But there was something: once we started working together on the radio, there was some sort of Abbott and Costello template to it all, where he just abuses me and can’t stand me, but needs me for some apparent reason, and I’m just that little puppy, nipping at his heals and quite innocent of what he’s saying to me. Something about the two characters worked, and it was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the sandman for that reason. After doing solo stuff for so long — for ten years — it was great to actually have someone on stage with you. I haven’t done a solo show – this is my first solo show for ten years so it’s kind of back to all that stress and tension again.

Dom Romeo: I hope it’s exciting stress and tension.

Paul Livingston: We’ll see, I don’t know yet.

Dom Romeo: Now, Paul, there are fifteen stages to releasing the imbecile within –

Paul Livingston: There are. It’s a self-help guide for over-achievers, so it’s a guide for dumming down into ignorant bliss, basically. What I do is I start off with an unintelligence test, just to see how stupid the audience is before I start so we know how long we’re going to be in the room for and then we get stuck into dumbing people down. My theory is that the belt is the plimsoll line of comedy, and above the belt is ‘highbrow’ and below the belt is ‘lowbrow’, and we’re gonna try and get it from the highbrow right down to the lowbrow by the end of the evening. That’s the aim of the exercise, basically, from Flacco’s point of view.

Dom Romeo: Paul, thank you very much for your time.

Paul Livingston: Thanks Dom, it's really good to talk to you.

Station ID: Just for laffs… Identify yourself, please. Radio Ha Ha!

Dom Romeo: And that was Paul Livingston, discussing Releasing the Imbecile Within
Shane Dundas: That’s right!

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

Dom Romeo: And that was Paul Livingston discussing Releasing the Imbecile Within.

Shane Dundas: Something we‘d all like to do, I reckon! I mean, it’s a really lucky job that we have, don’t you reckon?

Dom Romeo: I reckon!

Shane Dundas: You know — we are releasing the imbecile within; most people have to keep it contained; straight-jacketed. Not us! We’re free. The imbecile is free!

Dom Romeo: That should have been the segue — good on ya! Now, you were saying that, with the Speedmouse DVD, you wanted to cram as much as you could on it, to give people excuses to buy it, and I think that that’s almost a sacreligious thing to say. I think anyone who saw the show would want to own a copy, particularly for the encore which, again, came from the show Thwack, that lovely piece that I believe is called ‘The Flat’?

Shane Dundas: Yes, that’s right.

Dom Romeo: And, look, we can’t even… there’s no point even talking about it because we can’t play it because it’s so visual.

Shane Dundas: No. You’d just be getting some classical music with some very weird little… [mimmicks slapstick sound effects culminating in an explosion…] noises at the end.

Dom Romeo: That’s right, but what I do want to say about it is that the extra stuff you did for the menus — there’s a whole lot of perception gags…

Shane Dundas: Yep.

Dom Romeo: … like, you know, one of you is sitting down on a very small chair and the chair’s pulled away but it turns out that you’re not sitting down on a very small chair, you’re sitting in the position of ‘sitting’, very close to the camera, and the chair is very far away, which is why it looks so small…

Shane Dundas: Yeeeeeeeaaaaaah. That was so much fun. We just had so much fun working on the menus in a white cyc… [9] That was some of our favourite stuff. You can just put the DVD in and not actually watch anything — just let the menus run.

Dom Romeo: And what is there? Ninety minutes’ worth of…

Shane Dundas: Ninety minutes? No, I think there’s fifteen minutes of us mucking around… in the menu…[10] which kind of rotates… it’ll go back to the beginning. But you’ve got three different menus.

Dom Romeo: Right.

Shane Dundas: You’ve got the ‘Main Menu’, the ‘Extras Menu’, and the ‘Extra Extras Menu’…

Dom Romeo: Mm-hm.

Shane Dundas: Which is us, kind of admitting that we don’t have a third menu. The ‘Extra Extras Menu’ is just us sitting in the studio going, “well, we… ah… can’t believe you’re still watching this. Yeah, if you wanna check out the Extra Extras, sure, here’s a list of them, but we don’t have any more to give you”. It’s just us riffing and shooting the breeze. [11]

Dom Romeo: Now I would argue that the riffing, the shooting the breeze, the mucking around for the menus, because of all the perception gags that involve camera placed here, props placed there, bodies placed there — that seems to me to have inspired The Rehearsal.

Shane Dundas: You’re right. It all comes from mucking around. All of our stuff comes from mucking around, in one form or another. So that mucking around on the menu was kind of practice for ‘the practice’ that we’re doing on stage now, and the menu stuff itself, with the puppets, came from mucking around on tour. We were touring America, we took a video camera with us and we were just mucking around with the camera. It was just ‘too much time on our hands’ between venues. And that’s the thing: it’s ‘jamming’. And that led to the menus, led to the crystalisation of that idea in The Rehearsal. So it’s all… [in mock ‘serious aesthete’ voice] It’s a circle of life, Dom!

Dom Romeo: So if we want to know what the next show will be about, we’ll have to buy the DVD of The Rehearsal when it gets released.

Shane Dundas: Oh yeah. But the next DVD is gonna be Thwack. I think we’ll shoot Thwack; it’s our show prior to Speedmouse, and while we’re still physically able to do that stuff — because it’s the most violent and action=packed of our shows — while we’re able to do that, we want to get it on film.

Dom Romeo: Is it fair to say that Thwack was the show that broke you internationally?

Shane Dundas: Yeah. Well, it’s really our old stuff, with some extra stuff added for the Americans, so essentially, it’s the show that we took to New York — we did it in New York for a year. But it’s also the core material we took to Edinburgh the first time and it’s really the Edinburgh Fringe that led to our international stuff. [12]

Station ID: Radio Ha Ha: just for laughs!

Dom Romeo: I’m really sorry, Shane, I think we’re running out of time.

Shane Dundas: Oh, gosh. Yes. I’ve got to get back to my hole.

Dom Romeo: What can I say?

Shane Dundas: My alternative universe…

Ah, one thing I think I want to say is what we do is not really… we don’t see it as mime. We kind of see it as stand-up…

Dom Romeo: I told you you had issues about mime! It’s not mime, it’s not stand-up, it’s not pure slapstick, it’s not street theatre…

Shane Dundas: It‘s… it’s…

Dom Romeo: But it’s a gorgeous combination of so much.

Shane Dundas: Yeah, what we try to do is create something that really doesn’t fit into any category, but then you’ve got the problem of, you come on a show like this, how do you describe it? We’ve created this inherent problem in making something that can’t be categorised. But I’d call it ‘stand-up slapstick’. Possibly.

Dom Romeo: Okay. I like to refer to it as clowning, because even stand-up is a branch of clowning…

Shane Dundas: Well there’s a certain cynical attitude within the stand-up attitude to material, that we have to slapstick. So I think that’s why I call it ‘stand-up slapstick’. It’s ‘slapstick’ or ‘clowning’, with a ‘stand-up’ attitude.

Dom Romeo: It does have the stand-up attitude. Listen, before I let us go, there’s a moment in Speedmouse where a child is given a balloon…

Shane Dundas: Yeah…

Dom Romeo: … and the balloon is helium-filled and very big, and the child starts to rise…

Soundbite: the sound of one of the Umbilical Brothers, backstage, speaking as the child that the audience is imagining rising in the air before them (this is aided by the presence of the ‘Roadie’, whose head tilts upward to watch the child’s ascent, and the rising pitch, volume and excitement in the child’s voice as it speaks)

Child: Wow, that’s a beautiful balloon.

Thank you mister. Thank you very much for the balloon.

It’s a really pretty balloon, mister.

Thank you very much for the balloon.

I really like the ballooooon, mistaaaaah.

Hey, mistaaaah, it’s a bit bloody high up here…

Do you tink I could come down now?

sound of Roadie blowing dart and exploding balloon, followed by child’s screaming plummet into the arms of Umbilical Brother David Collins

Dom Romeo: There is no balloon; there is no child; and yet, I have been in the audience and with the whole audience, watched the rising of the child in the air…

Shane Dundas: Yeah, isn’t that cool!

Dom Romeo: And then… it’s just amazing. We believe you. You convince us.

Shane Dundas: Well, you’re willing to come along for the ride, and that’s the thing. It’s not just us on a stage. It’s us on an empty stage; you people in the audience are creating whatever it is on stage. Your imaginations are making this appear, with a little help from our sound effects. But what else are we doing? There’s nothing there. It’s your imaginations and we’re working together. It’s like it’s a game that we’re all playing. That’s the most fantastic thing about it, the goodwill that we get from the audience. They go with us on this.

Dom Romeo: Fantastic. Shane, thanks once again for coming in.

Shane Dundas: Pleasure.

CLOSING THEME

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



PIMPING THE WEBSITE

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



TAG

Soundbite: continuation of the excerpt from the DVD of Speedmouse in which the microphone David moves around the surface of his head picks up various radio frequencies and the conversation spoken offstage by Shane —

Voice 1: consists of monkey chattering

Voice 2: I said leave the frickin’ monkey!

FOOTNOTES

1. A Rik Mayall laugh had first been utilised for Episode 32 — that time as Mad Gerald, from a first season episode of Blackadder. After that episode had been uploaded, Rik Mayall fan Katrant suggested a bunch of other sources for great Rik Mayall laughs — all of which occur in the series Bottom. Insufficient attention was paid when grabbing this sample to be able to name the episode, but it is from Season 3 of Bottom.

2. Hang on — did Shane just call Dom ‘Don’?! There’s a very slight awkward pause before Dom carries on as if Shane clearly called Dom ‘Dom’. Which is reminiscent of a story Alan Bennett tells, in Writing Home, of a production of Checkov’s The Seagull he attended in which, after the climactic off-stage gun shot, the actor playing Dorn ends the play by perpetrating this excellent little Freudian slip: “What I wanted to say was, that Constantine has shat himself.” According to Bennett, because the cast maintained poise and character through the awkward pause, the magic of the moment was maintained and the audience decided as one to carry on as if the line had be spoken correctly. Dom being called ‘Don’ is nowhere near as potentially disasterous as Constatine firing a gun and shitting himself, rather than shooting himself, at the end of The Seagull.

3. Actually, no it wasn’t. It was recorded back in May, along with the Kent Valentine material played in Episode 27

4. Actually, no it wasn’t. It was recorded at the Comedy Store. What happened was this: the Thursday before the Tuesday arvo that this episode was recorded, Dom had been at the Mic in Hand for their evening of comedy. As frequently occurs there, fellow comedy nerd Jesse Perez, of Radiowise, was operating the desk and let Dom take a feed out of his equipment, since he was also recording. Kent unveiled some brilliant new God material, that Dom intended to play. Unfortunately, it was only after he’d pre-recorded the episode with Shane Dundas that he realised that the Mic in Hand material hadn’t recorded properly (the channel with the direct feed from the stage mic was blank; the audience mic came through fine, but a lot of the material was smothered by audience laughter; audience laughter is a great thing, but only when you can actually hear what it is they’re laughing at). Jesse was willing to process and e-mail the bit of material in question, but Dom’s inbox — perpetually crammed with the kind of spam that is so interested in the size of his mortgage, bank balance and penis — failed to allow its delivery in time. Thankfully, Dom had some older Kent/God material in the can, recorded at the Comedy Store in May, that could be slotted in.

5. Punters who saw Speedmouse live may well have been disappointed that this section of the show, viz ze serious European mime act of Hans und Klaus, was severely truncated for the DVD release. Turns out that the entire routine comes from the earlier Umbilical Brothers show Thwak!, and will be included in the DVD release of that show, whose future return season in the US will be recorded for posterity. Yay!

6. In an excerpt from an older interview, included in Episode 32, Shane reveals that it is in fact the early Jackie Chan films, in which the entire soundtrack (including dialogue) was added in post-production, in which the true origins of the Umbilical Brothers’ style reside.

7. Way back in Episode 32 !

8. Aah, Daas Kapital; two seasons, directed by Ted Robinson… if only it’d get a DVD release…

9. An attempt was made to google ‘white cyc’ in order to explain and define it here — but to no avail. Feel free to add this info in a comment…

10. So Dom was exaggerating a little… bit… too much…

11. A clever editor would have included the soundbite of the Umbies shooting the breeze in the Extra Extras Menu at this point. An even cleverer one would have included it as the second tag at the end of the episode… oh well. You live and you learn.

12. It’s worth noting that the Umbilical Brothers were in fact nominated for a Perrier Award in 1995 — an award they were never going to take out because a certain other physical comedy duo from Australia took it out in 1994: Lano & Woodley. As Shane points out, since it’s rare enough for an Australian act to win it in the first place, "an Australian, visual, physical duo two years in a row? No way! But just to be nominated is great."

