2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival:
•Tie Her To The Tracks!
A Live Silent Film with Andrew McClelland, Asher Treleaven, Celia Pacquola, Adam McKenzie & Sammy J
Posted on 1 April 2012 | No responses
So much comic talent is present in Tie Her To The Tracks!, all you would have to do is add Josh Earl and/or Michael Workman and you would get a hilarity chain reaction. The entire Melbourne Town Hall would melt down. No one knows the half-life of Gen-X or Gen-Y humour just yet. It could take years before gigglons and chortlinos have dispersed to a safe level.
Tie Her To The Tracks! is the brainchild of Andrew McClelland. This piece of light entertainment re-enacts the oeuvre of the silent melodrama. McClelland plays a male ingenue in need of employment, Celia Pacquola plays the savvy girl next-door, Asher Treleaven is our moustache twirling villain, Adam McKenzie is the narrator, and Sammy J provides original music and sound effects.
The show is a diverting thirty minutes with plenty of laughs. I desperately wished I could have lent McClelland my collection of silent era comedies. A closer depiction of that film style with fewer anachronisms I believe would have added to the comedy and given the work more weight. Other comedians, Jackie Chan for instance, have borrowed from works such as “One Week” and “Sherlock Jr” by Buster Keaton. The Artist won its Academy Awards including for Best Picture in part due to its loving attention to period detail. It did not need to mock the style in order to get the laughs.
In the end I would say the comedians pull this story off with aplomb. I particularly enjoyed Asher Treleaven’s devilish antics. McClelland should do this again as a full hour show and delve more deeply into the nascent possiblities he only touched upon here. Tie Her To The