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

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



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 35: Judith Lucy, Wil Anderson and Mat Kenneally

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



PREAMBLE

Judith Lucy co-hosts, Wil Anderson was interviewed, Mat Kenneally featured, and the episode rocked! ’Nuff said.

Oh, actually, I should add that, as this isn’t Smash Hits printing song lyrics, I haven’t transcribed all of my laughter… [1]

And that the episode was uploaded Friday 28th July.



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: Herbet Lom laughs insanely… [2]

INTRODUCTION

Dom Romeo: Hi, this Dom Romeo on another episode of Radio Ha Ha. It’s chockers, this episode: we’ve got some stand-up from Mat Kenneally; we’ve got two of the greatest stand-ups currently working in Australia, Judith Lucy and Wil Anderson, and one of them — Judith — happens to be in the studio with me, co-presenting the show.

Judith, welcome.

Judith Lucy: Hello, Dom, I… well, I’m blushing. Thank you for that lovely introduction.

Dom Romeo: You’re more than welcome. Thanks for coming in.

Judith Lucy: Oh, my absolute pleasure.

Dom Romeo: Now look, we’re going to tuck into the show, talk about what you’re doing with your current show, I Failed!, but before we do, just to set things up, let’s have a bit of a listen to Mat Kenneally. He’s an up-and-coming Melbourne comic that we played a bit of last week; this is him talking about why he doesn’t trust non-drinkers…

Judith Lucy: Aah…

Dom Romeo: … live at the Mic in Hand hotel. [3]

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Mat Kenneally delivers some clever and funny drinking material, followed by…

Station ID: Radio Ha Ha: just for laughs!

Dom Romeo: That was Mat Kenneally, on Radio Ha Ha, and I’m joined in the studio by guest host Judith Lucy. Judith…

Judith Lucy: HELLO!

Dom Romeo: Thanks once again for coming in.

Judith Lucy: It’s very good to be here. I really need to start saying more than that, but it is very good to be here.

Dom Romeo: Now, look, I played the drinking material up front, deliberately…

Judith Lucy: I don’t know why, Dom…

Dom Romeo: This is about the fourth time I’ve gotten gotten to interview you, and the first time it’s been face-to-face…

Judith Lucy: Isn’t it just so much better ‘in the flesh’?

Dom Romeo: Well it’s also…

Judith Lucy: Don’t you wonder how I get more and more beautiful?

Dom Romeo: You do, actually…

Judith Lucy: I know, I know.

Dom Romeo: And you get funnier and funnier…

Judith Lucy: That’s very kind…

Dom Romeo: I just wanted to say that those first three times were always over the phone, and they always began with you apologising for the sound of your voice because you were, quote: ‘up drinking all night’.

Judith Lucy: Yeah. You don’t know how often I get that. There’s a man called Simon who always interviews me in Sydney — he does a community radio thing — and he said, ‘yeah, it’s been a few years since I’ve interviewed you…’ — because I haven’t done a show for a few years, as we know — and he said, ‘the last time that I interviewed you, you let me interview you in your hotel room, and you were doing it in your bathrobe’. And I thought, ‘gee, that was classy!’ and I was thrilled to be able to do the interview this year fully clothed. And showered. So I feel like my life is slowly coming together.

Dom Romeo: Fantastic! I don’t mind if you don’t bare yourself on this radio show, because I know that you do in your material…

Judith Lucy: Oh well…

Dom Romeo: …on the stage. It seems like whenever bad things happen, you bounce back with a fantastic show. I almost feel bad knowing that you have to go through hell to come up with such… [great material].

Judith Lucy: Dom, I just like to turn my lemons into lemonade! I always say this, but it’s true: I don’t have any imagination, so the only path I have left open to me is exploiting my tragedies for cash, and that is essentially what I’ve been doing for years, as you know. And let’s be honest: getting sacked is a bit of a walk in the park compared to — you know — finding out I was adopted or my parents dying, so this is really easy pickings.

Dom Romeo: Okay, that’s fair enough, so the show’s called I Failed, and it’s about…

Judith Lucy: Excalamation mark!

Dom Romeo: Sorry. The show’s called I FAILED!…

Judith Lucy: That’s right, it’s meant to sound ‘up’ and slightly unhinged, which was how I felt when I was doing breakfast radio!

Dom Romeo: And it’s about losing a job on breakfast radio.

Judith Lucy: Yes.

Dom Romeo: How long did it take you before you went, ‘You know what? This is my next stand-up show’ ?

Judith Lucy: About day two!

Dom Romeo: laughs

Judith Lucy: Seriously! I really thought, ‘Oh my god! I’ve walked into this so naively; this is such a different world from the world I was expecting’. I think I just wasn’t quite prepared for just how high-pressure radio is in Sydney. I mean, I kept being told that I had been offered the ‘jewel in the crown’. Of course, by the time I had finished with it, Dom, it was — I don’t know — a bit of tin foil in a hat made out of egg cartons by a drunk person. In Melbourne, if I had screwed up the radio, it would have been written about in the ‘radio’ section, but it wouldn’t have been in the ‘news’ part of the paper, and it certainly wouldn’t have been in the ‘real estate’ part of the paper. So when things like that started to happen I just thought, ‘this is a disaster!’

I remember saying to Peter Helliar, just after we’d started doing drive, I said, ‘You know, I’ve already worked out what my next show is gonna be… it’s gonna be about that nightmarish year of breakfast radio and I’m gonna call it I Failed!. I just had no idea, at that moment, how much more pertinant that title would become. I didn’t know they were going to sack me at that point.

Dom Romeo: I want to play a bit from the show, but before I do, there was one thing you said there that I just need to backtrack: you were in the ‘real estate’ section of the paper?

Judith Lucy: Yeah, yeah.

Dom Romeo: How did that pertain to… [breakfast radio?]

Judith Lucy: Oh, because… I must admit, Sydney… I’ve never been asked the question more often ‘are you renting or are you buying?’ I was renting. They decided to write that up in the ‘real estate’ section. It‘s the line I mention from the show, where it actually says, ‘no wonder’ I’m only renting in Sydney, because the ratings are so bad.

Dom Romeo: That’s so bitchy!

Judith Lucy: You know, I thought, ‘What’s next?!’ Are they gonna write me up in the Good Living magazine, next to a critique of cheeses: “And that Judith Lucy’s ratings are appalling!” So yes, that took me by surprise!

Dom Romeo: (laughing) Alright. I’m sorry to laugh at your misfortune, but…

Judith Lucy: Hey! That’s what I want people to do!

Dom Romeo: …we’ve got a clip from the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala…

Judith Lucy: Mm hm…

Dom Romeo: …Where you showcase a bit of the material from the show.

Judith Lucy: That’s generally what you do, yeah.

Dom Romeo: Regular listeners might be familiar with this because we played it a few weeks ago, when you were nominated for the Helpmann Comedy Award. [4]

Judith Lucy: And isn’t that hilarious! Hah! I’m going to be appearing on a stage with Topol and Rhonda Birchmore!

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Judith Lucy’s 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala set

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

Judith Lucy: Aren’t I hilarious! Good god! How do I do it for the prize? [5]

Dom Romeo: I’ve got to say, thought, that’s a really solid — whatever it is — five minutes? One wonders how you would extend it to a full stage show. And yet, I don’t have to wonder; I was there. It’s a brilliant show.

Judith Lucy: Thanks Dom. That’s the killer about doing those Galas, actually. Most comedians hate doing them because you just have to go out there, and usually, you’re alotted four minutes, and so you’ve got to make the crowd laugh and hopefully go, ‘gee, I’d really like to see the rest of that show’ and so many of us have stories and routines that take a while to set up. But you really do: you have to go out there and go, bang, bang, bang, bang and then it’s over.

Dom Romeo: It’s almost pretty much the opening of the show, too.

Judith Lucy: Yes.

Dom Romeo: So I guess it works that way as well. I mean, if it grabs your audience as the opening of the show, then it’s gonna grab them in the four minutes that you’ve got.

Judith Lucy: That’s kind of the idea, yeah, but it’s not what I’d call a real pleasant experience. You’ll generally see most comedians throwing back a number of drinks after they’ve walk off stage at the Gala.

Dom Romeo: Well there’s always the big party after the Gala…

Judith Lucy: Yes there is, there is indeed. That’s always classy. I remember the year where — I won’t name the comedian — but he was very busy downstairs having sex with someone in front of the toilets and we all had to pass them as we went to the toilet. [6] You know, we were all probably going to the toilet to take cocaine — IT’S CRAZY!

Dom Romeo: How do you come back from that?! I hope it’s a special bonus on the Gala stuff that they’re gonna release any minute now… [7]

Judith Lucy: Well, yes; if only someone was filming backstage. That would really be interesting. There was also a photographer called Peter Milne, who I’m actually a very big fan of. He was the official photographer for the Comedy Festival for many years. [8] He’s moved to Brisbane now, I think. But there was one year, also at the Gala party, where he decided — because he likes taking candid photos of people, so he has a lot of photos of me drunk out of my mind… and at this particular Gala party, he decided — that he would just shove himself under a toilet door in the women’s toilets, and take a photo of a woman on the toilet who he’d heard crying. Big controversy!

Dom Romeo: That wasn’t you…?

Judith Lucy: No, that was not me! I actually don’t think it was a comedian — but I think it was someone involved with the Comedy Festival. He was given a bit of a smack on the wrist for that.

Dom Romeo: Is that why he’s no longer the official photographer… [for the Comedy Festival]?

Judith Lucy: No, no, no, no, no. He just moved on. But yeah! Backstage is probably a lot more interesting than what’s going on onstage.

Dom Romeo: Well, I think we also should move on, and that is such an aweful segue — I failed! — um…

Judith Lucy: (laughing) Hey, back off! That’s my line!

Dom Romeo: I’ve got an interview with Wil Anderson, who’s another…

Judith Lucy: My stablemate!

Dom Romeo: Yes, you share management and you also share a history of — well, let’s face it: giving up breakfast radio and concentrating on stand-up comedy.

Judith Lucy: Although, as I said to you off air, Wil was lucky enough to leave his post voluntarily. I was pushed. I’ve gone back to stand-up comedy because there’s simply nothing else I can do! And, you know, god knows — April 19 is the end of the tour and I will be unemployed, so look out for me at a sandwich bar near you!

Dom Romeo: laughs

INTERVIEW WITH WIL ANDERSON

Soundbite: An opening routine by Wil, about how hard it is to open a performance; he quotes the infamous heckle a chubbier Ross Noble once received, on his way across the stage to the mic, that necessitated his first words to be an excellent comeback [9] — and then Wil points out how the heckle would have differed, had it been uttered by an Aussie punter instead of an English one. Recorded at a book launch [10] at the Comedy Store

Dom Romeo: Wil, your comedy clearly has become edgier since you haven’t been doing radio; some people have described it in terms of being ‘like Rod Quantock, but for a younger demographic’. That you’re still getting the kids in, but actually giving them a message under all the comedy. What do you think of that?

Wil Anderson: I like to think that it’s like Rod Quantock, but that you’re talking to people who don‘t already agree with everything that you agree with. I love Rod, and I think Rod could work to any sort of audience, but you go to a Rod Quantock gig, and it’s preaching to the choir. Do you know what I mean? Everyone in there already agrees with everything you’re saying.

I would like to think that someone who voted for John Howard, and to be honest with you, listens to Shannon Noll’s music, could still come to my show and laugh for seventy minutes. I think all the jokes are there. Then I think there's that whole different layer to it, hopefully, that gives people an accessible way to get into things that they would normally tune out for.

Normally if you say the words ‘Australian Wheat Board’, people go, “it’s wheat; I’m bored”. What I try to do is get people interested in things, through comedy, that they wouldn't normally be interested in. And sometimes people go, “oh, you just did an ‘Amanda Vanstone’s fat’ joke”. Yeah well, sometimes you’ve got to do a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down, you know? Occasionally, if you’re talking about immigration or whatever, chuck in another joke to keep it going. I don’t see any shame in that. In fact, I think, as an entertainer, it’s your job to be entertaining, foremost.

I always like to think that good comedy is like a Kinder Surprise: you can just eat the chocolate, and you can enjoy the chocolate. But there’s a little toy in there if you want that as well. I think I’m getting better at that. I’ve always tried to do that, but now that I have the time to think about that, and I’m getting better at that. I’ve always tried to do that. But now that I have the time to think about it and I’m getting better as a comedian, I’m getting better at making that work together.

Soundbite: A routine that begins with the Corby girls Schapelle and Mercedes, in order to construct an argument as to why bogans should think twice about what they name their kids, likewise, recorded at the Comedy Store

Dom Romeo: What I love is that there are people who are far too young to vote for John Howard, who like Shannon Knoll, who come to your show and laugh.

Wil Anderson: Yeah, well, that‘s nice too. I was talking to Andrew Denton about this one day, and I was saying that comedy was most important to me, in opening my eyes to how the world worked, when I was about thirteen or fourteen. When I was growing up in the country, we had two TV stations: we had the ABC, and we had one of those composite TV stations — you know, where they take the worst stuff of every channel, and combine it into one channel. It’s like The Young Divas of television.

So I used to watch the ABC all the time, and I came from a very conservative up-bringing, a very narrow point-of-view. When my world got open to issues, it was through comedy. It was through watching shows like The Big Gig, and watching Andrew Denton do shows like The Money or the Gun and Blah, Blah, Blah and shows like that. And I said, “It‘s really important,” because I was thirteen or fourteen years old, and I was looking at how I would view the world — on social issues, on political issues… you know? And it was comedy that brought me to that. So I love that my comedy goes to people of that age. That‘s really important to me. In fact, I’m much more interesting in appealing to someone who’s starting to make their mind up about things, than people who have already made their mind up about things. So it‘s really exciting to me that the kids are there.

Soundbite: Wil spots a kid in the audience who turns out to be only ten, and warns him that he’ll be encountering new words — and presents him with one pertaining to anatomy. Recorded at the Mic in Hand.

Wil Anderson: Andrew Denton said it to me when I was doing Triple J, and I suppose it’s less so now, but his great quote was — and I love this; he goes — “you know, you probably talk to more young people in this country than anyone other than Delta Goodrem” and young people do, in some ways, come to my work. So if they’re coming to you, you have a responsibility to… firstly, to entertain them. I’ve always said this, Dom, and you know this. If you’re a comedian, number one, it’s got to be about the jokes. If you’re doing a seventy-minute show, it’s got to be seventy minutes of laughs. If you ever lose a joke to make a point, then you’re a public speaker, not a comedian.

Dom Romeo: One thing that happened this year that I really loved, I really enjoyed it playing out, was the whole Today Tonight ‘going you’ for your Shannon Noll material.

Wil Anderson: Yeah, it was nice, because I always wanted to be on Today Tonight and I thought I was going to have to start a dodgy washing machine repair business to get on there. I actually haven’t seen the report yet, but I do believe the words “when comedy goes to far” were used, which I enjoyed quite a great deal.

Soundbite: Wil makes some observations on the lyricism of Shannon Knoll’s speaking voice, recorded at the Comedy Store.

Wil Anderson: The joke in question — I did a joke about Shannon Noll’s dad’s name. And it was in the context of a routine I used to do about funny names, like Apple Martin and, you know, I had a girl at my school called Rachel Kuminmeyer and I had a whole routine about kids named after brand names that were all in last year’s show. And in that context, there was also a joke — someone had told me that Shannon Knoll’s father’s name was Noel — so I did a joke about ‘Noel Noll’; I thought it was a funny name. Turns out his name wasn’t Noel Noll; it’s Neal Noll, and we all know there’s nothing funny about that. But I’d been doing the joke for twelve months in my stage show, and I did it at the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala. I had done this joke everywhere, you know what I mean? I’d even done it in front of Dicko, who’d said to me, “Shannon would think that was funny, blah-blah-blah…”

Soundbite: Wil does the ‘Noel Noll’ joke at the Comedy Store.

Wil Anderson: So I’ve done it at the Gala, which happened to coincide with the week that Shannon was releasing his single dedicated to his dad, and so it all blew up in the media. I should have got the name right; I’m always big on, if you’re going to talk about something, you should get it right. So I apologised and I said I should have got it right, I hoped the family weren’t offended by it and I kicked in some money to charity to show that I was genuine about that. But now he wants to punch me in the head. So now I have ten minutes in my show all about that. So it’s had the opposite effect. You know, he was on the TV saying he’d like to challenge me to a game of Scrabble just to get me in the same room, and I was like, “I’d like to play Shannon Knoll at Scrabble, seeing that none of the words he uses have vowels.” This is a man who named his album Lift. It’s lift music. Surely he has a sense of humour! What’s his next album going to be called? Mobile Phone Ring Tones?

I enjoyed it being played out in the media because it was kind of funny. I mean, I never intentionally go out there — and you’ve known me for years, Dom, you know this to be true — I never intentionally go out there to really hurt somebody. I like to rough things up, make some trouble, make sure people are still alive, keep it all fun-and-games, say something I should say — that sort of stuff. Because I think that’s fun. I think that’s what comedy should be about. But sometimes in comedy you know where the line is only when you look back over your shoulder and go, “Oops! It was back there. I should have stopped.” So, you know, I wouldn’t make any jokes about Shannon Knoll’s dead dad in the future; that was probably a mistake. But, will I make jokes about Shannon Knoll? Bloody oath I will!

Dom Romeo: Wil, thank you very much.

Wil Anderson: No worries, Dom, always a pleasure.

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

Dom Romeo: And that was Wil Anderson, who is also currently touring a show. So, we’ve got a lot of choice in Sydney, we can either go and see Judith Lucy in I FAILED exclamation mark, or Wil Anderson in Wil Communication

Judith Lucy: Or both!

Dom Romeo: Definitely both! Now, Judith, a question I’ve got for you: someone in a Sunday paper recently likened your style to, of all people, Dame Edna.

Judith Lucy: I’ve had that before.

Dom Romeo: Tell me: can you see that? What do you think of that?

Judith Lucy: I really can only put it down to the fact that, I guess, one could argue that there is a little bit of sarcasm in both of us. But I think a lot of it’s that I have a fairly nasal voice, and when Barry Humphries is Dame Edna, there’s a bit of a nasal thing going on there as well. I mean, you know, it’s weird, because on the one hand it’s incredibly flattering because Dame Edna is one of the funniest things that’s come out of this country ever, but on the other hand, it’s a man dressed up as a woman, and I actually am a woman. So that comparison is a little peculiar on that level.

Dom Romeo: I think, maybe, there’s a bit of a lilt in the voice…

Judith Lucy: Yeah…

Dom Romeo: … The music of your delivery…

Judith Lucy: There’s something about the delivery, yeah.

Dom Romeo: … if I can dress it up in as nice a term as I can…

Judith Lucy: Thank you Dom.

Dom Romeo: … Digging myself out of this hole, desperately!

Judith Lucy laughing: Move on!

Dom Romeo: Well, Judith, we both have to now; it’s the end of the episode.

Judith Lucy: Damn! That was fast.

Dom Romeo: How was this radio experience for you?

Judith Lucy: Well, you know, you’re not in a position to be able to sack me, Dom, so really pretty positive. And we didn’t have to play any Nickelback, so it’s a win-win…

Dom Romeo: Aah, so WE SUCCEEDED!

Judith Lucy: Exactly!

Dom Romeo: Yay! Thanks Jude.

Judith Lucy: Thanks Dom.

CLOSING THEME

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

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

FOOTNOTES

1. This is a reference to the fact that whenever Smash Hits used to publish song lyrics, they’d transcribe every skerrick of onomatopoeia, every scatted syllable, every fleeting phoneme (or, to quote Karen Carpenter, “every sha-la-la-la, every whoah-oh whoah-oh…”). I haven’t gone quite to that length.

2. …as Chief Inspector Dreyfus in Return of the Pink Panther (1975). Chief Inspector Dreyfus has found out that, having finally been able to dismiss Inspector Clouseau, he has just been forced to reinstate him.

3. Ie live at the Mic in Hand, at the Friend in Hand Hotel, Glebe. Only one bit of the Wil Anderson material that plays later was recorded at the Mic in Hand, the rest comes from the Comedy Store.

4. In Episode 32, which also featured the other nominees for the inaugural Helpmann Award for Comedy: Lano & Woodley, The Umbilical Brothers and Akmal Saleh.

5. A reference to the actual Helpmann Awards, I realised afterwards, and therefore, a missed opportunity; it could have been interesting to continue discussing this.

6. I might even know who that comedian was. That is to say, I remember at one Gala after-party — when the celebrations were still held at Melbourne’s HiFi Bar — a particular comedian so desperately putting the hard word on the beauteous chick™ that, as I made my way to the loo, intent on not making eye contact, the comic stopped me in order to demand I put in a good word for him then and there — as if this critic’s opinion could help him receive that sort of audience love. It’s hard enough just convincing the public-at-large that they ought to like comedy, let alone love comics. Oh, and then there was the year when one comic decided that… well, let’s leave this here, shall we, at least until it’s time to write a new version of Peter Baskind’s Easy Rider, Raging Bull — about the Australian comedy scene! (Ie, an Aussie version of Sunshine on Putty!)

7. According to the Melbourne International Comedy Festival website, the Melbourne Comedy Festival Best of The Gala Collection DVD — a three disc box set highlighting the 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 Comedy Festival Galas — will be out in time for Father’s Day 2006. Bonus features depicting comics in various degrees of backstage intimacy is unlikely.

8. Milne, it turns out, was in fact the very first official photographer of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and is responsible for one of my favourite photographs of comedians, ever — from that very first Festival that was launched by Sir Les Patterson and Peter Cook. Sigh.

9. Ross Noble once revealed in conversation that he was in fact using a comeback by another portly comic, Phil Jupitus.

10. The book was Have You Heard The One About…, compiled by Dom Romeo!

Episode 34: Dave Jory, Sam Bowring, Mat Kenneally

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



PREAMBLE

It was with great sadness that facts finally had to be faced: Tammy Tantschev was moving on, having accepted work overseas. There were meant to be another bunch of episodes featuring her as co-host – in the first instance, there would have been a bundle pre-recorded one Saturday before time ran out, with a couple of Monday evening sessions still set aside prior to that. But, alas, time got away from us.

So it was decided that instead of a single co-host, there would be several – a different one each week. And the first comedian available for the role of co-host was Dave Jory.

It was a difficult undertaking — that first go without the safety net of the regular, comfortable co-host.

But Dave was excellent!

Episode 34 went to air Friday 21st July.



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. [1]

LAUGHTER

Soundbite: Tammy Tantschev and Dom Romeo laugh uncontrollably

INTRODUCTION

Dom Romeo: Hi, this is Dom Romeo, and just before we begin this episode of Radio Ha Ha I've got a couple of things I want to say. Firstly, I've got a cold. I’m very sorry, I’m gonna sound a bit blocked throughout most of this. My other special announcement is far more important, however. Today I’m joined on the show by special guest host, stand-up comic Dave Jory.

Dave, welcome.

Dave Jory: Dom, it's great to be here, this close to you and your cold.

Dom Romeo: Ah… look Dave, it’s always a pleasure to have you on the show, and I’m gonna do my best not to breath on you, but I’ve gotta say, this might instill a little bit of fear into you, but the first time I saw you, you instilled a bit of fear into me. I mean, quite frankly, as I’ve said before on the show, you come across, with your bold head and in a black suit, like a bit of a British gangster – like the sort that would appear in a Guy Ritchie film. And, as we're recording here in your living room, on your sofa, I must admit that I am eye-ing off the exits, just in case.

Dave Jory: Well actually, someone the other night told me I look like the character ‘Hitman’, from the video game. I don’t play video games, so I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but I think it’s the black suit. It’s a very sketchy character, I think.

Dom Romeo: It certainly works for you on stage, although I’ve gotta say, the first time I saw you in Raw, you were a bit scary. I don‘t think you‘d quite found your stage persona yet.

Dave Jory: Yeah, I was dressed the same, and doing much nastier material, to the point where you actually came up to me the following week when I showed up at the same club — which I was quite flattered by; I didn’t think you’d remember me because I wasn’t in the suit — and you sat me down and said, “there’s something there, material-wise, but you’ve got to pull it back a few notches, because I think” — quote/unquote — “the female judge thought you were going to cut somebody!” is what you said to me.

Dom Romeo: laughing

Dave Jory: And that’s stayed with me!

Dom Romeo: I do remember that comment, now that you bring it up, and I do remember that feeling — there was that distinct kind of tension that things may not stay all right on the night!

Soundbite: an example of some of Dave Jory’s more discomfort-inducing material — although not from that initial Raw Comedy heat, but one of the bits that still survives and solicits authentic, appreciative laughter. This bit came from a set recorded live at Sydney’s Original Comedy Store.

Dave Jory: Yeah, I think it was that thing of needing to guarantee some sort of reaction from the audience because I was so new to doing it, and I thought, I can’t handle any kind of silence, so I went for gasps of horror. That seemed like a better option to me than dead silence. I didn’t know how I was going to deal with that. Whereas disgust is something that you can work with, to some extent, but a laugh is always much better.

Dom Romeo: Well, I’ve gotta say that pretty soon you were getting the laughs — as we’ll hear when we play some of your comedy in this episode. We’ve also got some comedy from a relative newcomer, Mat Kenneally, a Melbourne comic. But we’re going to start off with a comedian that regular listeners will be familiar with: Sam Bowring, who we’ve played a few times. [2]
This is him in indignant, loud and shouty mode!

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Sam Bowring delivers his routine about the awful curry pie he ate while driving back from a gig in Canberra; as Sam actually names the company that manufactured the pie, the name has been ‘censored’ by covering it with the brass band sound effect lifted from a game show sketch by Eric Idle, from the Monty Python album Monty Python’s Previous Record.

Staion ID: Radio Ha Ha: it’s so funny, it should be against the law. Radio Ha Ha.

Dom Romeo: And that was Sam Bowring recorded live at the venue he co-runs with Kent Valentine, the Mic In Hand, having a bit of a rant about a meat pie that wasn’t up to scratch. And you’ll notice that every time he said the proprietor of the pie, a certain Mr…

Sound Effect: brass band sound effect lifted from a game show sketch by Eric Idle, from the Monty Python album Monty Python’s Previous Record.

Dom Romeo: …We actually had to censor…

Sound Effect: brass band sound effect lifted from a game show sketch by Eric Idle, from the Monty Python album Monty Python’s Previous Record.

Dom Romeo: …with the…

Sound Effect: brass band sound effect lifted from a game show sketch by Eric Idle, from the Monty Python album Monty Python’s Previous Record.

Dom Romeo: …sound effect.

Now, clearly, Dave, we were listening to Sam being very angry. It’s a persona he uses for some of his material, but not for all of his material. How did you come upon your persona? As we said, you started out quite scary, but now you’ve kind of found your niche. What is that niche, and how did you find it?

Dave Jory: Well I don’t know; I think that getting the tone right is pretty important, and I think Sammy does it really well with that stuff you just heard; he’s very good at staying in that character and being indignant about stuff that’s not really very important, which I think is good. If you’re gonna get that nasty, it may as well be about something petty, otherwise you’re gonna start talking about big stuff, and you’re gonna sound like a bit of a jerk.

So, I don’t know; I think it was having no experience doing any sort of stuff on stage, so I just came up with a blank persona and wrote stuff that was going to work regardless of how well I delivered it. And gradually you get better at delivering it, so you can try different stuff. I guess it softens gradually. But yeah, as we said, it started pretty brittle and not very likeable… so… I smile a bit more now! Which is a good thing!

Dom Romeo: It is a very good thing! And one bit that I do like to hear you do is a bit of material about those kids you see in superhero costumes in public. This is a routine that was also recorded live at the Mic In Hand in Glebe.

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Dave Jory delivers his routine about the kids you see in public dressed as superheroes.

Station ID: Radio Ha Ha: Just for laughs!

Dom Romeo: Now I‘ve gotta say, we’ve all seen the kids in the superhero costumes, Dave, but I notice them a lot more now, having heard your material about it. How did you come to write that bit. I mean, was there a prevalence of kiddies in Superman and Batman costumes around you?

Dave Jory: No, I think I saw one, and, same thing, now that I’ve been doing that bit of material, I do – I see those kids around all the time. When I ask that first question — has anybody seen those kids — more and more people kept saying that they’d seen them and it seemed like a pretty easy way to start. I don’t know, there’s nothing terribly offensive about it, so it‘s a good thing to rant about for a little while, and people seem to know it, so that was enough of a reason to do it, I think. If people answer the question, if you ask if you’ve seen them, if they say ‘yes’, it’s a good sign, I think, isn’t it?

Dom Romeo: Indeed! And I also find it interesting that ‘Rain Man’ and ‘Elephant Man’ both get good responses. Surprisingly, I would have thought, that they’re such archetypes in your audiences’ psyche…

Dave Jory: Yeah, well I don’t know — they’re pretty old references. ‘Rain Man’ is mid-80s, and ‘Elephant Man’ — there’s no reason, really, for anyone to know much about those characters, but if you just say the words, I guess, people just remember what it means. You say ‘Rain Man’ and you get some picture in your head, don’t you. So it doesn’t really matter if you haven’t seen the movie, or you haven’t seen it for twenty years. There’s some kind of resonance there, I guess, so I just get away with it, I think.

Dom Romeo: And as for the Elephant Man, even people who never saw the Mel Brookes-produced film, there was of course a great Great Mysteries of the World episode where Mr Spock took us through the ins and outs of John Merrick.

Dave Jory: Yeah, that‘s right! It was Mel Brookes that produced that as well; I forgot about that.

Dom Romeo: (doing cheesey Elephant Man impression): “My mother was so beautiful!”

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

Dom Romeo: So we’ve talked a little bit about different comedic personas on the stage, Dave. One person who’s different again is Mat Kenneally, an up-and-coming Melbourne comic who, again, was recorded live at the Mic in Hand.

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Mat Kenneally, performing a routine about terrorism and public transport, recorded live at the Mic in Hand

Station ID: It‘s hilarious! Gut-busting! Jocular! Humorous! Rollicking! And side-splitting! Oh, hang on! It’s Radio Ha Ha!

Dom Romeo: Mat Kenneally there, talking about terrorism and public transport. And Dave, I don’t know if you saw Mat, but he was in The Comedy Zone earlier this year.

Dave Jory: I didn’t see him in The Comedy Zone, but I worked with him a couple of times and hung out with him a little bit, and I think he’s a lovely guy, and I think he’s doing some lovely stuff as well.

Dom Romeo: And I should explain for listeners that The Comedy Zone is a show that the Melbourne International Comedy Festival puts on as part of the Festival, where they actually select a handful of up-and-comers and produce the show for them. And I’ve got to say, Mat was brilliant, but he’s come a long way even since then!

Staion ID: Jokes, gags, funnies, one-liners, laughs, that describes me. Now what about you? Radio Ha Ha!

Dom Romeo: Dave, we’re getting to the end of the episode!

Dave Jory: It’s a tragedy, isn’t it. Is there any way we can extend the good times? Maybe get a hotel room together? I don’t know — what do we do from here?

Dom Romeo:You know, that line would have done so much more for me, had it come out of Tammy’s mouth!

Dave Jory: I know, this is the problem with co-hosts, isn’t it. You get a guest guy in and suddenly, when you stop looking for something, you find it right in front of you.

Dom Romeo:You know what, we’re gonna stop right there — kind of — ’cause I’m gonna play more of your material. This a material about going to the porn shop!

Dave Jory: Well, it’s kind of material about not going to the porn shop in a lot of ways, but we’ll play it and we’ll see.

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Dave Jory delivers a routine about how adult bookshops bother him.

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

Dom Romeo: Nice punchline, Dave!

Dave Jory: Yeah, thanks, that one always seems to work. I’ve never had a problem with that piece of material which is good. It’s one of those rare bits that always seems to work so I‘m very fond of it.

Dom Romeo: What I love is that you ask a question there, and there’s a gap where the audience could actually supply an answer, but they never do.

Dave Jory: Yeah, somehow they never seem to yell anything out and I can leave that big pause there before saying the last couple of words and in my head I’m thinking, someone’s gonna yell something out one day like a suggestion or something, but nobody ever has. They always seem to go with it — which is kinda rare, I guess.

Dom Romeo: And, Radio Ha Ha listeners, that is not your cue to go and see Dave Jory and shout out something stupid during the pause. I will not approve of that.

Dave Jory: Yeah, I wouldn’t approve of that either.

Dom Romeo: And besides, he might cut you!

Dave Jory: Well, old me would have. I’ve softened!

CLOSING THEME

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

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

TAG

Dom Romeo: Um… we got to the end of the show and we didn’t really say goodbye properly — I feel a little awkward.

Dave Jory: I hate long goodbyes, Dom. I don’t see that there’s any reason we should end this. We’re on a good thing; maybe we could meet up later for coffee? What… what are you doing?

Dom Romeo: See, again, if that had been Tammy talking…

FOOTNOTES

1. Editing the ‘Tammy Tantschev and’ out of ‘Radio Ha Ha with Tammy Tantschev and Dom Romeo’ brought a tear to the eye — sniff!

2. In Episode 15 and Episode 30

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

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



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).

Episode 2:Dave Jory, Judy Carter,Spike Milligan, John Bird, John Fortune

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



PREAMBLE

The editorial process for Episode 2 began with encouragement to submit a new version of the opening theme somewhat early, in order to ensure that it had been cut from the cumbersome ninety seconds for which it lasts at the beginning of Episode 1. The reduction to a more manageable thirty seconds had taken place soon after Episode 1 had gone to air.

For Episode 2, Tammy conducted an excellent interview with Judy Carter, a comedian turned giver-of-comedy-workshops. Although he didn’t admit it at the time, Dom was running scared: his big, indulgent interviews were impressive on the surface, but Tammy seemingly tossed this off with little effort and little experience, so she was clearly a natural. Imagine how good she’ll be when she decides to give this interviewing lark a proper go!

Episode 2 went to air Friday 2nd 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 [1]

sampled from ‘Slush’ from the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band album Let’s Make Up And Be Friendly.


INTRODUCTION

Dom Romeo: Hello and welcome to the second episode of Radio Ha Ha. How are ya, Tammy?

Tammy Tantschev: I’m awesome, Dom, how’re ya doing?

Dom Romeo: I’m not quite as awesome, but I’m doin’ okay.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh, okay. Good.

Dom Romeo: Now I’ve got to tell you that this week we’ve got some comedy from Dave Jory up front.

Tammy Tantschev: Fantastic, and I’m going to talk about the Judy Carter workshop that I did on the weekend and have a chat with her.

Dom Romeo: Well then we’ll have some classic comedy from the vaults;

Tammy Tantschev: Excellent. And I’m going to tell you what’s on in Sydney, with the gig guide.

Dom Romeo: But right now, let’s hear from Dave Jory, who’s a Sydney stand-up comic, who’s been around for a couple of years now. He’s a little bit dark and he wears a suit and he’s quite foreboding with his bald head; he looks like he could be — not an extra, but — a main character from one of those Guy Ritchie crime flicks from a couple of years ago.

Tammy Tantschev: He does, he does. He comes off a little morose sometimes, but I think deep down Dave Jory’s a pussycat.


LIVE STAND-UP

Stand-up: Dave Jory, recorded live at Sydney’s Original Comedy Store

a great set that ends rather abruptly when Dave Jory hears the second bell after a good audience response, and announces:

That’s a good one to go on! Good night!

Dom Romeo: Now Tammy, there are two things I want to talk about at the end of that little snippet of Dave Jory’s stand-up.

Tammy Tantschev: Yes.

Dom Romeo: As soon as that second bell went, he was off like a flash! Now, look, you do stand-up. You tell me about it: is it understood that if you’ve got five minutes, you do five minutes and if you step a moment over, they take your soul?

Tammy Tantschev: It’s a lot like that. It does depend a lot on what venue you’re at, and that particular recording was from the Sydney Comedy Store, and they will switch the mic off on you and leave you in the dark talking to nobody if you go over the time limit. Especially if you get to five minutes, you hear the bell go and you get a laugh, then leave on a laugh, my friend, don’t dig yourself a hole with the fifteen seconds you might have left.

Dom Romeo: Interesting. Now the other thing I want to say is that Dave Jory appears on that Sydney Underground Comedy DVD… [2]

Tammy Tantschev: That’s correct, yes.

Dom Romeo: … that we played a bit of last week, but of course, to be honest to the punters at home listening…

Tammy Tantschev: Yes.

Dom Romeo: … he does do a bit of ‘effin’ and blindin’’ on the DVD which he graciously chose not to do when we told him we might record him to play [on air].

Tammy Tantschev: Which was very, very nice of him

Dom Romeo: That’s the mark of a great stand-up comic.

Tammy Tantschev: You need to be versatile and you don’t know who your audience is going to be, and you have to be able to tailor to that, and if you want to do corporate gigs and things like that too, it’s essential that you have a clean set. So it’s certainly very telling if you can do good comedy without all the swearing and all the rude references.

Dom Romeo: Now Tammy, be honest: you know a little bit about this, don’t you?

Tammy Tantschev: Uh… rude references?

Dom Romeo: No, no. About what it takes to be a good comic.

Tammy Tantschev: I… look, I… I think I’m always learning what it takes to be a good comic, and sometimes I think I’ve got a good idea, and then I’ll have a gig that makes me think that maybe I don’t know so much.

Dom Romeo: But of course, Tammy, we both know that you know a lot more now because on the weekend, you did the Judy Carter comedy course, and I also know that you caught up with her. So I want to hear your conversation with Judy Carter for Radio Ha Ha.

Sation ID:

This is Radio Ha Ha on 2GB Plus.

INTERVIEW WITH JUDY CARTER

Tammy Tantschev: Judy Carter is a master teacher, an author, a comedian, a humorous speaker; she appeared on over one hundred television shows, formed Comedy Workshop Productions — a school for wannabe comics — ten years ago, and also produces the annual Californian Comedy Conference. Judy is also the author of Stand-Up Comedy, the book, which has sold over 150,000 copies, and her latest book, The Comedy Bible, is the definitive guide to making a career out of making people laugh.

Judy Carter, a very warm welcome to Radio Ha Ha.

Judy Carter: Great! Wow, I was thinking, “is that me?” I have to say thank you, that was a great intro!

Tammy Tantschev: I had to cut it short; you’ve done a hell of a lot.

Judy Carter: Well, the best part is that my book is being published in Australia. That’s quite an honour. It’s so weird; they had to translate it into Australian.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh right, with the spelling…

Judy Carter: Yeah. The word ‘humour’ itself, in America, doesn’t have a ‘u’ in it. In Australia it does. In America, we don’t care about ‘u’, it’s all ‘me, me, me’. Maybe that’s one of the differences.

Tammy Tantschev: And this is the second time you’ve come to Australia to teach your workshop. Is it just the demand here that brought you back or do you actually have a soft spot for us Aussies?

Judy Carter: Oh, I do! I love it here. You just walk down the street and you don’t need therapy, because everybody says, ‘No worries…’ Twelve times a day people say to me, ‘No worries… no worries, mate. No worries.”

Tammy Tantschev: No worries!

Judy Carter: Everybody says that, and it’s very comforting.

Tammy Tantschev: It’s nice, isn’t it? Yes, I’ve been to the States once and I found it a little bit hectic.

Judy Carter: Yeah.

Tammy Tantschev: So you’re teaching your comedy workshops in Sydney and in Melbourne while you’re out here. Now, can anybody learn to be funny, or do you have to have been born with a natural ability?

Judy Carter: Well, yeah! You know, there are people who will never be funny. But if you are funny I can show you how to take your ‘funny’ and really learn to rock a room and put it to good use in your life and on stage. But if you don’t have a sense of humour whatsoever, please don’t come to my classes this weekend in Melbourne. Listen, please don’t. Make it easier on yourself, make it easier on me,

But there are a lot of people who sit watching the telly, going, “I’m funnier than him!…”

Tammy Tantschev: Yes.

Judy Carter: “…Why is he on TV?”

Tammy Tantschev: There are a lot of people who are funny among their friends, who can’t do stand-up, just as there are a lot of stand-up comics who aren’t known as ‘the funny one’ socially; what do you think the difference is between a funny idea and good stand-up material?

Judy Carter: Well, first of all, it’s shorter. And also, when you tell a funny story at a party and everybody laughs, that’s a pretty good indication that you have a skill. So what we do is, first of all, when you perform for a stand-up audience, they don’t all know you. And also, your friends at a party, when you tell a joke, aren’t all gonna go, “You suck!” They’re going to be polite and laugh.

Tammy Tantschev: Some of my friends do…

Judy Carter: Oh, change those friends!

Also, people have what I call a ‘remote control’ mentality: you’re watching the TV, you’ve got the remote control in your hand — we get bored so quickly and just go, change — change— change — so when you’re a stand-up comic, you have to set up your humour; you have to set up your jokes. Soak in the audience and keep their attention. That’s the hardest part. So, obviously, you have to get to your laughs very quickly. So these stories that go, “All right, twenty-five guys walk into a bar…” We professionals call that ‘laying too much pipe’ for the punch line. It’s too long. You have to get to it, get to it — that’s the craft. If you already are funny, great. I can show you how to make money from being funny, have a career, and show you how to express yourself and help you get over the fear of standing in front of people.

Tammy Tantschev: During the course, and in your book, you really emphasise the importance of having a ‘comedy buddy’. What’s so beneficial about doing that?

Judy Carter: Well, we have people who come to the course who just sit in a room and type up funny stuff and they don’t mingle with a lot of people. They find that when you stand up in front of people and you’re doing it, it’s just funny to you and maybe your cat. And people go, “you know, Judy, I don’t know how to just sit down and write funny material”. Well who says you have to sit down and write funny material? In the class, we don’t do that. You get a comedy buddy and we do these ranting and raving comedy exercises into a tape recorder. Your comedy buddy will write down what you say that could possibly be a joke.

Tammy Tantschev: So they’re things that you could miss from a personal perspective, that someone with a fresh perspective will actually pick up, as a joke.

Judy Carter: Yeah, exactly. Have you ever been talking to someone and they laugh, and you went, “well, I wasn’t trying to be funny!”

Tammy Tantschev: Yes.

Judy Carter: Or, “what’s so funny, everybody?”

Tammy Tantschev: Yes.

Judy Carter: You know, it’s like the person who slips on a banana peel and everybody laughs: it’s not very funny to the person who’s sitting there with a sore butt! So we need somebody else to look at our life and help us find those nuggets of pain and humiliation that we’re going to turn into comedy gold. So that’s really how my workshop works. This Saturday and Sunday we’re spending two days, from 9am to 5pm, really focusing on people’s lives: what can they take from their lives and turn it into comedy — and turn into stand-up comedy, specifically — and make an audience laugh?

Tammy Tantschev: Did you ever actually have a regular day job, or did you go straight into entertainment and comedy?

Judy Carter: I was a high school teacher just from when I was twenty to twenty-two — two years of my life! — but I had to quit: I couldn’t handle all that money and prestige. That was the only job I had.

Tammy Tantschev: And you actually went from teaching to comedy, and now you teach comedy. There’s a saying that ‘those who can’t do, teach’, but it’s pretty fair to say that you’ve blown that stereotype right out of the water. Do you prefer teaching comedy now, or performing?

Judy Carter: Well, I was on the road for eighteen years and that can get old, you know, I mean, every day! And I just went, “You know what? I wanna try something else”. So I got as successful as you could possibly be…

Tammy Tantschev: You were on the road for eighteen years?

Judy Carter: Yes, and I wanted to do something else and that’s when I wrote my book. And then no-one wanted to publish this book but I found one person — and those of your listeners who have a dream of doing stand-up or writing a book and people tell you, “no, you can’t do it,” don’t listen to them because it just takes one person to make your dream come true. So this one person helped me publish my book. Every publisher rejected it except one. And then when it was published, Oprah Winfrey put it on her show. She loved my book and the book just sold like crazy. Everybody was wrong. So then I started teaching, and then I got a little bored with that, so now I’m back to doing comedy but now I do corporate comedy. So I’ve had a lot of career shifts in my life.

Tammy Tantschev: You actually specialise in that now and you’re going to organisations and entertaining and motivating staff. For Fortune 500 companies like Boeing and FedEx, what kind of reaction do you get from people when you entertain them? As an organisation, how does someone react to someone taking the mickey out of their company?

Judy Carter: I don’t know about Australia, but in America corporations are humour-impaired.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh, we get a lot of that over here, too.

Judy Carter: You know, it’s like “Oh, is that politically correct? I might lose my job. Oh, if you tell a joke about a woman’s breasts, you might lose your job.” They’re so uptight! And, personally, we sue too much, so if some guy is talking to me and looking at my breasts, I’m just gonna say, “Hey buddy, if they talk back, you can have ’em!”

I felt that corporate America needed me, and so I just found that when I go in, they say to me, “Judy, we want you to lighten people up because people are quitting because we changed their policy about their bonuses, and we want you to talk about how change is a good thing, and make it funny.” So then I customise what I do. You get out there and you see that everybody looks really gloomy; it’s 8 am, so I’ll just come out and say something like, “Well, they want me to talk about change and I feel perfectly qualified to talk about it because I used to be a man. And you see everyone wake up and go, “Okay, this is going to be something different!” That’s what I do: I’m a wake-up call for corporations: waking them up to their sense of humour and helping them deal with stress and change, using their sense of humour. That’s specifically what I speak about.

Tammy Tantschev: Apart from people reading your book The Comedy Bible or taking your workshop, what advice would you give to people trying comedy for the first time?

Judy Carter: Keep it short. Get to the laughs really quickly; you don’t have a lot of time. People aren’t all smoking pot like they were in the 70s and 80s; now people are on Starbucks double latés. Boom, boom, boom! They don’t have patience. Get to the joke.

Two: Joke about something you know something about. Don’t talk about politics when you’re first starting out; that’s a little trickier. Joke about yourself, your family, something in your life.

Number three: don’t do blue material. People think comedy is just talking about their body parts.

Tammy Tantschev: You see a lot of first-timers do that; I definitely have.

Judy Carter: Yeah. That’s really funny when you’re eight, you know, but you’re a grown-up now, so you’ve got to be a little bit cleverer than that. You’re gonna see every open mic comic doing doo-doo ca-ca kind of things…

Number four: don’t talk about anything coming out of holes — farting, pooping, whatever it is — nothing coming out of holes. People are eating nachos and pizza and they don’t want your graphic pictures in their head.

And five: don’t plan a lot of material. Start with three minutes. Maybe you’ve got eight jokes — just start with that because it’s better to keep it short and memorable than long and boring.

Tammy Tantschev: I definitely recommend, anyone who’s thinking of trying comedy, get out there and buy Judy Carter’s The Comedy Bible. There is the Australian version, and I think you’ve also got information in there about Australian agents and venues.

Judy Carter: Yes, and clubs and places to work. We’ve done a lot of research and they really worked hard making the Australian book really relevant to Australia.

Tammy Tantschev: And if people didn’t get a chance to get along to your workshops this time, will we be seeing Judy out here again in the future?

Judy Carter: Well they want me to! I mean, we did the Sydney workshop and everybody was so happy with it and we have a lot of speakers, we have people who are lawyers — they just want to learn how to speak in front of people.

Tammy Tantschev: So it’s really for anyone!

Judy Carter: Yeah.

Tammy Tantschev: Excellent. Judy, thank you so much for talking to us at Radio Ha Ha and I hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Australia.

Judy Carter: This is Judy Carter, and you’re listening to Radio Ha Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha? Ha ha. Bye.

Dom Romeo: So that was Judy Carter!

Tammy Tantschev: Yes.

Dom Romeo: I almost wish I’d been there. Tell me, what was it like for you?

Tammy Tantschev: It was fantastic. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and like a lot of people, you’re never really sure if someone can teach you comedy or not. But what Judy does in her lessons is, she teaches you a method that makes it very easy to find the humour in a situation in your life — she refers to a lot of personal circumstances — where you can draw inspiration from, and apply her method — or a method; she claims it’s not hers but a universal method — you apply it to the material and you actually end up with a joke; good content. It was incredible, because there was such a mixed group of people in the class — there were about thirty of us at the Sydney Comedy Store — and there were comedians that I recognised who are working and are successful right now, there were speakers, there were people who were just looking to get out of their shell a little bit, people who wanted to have good comebacks when they found themselves facing those kinds of situations, people from all walks of life and, I have to admit, some that I looked at and thought, ‘goodness me, there’s a challenge for Judy’ to put it nicely, who actually got on stage and killed. I couldn’t believe how in just two days’ time, she managed to turn ordinary people into stand-up comedians.


Station ID:

Laugh out loud: it’s okay. This is Radio Ha Ha on 2GB Plus.

CLASSIC COMEDY


Dom Romeo: Now, Tammy, I’ve got to tell you that when I first met you, I thought you were a little bit weird. Whereas I say things like ‘dance’ and ‘France’… [3]

Tammy Tantschev: I would say ‘dance’ and I would say ‘France’, [4] because that’s how they’re correctly pronounced.

Dom Romeo: And, whereas I would say ‘lego’ [5], you say…

Tammy Tantschev: ‘Lego’. [6]

Dom Romeo: And where I’d say ‘devon’, you say…

Tammy Tantschev: It’s ‘fritz’; what’s ‘devon’?

Dom Romeo: Okay, so, ‘lego’…

Tammy Tantschev: … ‘fritz’…

Much laughter since, even though Tammy is from Adelaide and talks funny, she doesn’t actually say ‘fritz’ for ‘lego’…

Dom Romeo: ‘Leh-go’…

Tammy Tantschev: ‘Lay-go’…

Dom Romeo: ‘Devon’…

Tammy Tantschev: ‘Fritz’…

Dom Romeo: Let’s call the whole thing off!

Dom Romeo: I know that sound’s awful, but that’s the best introduction I can give you to this piece called ‘The Audition’ which dates back to the mid-70s, [7] is performed by John Bird and John Fortune, [8] and is from one of the Amnesty International gigs from the 1970s. I think it’s from A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick. [9].

Soundbite: ‘The Audition’ by John Bird and John Fortune, from the various artists charity compilation album A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick.

An audition takes place in which the song ‘Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off’ is sight-read; not knowing the joke, the auditionee pronounces ‘tomato’ and ‘pajamas’ the same way both times. The punch line, therefore, becomes…

I’m sorry, I fail to see what’s wrong with this relationship…

Dom Romeo: It’s so silly, but I love it!

Tammy Tantschev: I love it too.

Dom Romeo: And uh, yes. If I ever come to visit you in Adelaide, I will play with your lay-go and I will try your fritz.

Tammy Tantschev: And you’ll have to have some Woody’s.

Dom Romeo: Woody’s?

Tammy Tantschev: That’s a softdrink.

Dom Romeo: Okay.

Tammy Tantschev: Okay.

Dom Romeo: Well done.

Apart from in this studio, Tammy, why don’t you tell us where else we can laugh in Sydney this week.

Tammy Tantschev: Absolutely!



GIG GUIDE

Soundbite: ‘Vamp Until Ready’ by Spike Milligan, from the album Spike Milligan — A Collection of Spikes

the track loops to underscore the entire gig guide until it ends with a chord, as the gig guide ends.

Tammy Tantschev: Here is what’s funny in Sydney this week, with your gig guide.

At the Sydney Comedy Store, in the Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd, Jackie Loeb headlines, and is supported by Mickie G and Sean Baxter.

From Tuesday 6th, of course, you’ll find the amazing Anthony Mir.

At the Laugh Garage in Parramatta, on Friday 2nd, you’ll find Gary Who as well as Peter Egner, and on Saturday 3rd Akmal’s headlining.

The Comedy Hole at the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown features bloke, Chris Franklin on Monday 5th December.

Also Monday 5th, if you’re up north, get to the Old Manly Boatshed to catch Brett Nichols.

And the Fringe Bar in Paddington again offers comedy on a Monday night. So get down there to see Anh Do, Jackie Loeb and The Dickster on Monday 5th December.

Wednesday 7th December, Blacktown RSL features Michael Hilder and Sean Flag.

And also Wednesday 7th, the Statement Bar in the city features Steady Eddie and Chris Franklin.

On Thursday 8th of December catch again Steady Eddie and Steve Philp at the Epping Hotel.

The Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe hosts the Mic In Hand comedy night each Thursday night, and on Thursday 8th December your headline act is Tommy Dean and your MC is Kent Valentine. And the Mic In Hand features an open mic section every week, so that’s where you need to go if you want to try new comedy, or get down and support someone trying new comedy.

Other open mic nights around Sydney are at Pear Shaped — that’s held at the East Village Hotel every Monday.

Tuesday nights you’ll find open mic at the Sydney Comedy Store.

And you should also get yourself down to Paddy Maguires in the city on Wednesday nights with the very talented Mr Nick Johns.

Soundbite: ‘Vamp Until Ready’ by Spike Milligan, from the album Spike Milligan — Comedy Collection

Big final note fades up after gig guide, to end the track and the gig guide.

Tammy Tantschev: Okay, so, Dom, we’re at the end of our show, which is a shame, but before we go there are two things I want to ask you. Firstly, your book launch was on Wednesday night.

Dom Romeo: Yes it was.

Tammy Tantschev: How did that go?

Dom Romeo: Well it went really well. For me it went particularly well because we taped everyone. So, over the next few weeks, you’ll be hearing stand-up comics at the Comedy Store, just doing their thing but occasionally slipping in a joke from a joke book that I happened to compile.

Tammy Tantschev: So, even at your own launch, you’re still working for Radio Ha Ha. I love this.

Dom Romeo: Well, that’s one way of looking at it. On the other hand, even when I’m working at Radio Ha Ha, I’m still plugging my book — so it’s much of a muchness, really.

Tammy Tantschev: And, on the book, Dom, before we go, we’ve got to have you leave us with a joke.

Dom Romeo: Okay. Here’s one of my favourite dumb jokes from the book Have You Heard The One About…. Here we go:

Dom Romeo: Why did the Southern gentleman wear a tuxedo to his vasectomy?

Tammy Tantschev: I don’t know — why did the Southern gentleman where a tuxedo to his vasectomy?

Dom Romeo: Because he figured:

If Ah’s goin’ ta be impotent, Ah’s goin’ ta look impo’tant!

Tammy Tantschev: Oh, thank you so much! Dom, as always, a pleasure!

Dom Romeo: Well, Tammy, same here.

Tammy Tantschev: And, everyone listening, don’t forget: you can go to the 2GB Plus website, www.2gbplus.com.au to get a subscription to Radio Ha Ha, or you can find us in iTunes.

Dom Romeo: And why not send us an e-mail? Send us a joke, talk to us, tell us what you want to hear.

Tammy Tantschev: Thanks everyone for listening to Radio Ha Ha.

Dom Romeo: Bye now.

Tammy Tantschev: Bye.

CLOSING THEME

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


FOOTNOTES

1. For this episode we inaugurated the new Radio Ha Ha tradition of sampling a different laugh at the front end of every episode. At one stage I imagined having a competition on the website, where you could click a button and hear a laugh, and have to match it to a name. But instead, over-telling the joke as usual, I prefer to just list the laughers and point people to the source.
2. That we of course discussed in Episode 1.
3. Pronounced, for the purposes of the cumbersome gag I am in the process of perpetrating, as “dants” and “frants”.
4. Pronounced, although I’ve failed to explain it, because Tammy’s from Adelaide, as “dahns” and “frahns”.
5. Pronounced “leh-go”.
6. Pronounced “lay-go”.
7. It probably dates back to the early 60s satire boom, if not university revue, as do John Bird and John Fortune. [8]
8. John Bird and John Fortune were both Cambridge University alumni who were involved with the Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Club, although Bird, a little older, was a postgraduate student while Fortune was still an undergraduate. They collaborated frequently, coming to the fore as satirists when it was all the rage as part of the so-called 60s ‘satire boom’ in England, that gave rise to the likes of The Frost Report and That Was The Week That Was. In more recent times, John Fortune turned up as the acupuncturist in Ben Elton’s (disappointing) feature film debut Maybe Baby, while John Bird starred opposite Stephen Fry in the BBC comedy Absolute Power
9. A Poke In The Eye With A Sharp Stick was the first in a series of all-star fundraising comedy galas. It took place in 1976, and was filmed for television (and retitled Pleasure at He Majesties). Subsequent Amnesty International comedy fundraisers include Mermaid Frolics, The Secret Policeman’s Ball, The Secret Policeman’s Other Ball and The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball.

Episode 1:Rob McHugh, Tim Brooke-Taylorand Stan Freberg

Subscribe to this podcast using iTunes

http://podcasts.freedigitalcontent.com/radiohaha.xml
(Copy and paste the link into your Podcast software)

Download this episode

Download other shows



PREAMBLE


After serving a kind of apprenticeship doing numerous comedy and music interviews, dedicated comedy nerd Dom Romeo was recruited to help devise and create a dedicated comedy show for the Macquarie Radio Network’s soon-to-be-launched digital station by the gorgeous and hilarious stand-up comic Tammy Tantschev at the recommendation of her stand-up comedy peers. Tammy was already employed by the network, and Dom had been doing a similar sort of interview-with-soundbites package, so they seemed to click early on.

Acknowledgement and praise must go to Tammy for devising the show’s title, and designing the logo. Everything else seemed to fall in place quite quickly and easily.

For all its faults, Episode 1 is an excellent effort, even if its opening theme goes on a bit too long. The same could also be said for its massive interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor conducted in honour of the Goodies’ return visit to Australia (it’s a companion piece to an interview with Graeme Garden which took place prior to the Goodies’ first Australian tour).

Episode 1 went to air Friday 1st December 2005.



OPENING THEME [1]

Over the buzz, wow and flutter of bad radio reception — courtesy of Paul McCartney and Wings’ ‘Reception’ from the album Back to the Egg, a voice sampled from Frank Zappa’s ‘Lumpy Gravy Pt 1’, from the album Lumpy Gravy, says:

The way I see it, Barry, this should be a very dynamite show.

The static and noise of a radio tuner being spun through various stations gives way to ‘Holiday for Strings’ by Spike Jones and his City Slickers. The lyrics mainly consist of the words ‘ha ha ha ha ha’. Get it?! Over the top of this, an announcer proclaims:

And now it’s time for Radio Ha Ha with Tammy Tantschev and Dom Romeo.

INTRODUCTION

Dom Romeo: Well, Tammy, here we are, back again for Episode 1. [2]

Tammy Tantschev: That’s correct, we are back again for Episode 1.

Dom Romeo: A bit of deja vu…

Tammy Tantschev: It is a little bit.

Dom Romeo: What have we got to kick off this first episode of Radio Ha Ha?

Tammy Tantschev: There’s actually heaps in the first episode of Radio Ha Ha. We’re going to talk a little bit about Rob McHugh and the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD. You’ve got a fabulous interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor, of The Goodies…

Dom Romeo: We’ve got some classic comedy that we’ll talk about later as well…

Tammy Tantschev: … Which I heard from you for the first time the other night and I loved it. A bit of Stan Freberg there. And we’ll also talk about what’s on in comedy in Sydney.

Dom Romeo: Okay. Well let’s start with Rob McHugh. I don’t know Rob McHugh at all.

Tammy Tantschev: I’ve met Rob McHugh from doing comedy around Sydney quite a few times and I had the pleasure of seeing him at the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown — at the Comedy Hole every Monday night — he headlined there recently and absolutely nailed it. We’re playing some of his comedy from the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD. So here’s Rod McHugh.

LIVE STAND-UP

Live stand-up: Rob McHugh, recorded at the Mic In Hand, at the Friend in Hand Hotel, as released on the Sydney Underground Comedy DVD.

material includes a gag about how we could have our own ‘Marilyn Manson’: ‘Kylie Millat’! This is quoted here to make sense of the piss-weak back announce… [footnote]

Dom Romeo: ‘Kylie Millat’! How about that? Love that one.

Tammy Tantschev: I know, that was very clever, that one got me.

Dom Romeo: I wish I’d thought of that first! Anyway…

Tammy Tantschev: That goes for a lot of the stuff on that DVD, I must say.

Dom Romeo: Fantastic. Now I know a bit about this DVD. These are all the up-and-coming comedians that not everyone has necessarily heard of but, let’s face it, will hear about soon.

Tammy Tantschev: Absolutely. A lot of people on the DVD are already doing amazing stuff. There are some very fabulous-looking people there — I’m not thinking about anyone in particular…

Dom Romeo: What, not the one called Tammy Tantschev at all…?

Tammy Tantschev: Ah, yeah, she goes allright, actually; maybe that’swho I was thinking of… but the DVD is out now, it’s basically twenty-four of Australia’s funniest comedians at their best.

Dom Romeo: Now I notice that they’re all taped at the same venue — a place called The Friend In Hand hotel…

Tammy Tantschev: That’s right, The Friend In Hand in Glebe. That’s run by Sam Bowring and Kent Valentine, and that’s been going for a while now. And that’s every Thursday night. ‘The Mic In Hand’, they call it, on Thursday nights for comedy.

Dom Romeo: So the Comedy Hole in Newtown, the Mic In Hand in Glebe… are these places you go to a lot?

Tammy Tantschev: I go there far too often. I can’t go there enough. These are great venues that are regular events in Sydney and they also give new comics an opportunity to get out there and try some new stuff, which is awesome.

Station ID

This is Radio Ha Ha on 2GB Plus.

TIM BROOKE-TAYLOR INTERVIEW [3]

Dom Romeo: Well now, look, The Goodies [4] have just toured Australia for the second time and they did fabulously, even though Bill Oddie didn’t come out with them this time.

Tammy Tantschev: Yeah, that’s right, but we went along and enjoyed the show very much and I’ve never seen The Goodies live before…

Dom Romeo: Well, I only had earlier this year, so before then I was only going from the memory of the shows that I had seen a million times in my youth, in the 70s.

Tammy Tantschev: That’s right, and it really did take me back. I kind of forgot how much I enjoyed it as a kid, because, for us, it was on the ABC at the 6:30 pm time-slot, so it was really aimed at the young generation.

Dom Romeo: It’s an interesting thing, because in England it was an adult show, and in Australia we actually had censored versions — there were bits cut out. And in some instances, there are some episodes that only still exist in their cut version in Australia.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh right. Well they showed some of the stuff that they couldn’t show in Australia on the ABC, in their live performance, which was quite funny.

Dom Romeo: Yes, that bit from the episode ‘Scoutrageous’ was quite naughty; I could understand why Aunty would get a little bit upset in the 70s.

Tammy Tantschev: Yeah, they had some cheeky senses of humour, those guys, and still do!

Dom Romeo: And still do! And the interesting thing about Tim Brooke-Taylor, who went to uni at Cambridge with the other Goodies, and also with a lot of people from Monty Python [5], and he almost became a Python. We discuss that in the interview…

Tammy Tantschev: Oh, wow.

Dom Romeo: … so I think, without any further ado, here’s Tim Brooke-Taylor of the Goodies.

Soundbite: Theme to The Goodies

Goodies… goody, goody, yum, yum!

Dom Romeo: I’d like to start at the beginning, if I may, Tim.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: What, at the beginning of the world?

Dom Romeo: Well, a little more recent than that, but in the bigger scheme of things, still quite early.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yes…

Dom Romeo: Performing at university… How did you get into it?

Tim Brooke-Taylor: It’s a good question because in England at that time you had to go to get a grant for university, and you had to convince them why you could get a grant. They asked me the question I wasn’t expecting. I was expecting a question like, “How hard are you going to work?” but they said, “What are you going to do when you’re not working?” That threw me, because, what I intended to do when I wasn’t working would not have got me a grant — ‘drinking’ and ‘women’ and things like that, as only an eighteen year-old can think — and I sort of blurted out, “Oh, I’m going to join the Footlights!” [6] I didn’t even know what it was, really; I knew it was comedy, and I never acted at school or anything.

When I got there they so frightened me, they were all so smart and clever that I auditioned for a college play, and it’s actually a long story, but it was a bad start when there were thirty-two parts; thirty-three auditioned and I actually failed to get a part. So I thought, “well, I’ve done my bit”.

And then I met Bill Oddie and we sort of had a giggle, and we did a sort of ‘charity sketch’ and that led to my getting into the Footlights where I met the people I was to work with for the next goodness knows how long: John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Graeme Garden, Eric Idle, Bill Oddie. We were lucky to have been in a college that Peter Cook had just left, so there was a good inheritance of comedy. So it was a stroke of luck, really.

Soundbite: Excerpt from ‘The Day After Tomorrow’s World’ from the self-titled I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again album. [7]

Interviewer: Can you hear me Doctor Brooke-Ferret?

Dr Brooke-Ferret (Tim Brooke-Taylor): No, I can’t hear you.

Interviewer: Oh, well, I can’t hear you either.

Dr Brooke-Ferret (Tim Brooke-Taylor): You’ll have to speak up a little…

Interviewer: I said, ‘I can’t hear you either…’

Dr Brooke-Ferret: Neither can I.

Interviewer: Well, we seem to be having a little trouble, so I’ll just say goodbye, Dr Brooke-Ferret.

Dr Brooke-Ferret: Hello!

Tim Brooke-Taylor: They produced a DVD this year of a show that I did with John Cleese, Marty Feldman and Graham Chapman, called At Last, The 1948 Show [8], and it’s extraordinary to look at it. It looks as though it was made in about 1880 with a few candles in the background.

Dom Romeo: At Last, The 1948 Show is very important; there are sketches in that that a lot of us attribute to Monty Python that actually pre-dated Python, like the ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yes, in fact, for many years, I used to bleat in the wilderness and say, “I wrote that sketch!” — I helped, I part-wrote that sketch — and people used to sneer and say, “no, it’s Monty Python”, but now I’ve got proof.

Soundbite: excerpt from ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch from At Last the 1948 Show.

Yorkshireman 1 (Tim Brooke-Taylor): We had it tough: I used to ’ave to get out of shoebox at midnight, lick road clean, eat a couple of bits of cold gravel, work twenty-three hours a day at mill for a penny every four years, and when we got ’ome, dad used to slice in ’alf with a bread knife!

Dom Romeo: In a way, you came very close to being a Python. Surely it was a role of the dice whether you became a Goody or a Python at some stage.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yeah, it could have gone either way. I think I’d have probably not gone with Python because, although they were all friends, I think they were better writers than I was. But I think it’s good it went the way it did. You’re absolutely right, yes.

Dom Romeo: That’s interesting that you should say that as well, because I notice that there are early Goodies episodes that you don’t write…

Tim Brooke-Taylor: That was more to do with the fact that I was doing other things, as well as the fact that you can’t really have three people writing a storyline, I think. Bill and Graeme were able to write much quicker than I did, so it was probably best for all of us that they took over the writing.

Dom Romeo: Because of that work, you also worked on Marty Feldman’s solo show.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yes. They were good fun, those Marty shows. [9]

Soundbite: Excerpt from the ‘Bishop of No Fixed Abode’ sketch, from either the comedy show It’s Marty or Marty Amok

Bishop (Marty Feldman): God bless you all; any unbelievers here?

Passenger 1: Pardon?

Bishop: I said, ‘Any unbelievers here?’ Atheists, agnostics, ’Indus, that lot… you know what I mean.

Passenger 1&2: No, no.

Bishop: What are you then, son?

Passenger 1: Church of England.

Bishop: Good for you, mate! Yeah, good for you, son. What about you, mate?

Passenger 2: Roman Catholic.

Bishop: Roman Catholic, yeah? That’s one to them, one to us! Well it’s all down to ’im, then, innit? I say, it’s all down to ’im. ’Alf a crown says he’s C of E, right?

Passenger 2: Well, I don’t actually indulge…

Bishop: I’ll tell you what I’ll do, I’ll tell you what I’ll do: six to four on, he’s C of E; Jew, no bet; and I’ll throw in a couple of indulges for free, there you are! I can’t say fairer than that, all right?

Passenger 2: All right.

Bishop: Are you on?

Passenger 2: Yes.

Bishop: Right, what are ya, son?

Passenger 3 (Tim Brooke-Taylor): I’m an agnostic.

Bishop: You what?

Passenger 3: I’m an agnostic.

Bishop: You stupid git!

Passenger 3: I’m sorry, Your Grace.

Bishop: You stupid git! You get up there, mate, tell ’Im you’re an agnostic; ’E’ll smash your teeth in… in his infinite mercy.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: That was the reason; that was actually — if I’m perfectly honest — the reason why I wasn’t a Python, because it would have been awkward for me to have done both.

Dom Romeo: But you did live with Cleese and Chapman for a while, you did share a flat.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yes. And in all that period, John and I were performing in I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again. In fact, when we were doing At Last, The 1948 Show, we’d both been working on The Frost Programme — as researchers, basically. Not very good ones.

Dom Romeo: I thought the whole point of the Frost Programme was, everyone wrote it, but got a ‘with…’ credit after David Frost’s name.

Tim Brooke-Taylor (laughing): That’s The Frost Report; The Frost Programme was more of an interview-type thing. But you’re right, yes. That’s actually how we met up with Marty Feldman, was on The Frost Report.

Dom Romeo: Now, your Goodies character, with the hyphenated surname, the Union Jack waistcoat, standing to attention to recite patriotic words while ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ or ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ — whichever way you want to label it — plays in the background…

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yes…

Dom Romeo: Where did that come from?

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Well, if you think about it, if you’re trying to get three characters who represent everybody, you’ve got to have a right-wing neo-con loony, you’ve got to have a boffin technocrat liberal-ish wishy-washy middle and you’ve got to have a bloody revolutionary. And if I’m going to be cast, with a name like mine, I don’t think I can be the revolutionary. So that’s how that started. So basically we took up those roles. I really disliked my character in many ways. The only thing I had in common was, we were both incredible cowards. You remember, he may make those patriotic speeches, but he usually used to go and hide in the cupboard afterwards — which is the way quite a lot of rightwing people are, anyway. It’s just awful because a lot of people do assume that that’s exactly how you feel, and the awful thing is, that they’re the ones who like the character because he says the right things.

Dom Romeo: Another role you played in those early days is that cameo in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Yes. It’s extraordinary, isn’t it? I did it and it was the last shot of the whole movie, actually, and everybody wanted to leave because they’d been working on it for too long, and they all hated the director, and so it was almost sort of a ‘throw-away’. At the time, I enjoyed it, obviously. I didn’t see much of the rest of the film, and when it opened in England, it didn’t even really go on release. It was only later, at Christmases, it was shown. I think it’s a great film. I can say that, only having a small part, but I get quite young people who recognise me from that, which is very flattering — I know I don’t look like that — but it is great. It’s a very small bit, but, I don’t know, the fact that I’m not credited on the film makes it even better, somehow.

Soundbite: Tim Brooke-Taylor as [uncredited] computer operator, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Gentlemen, I know how anxious you have been in these last few days, but I think I can safely say, that your time and money have been well spent. We’re about to witness the greatest revolution of the machine age. Based on the revolutionary computonian law of probability, this machine will tell us the precise location of the three remaining golden tickets.

Machine whirs to life, spitting out a card with the ting of a bell.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: It says, “I won’t tell; that would be cheating.”

Dom Romeo: How did you get the role in the film? How did it come about?

Tim Brooke-Taylor: It was straight-forward audition. I haven’t auditioned many times in my life. That isn’t a grand thing to say — I’ve gone down routes where you don’t audition. But that was one when… in fact, I was going to be several other parts and because of the filming schedule, it changed and I suddenly got landed with that one. I think they got one or two of what they would call ‘English character actors’ given to this American director who seemed a bit of a lunatic, as far as I was concerned. I remember climbing over his sofa and showing off madly and got a part. But that was how it was. I mean, it was just like cattle, really: pick that one, put a stamp on it and send it off to Munich, where the whole thing was filmed.

Soundbite: Tim Brooke-Taylor as [uncredited] computer operator, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Tim Brooke-Taylor: I am now telling the computer that if it will tell me the correct answer, I will gladly share with it the grand prize.

Machine whirs to life again, spitting out a card with the ting of a bell.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: He says, “what would a computer do with a lifetime supply of chocolate?”

I am now telling the computer exactly what he can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate!

Dom Romeo: It’s always felt that we were the crazier fans, and part of the reason for that is because your show got repeated a lot at a very child-friendly timeslot here [in Australia]. How do you find it, that you are so well loved on the other side of the planet?

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Well you can imagine, it’s really good news. It’s like going to the moon and finding that people know you. We’ve always been very proud of The Goodies and we’re really angry that they’ve never been repeated here [in Britain]. In fact, they’re about to do something about it now. They’re doing a two-hour Goodies special at Christmas with a sort of documentary and showing one of the shows, so we’re hoping that it will take off at last and England will be following Australia’s lead. But in fact, think that the point you make about ‘early in the evening’ is very important because people watch it when they’re kids, and they enjoy it at a certain level, and then when they watch it when they’re older and they discover that there’s another level to it, and that makes them even more enthusiastic — as it should be, really. So they’re the best audiences we could possibly have, having been indoctrinated as children.

The Head of BBC Worldwide recently retired, and he said, “you get one or two really odd tings that you can’t bargain for, like The Goodies selling so well in Australia…” Well, if he had bothered to ask us we would have told him that that was going to be a very good market. The big surprise is that they’ve also sold very well here [in England] too, because all the children here haven’t been forcibly brought up on The Goodies as they should be.

Dom Romeo: Your visit to Australia earlier this year was clearly successful; so much fun, indeed, that you’re coming back for a return visit. But Bill’s not coming with you this time.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: He was; unfortunately, he’s been too successful in his other area. He did this series after we came back from Australia called Bill Oddie’s Spring Watch. It was basically live every evening, four days a week for three weeks, and they got places around the country where, literally, there cameras on birds being born and badgers coming out at night. It was a very good program and it was so successful that they want Autumn Watch. So, unfortunately, he was coming with us but he made the wrong decision and he did his Autumn Watch. But in many ways, this is a bonus, because we’re going to use all different sorts of devices to have Bill on stage, and the good thing is Graeme and I have total control over them. Don’t tell Bill that!

Dom Romeo: Again, what was it like coming to Australia and receiving the mass adulation of the audiences who grew up with during the 70s?

Tim Brooke-Taylor: I was very nervous about the whole thing because although I knew people were on our side, there’s a big difference between them being on our side and paying money and coming and seeing us. The show worked out far better than I dared hope, but it got to the stage — and this is what I explain to people here — I got to the stage where it was so good that I found myself sounding like a real crackpot, saying ‘Thank you, Sydney!’ and things like that. I just laughed at myself, basically, and the extraordinary thing is that people didn’t laugh at me for doing that. The bit I cannot explain enough to people is how bright the audience were; they were the type of audience that you would like to have coming to your show. I can’t remember that ever happening before. That’s how I felt. I think we all felt that.

Soundbite: Introduction to Bananaman.[10]

Narrator (Tim Brooke-Taylor): This is 29 Acacia Road, and this is Eric, the schoolboy who leads an amazing double life. For when Eric eats a banana, an amazing transformation occurs: Eric is Banana Man, ever alert for the call to action.

Dom Romeo: One last thing: I know, officially, you can’t be admitting to doing this, but Bananaman’s not been released out here on DVD yet. Can’t you smuggle a few into the country and sell them surreptitiously after the show?

Tim Brooke-Taylor: That sounds a good idea. Yes, don’t tell anybody.

Dom Romeo: I won’t.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Nobody will suspect because their wrappers will say Asian Babes or something like that, so nobody will be worried by them.

Dom Romeo: Or, you can just put a stack of them on stage, put ’em in a loud shirt and a hairy beard, and call it ‘Bill’.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: This is a very good idea. Yep, a good idea. You can have a third of the profits.

Dom Romeo: Excellent! Tim Brooke-Taylor, thank you very much.

Tim Brooke-Taylor: Cheers, thank you!

Soundbite: Closing theme to The Goodies.

Goodies…
Goody, goody, yum, yum!
Goodies…
repeated ad infinitum

Dom Romeo: I do wish they’d release the Bananaman DVD in this country.

Tammy Tantschev: Absolutely. I can remember Bananaman and I used to love that cartoon.

Station ID

Dom Romeo and Tammy Tantschev on Radio Ha Ha.

THE GIG GUIDE

Soundbite: ‘The World Is Waiting For A Sunrise’ by Stan Freberg, from the album Capitol Collector’s Series

note: the gig guide went on longer than anticipated, so the song begins a little way in, in order to build to its climax at the end of the gig guide

Dom Romeo: Now, Tammy, you mentioned a couple of venues at the top end of the show. Now you’re going to give us the gig guide of what’s on in Sydney, in comedy.

Tammy Tantschev: That’s right. We’re going to try and bring you every week — well, not ‘try and bring you’; we’re going to bring to you every week on Radio Ha Ha what’s happening in the city in terms of comedy. There’s actually a lot more going on than a lot of the public realise. There’s heaps of rooms running, so we want to keep you updated every week on where you can go and see something funny and we’ll also have links to that on the website with dates and things like that. So all you have to do is, if you want to go out and get entertained during the week, download the gig guide and you can find out where you can go for your laughs.

Dom Romeo: Okay, so you're either listening to this now — this gig guide – and hopefully you’re listening to it early enough to get to everything, or you can download it on www.2gbplus.com [11]

Tammy Tantschev: Yes, that’s right, that’s our digital site and you’ll find Radio Ha Ha and all our information there.

So, here’s what’s going on in Sydney in comedy:

At the Comedy Store, in the Sydney Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park, Friday 25th to Sunday 27th, Frank Woodley of ‘Lano & Woodley’ fame headlines, and he’s supported by Sydney comics Dave Jory and Daniel Townes. And then at the Comedy Store from Tuesday 29th to Sunday 4th of December, you’ll find the fabulous Jackie Loeb.

I hear that on November 30th there’s a special event at the Comedy Store… a Dom Romeo is launching his new joke book.

Dom Romeo: Sounds familiar, sounds familiar… yeah.

Tammy Tantschev: And what’s it called?

Dom Romeo: It’s a book called Have You Heard The One About……

Tammy Tantschev: Ah!

Dom Romeo: … Subtitled ‘Over five hundred jokes’, because I know that discerning jokebook buyers want value for money.

Tammy Tantschev: Five hundred jokes? That’s heaps. How long did that take you to put all that together?

Dom Romeo: Well, only a few months. I must admit, I’m a bit of a sponge for gags, so I could draw back from my early youth…

Tammy Tantschev: Excellent. Maybe we can convince you to give us a few gags in the show.

Dom Romeo: ‘Convince’ me? Like it’s going to be some sort of trouble for to flog my book by cracking a couple a gags? We’ll see how we go.

Tammy Tantschev: Excellent! Moving on:

At the Laugh Garage at Parramatta Friday 25th or Saturday 26th you can find Dan Willis from the UK as well as Mark McConville and get down there every Sunday for Sunday Comedy Jam. Akmal is also going to be there from Thursday 1st December.

The Comedy Hole, as we mentioned before, at the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown features Peter Green on Monday 28th November.

Also Monday 28th, if you’re up north, get to the Old Manly Boatshed to catch Brett Nichols.

On Wednesday November 30th, Blacktown RSL features Kieran Butler and Williams & Clare.

Still on Wednesday 30th, you’ll find the hilarious Dave Jory and Adam Richmond at the Oatley Hotel.

And still on Wednesday 30th, the Statement Bar in the city features Tommy Dean and Steve Philp.

Then on Thursday 1st December catch Gary Bradbury and Kirk McKenzie at the Epping Hotel.

The Friend In Hand, as we mentioned earlier, in Glebe, presents ‘Mic in Hand’ every Thursday, and on Thursday 1st December your headline act is Michael Chamberlin, of skitHouse and MC there is Sam Bowring.

And the Mic in Hand also features an ‘open mic’ section every week, so if you want to support new comedy or if you want to try it out yourself, get down there and check it out.

Other open mic nights around the city of Sydney are at:

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

Tuesdays, open mic is at the Sydney Comedy Store and often Wil Anderson gets down there to MC the night.

And you should also definitely get yourself to Paddy McGuires in the city on Wednesday nights, with the very funny Nick Johns.

CLASSIC COMEDY

‘The World Is Waiting For A Sunrise’ by Stan Freberg, from the album Capitol Collector’s Series

Wait a minute! Look out! The equipment is smoking — run for your life!

cartoon explosion sound effects

Tammy Tantschev: Dom, I know this was your call — the background music for the guide here, and it’s really very interesting — what are we listening to?

Dom Romeo: This is in fact Stan Freberg. It’s a send-up of what was a hit, originally, for a guy called Les Paul, and his partner Mary Ford; it’s ‘The World Is Waiting For A Sunrise’.

Tammy Tantschev: Uh-huh.

Dom Romeo: And Stan Freberg was a guy who was into advertising — did very well — and decided to try his hand at parody and did very well at that as well.

Tammy Tantschev: I was listening to some of the stuff you were playing me the other night, and something in particular that I hope we can have on here in the next few weeks is the ‘Banana Boat Song’. That was hilarious! That cracked me up. I went home and I played it over and over again. It was so funny.

Dom Romeo: I will drag that out, but before that, I think we need to listen to a send-up of a great 50s television show, Dragnet. Here’s Stan Freberg’s first send-up of Dragnet, it’s called ‘St George and the Dragonet’.

Soundbite: ‘St George and the Dragonet’ from the Stan Freberg album Capitol Collector’s Series

Dom Romeo: Oh my goodness, Tammy, we got through that one all right!

Tammy Tantschev: We actually did. That was fun.

Dom Romeo: Almost felt too easy, that first one.

Tammy Tantschev:Don’t say that just yet — it’s not over!

But thank you everyone for listening in to Radio Ha Ha. It’ll be available on the 2GB Plus website, as we mentioned earlier.

Dom Romeo: Now, is that ‘2GB, plus sign, dot com’, or… ?

Tammy Tantschev:That’s actually ‘p’, ‘l’, ‘u’, ‘s’. Just spell that out.

Dom Romeo: And ‘2GB’ is spelt as it sounds…

Tammy Tantschev:Yes, that’s right — numeral ‘2’, ‘G’, ‘B’.

Thanks very much, Dom.

Dom Romeo: Thank you, Tammy!

Tammy Tantschev: And I’m not going to let you go just yet, because I want to, before you leave us today, I want to hear a joke from the joke book Have You Heard The One About…. Now there are five hundred jokes in there, so I figure if we do one in every show, we’re guaranteed at least five hundred shows.

Dom Romeo: Well, no, not actually, because some of them I just couldn’t get away with broadcasting. Quite frankly, I should make that announcement up front: it’s an adult book — don’t go buying it for the kiddies.

Tammy Tantschev: Oh. Okay.

Dom Romeo: So — this is the first joke I ever learnt, from a Monty Python record that my brother brought home. It goes:

What’s brown and sounds like a bell?
DUNG!

CLOSING THEME

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


FOOTNOTES

1. Okay, so clocking in at a minute and a half, this opening theme is clearly too long. Not bad for a first go, though, you must admit. We get it right from Episode 2 onwards.
2. We’re not just trying to be ‘zany’; we were in fact “back again for Episode 1” because our first recording session, conducted on the Tuesday, somehow failed to burn to the recordable CD; I didn’t realise this until I finally sat down to edit the episode on Wednesday evening, necessitating another recording session on the Thursday. We still got the episode to air on the Friday, clever us!
3. Although recorded prior to the Goodies’ return visit to Australia, the interview was not broadcast until after, hence the cumbersome change in perspective from the introduction — we’d been to see the Goodies at Parramatta Riverside Theatre the week before — and the interview itself. The interview is very long and self-indulgent — then again, how often do you get to talk about the origins of some of the most historically important, and funny, English television comedy with one of the blokes who made it? Exactly.
4. Do I really have to explain this one? Essentially, trio of comic writer-performers — Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie — who made the leap from university revue to television as part of the mid-60s’ so-called ‘satire boom’, and the successful nine-season series they made. The show is kind of like a live-action cartoon, where the trio — a staunch but cowardly conservative royalist, a brilliant scientist and a rough-and-tumble hippie — run a concern that hires itself out to ‘do anything, anywhere, any time’ — the broad parametres therefore allowing any flight of fancy imaginable as the plot of an episode. The show enjoyed great success in Australia where it was repeated endlessly in the child-friendly pre-news time-slot on the ABC throughout the 70s and early 80s.
5. Of the six-man team of writer-performers that was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, three of them — John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle — were Cambridge graduates. Two — Michael Palin and Terry Jones — were from Oxford. Terry Gilliam, who primarily worked on animations before going on to co-direct the Python films, was from the United States.

6. The Cambridge Footlights Dramatic Club — so-named for the kind of stage lighting that lines the edge of a stage — was an undergraduate performance society founded in the 1880s whose most visible activity was the annual revue during May Week each year (hence the title of one of the volumes of memoirs by former Footlights president Clive James: May Week Was In June). For whatever reason, postwar England saw the success of many university wits whose extra-curricular activities included the Footlights: in addition to the Goodies and Monty Python, members of Beyond the Fringe and Smith & Jones, plus all of Fry & Laurie and Parsons & Naylor, not to mention Germaine Greer, Michael Frayn, David Frost and Douglas Adams cut their teeth in Footlights revue. The Footlights motto: ars celare artem: ‘The art is to conceal the art’.
7. I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again was a long-running BBC radio show written by and featuring John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Jo Kendall and David Hatch, that grew out of the 1963 Cambridge Footlights revue, entitled Cambridge Circus. (It’s original title, A Clump of Plinths, was rightfully jettisoned prior to its season at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1963). I'm Sorry I’ll Read That Again ran for eight seasons, from 1963 to 1972, and so effectively co-existed with both Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Goodies.
8. There are two television shows that pre-existed and proved to be the direct antecedents of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (which came into existence in 1969). The first was a children’s show entitled Do Not Adjust Your Set, which began production in 1967 and whose cast, featuring Denise Coffey, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and David Jason (the latter was Granville opposite Ronnie Barker in Open All Hours and Del-boy Trotter in Only Fools And Horses, before becoming Inspector Frost in his later years) expanded to include a young animator newly arrived from the United States, Terry Gilliam. The second was At Last the 1948 Show (the title refers to how forward-thinking high-ranking BBC employees seemed to be), which began in 1968. Both shows displayed a kind of absurdist and hitherto unseen humour that was to become known as ‘Pythonesque’. Most of the cast members had worked with each other writing sketches for The Frost Report, a satirical program that had replaced That Was The Week That Was when TW3 (as it was known) had over-stayed its welcome by tweaking one nose too many.
9. It’s Marty (1968) and Marty Amok (1970)
10. Bananaman began as a comic strip, but became a BBC cartoon in 1983 and was voiced by The Goodies.
11. The website is now freedigitalcontent.com and the downloadable gig guide is the audio variety. We’ll work towards having a written one online each week. Promise.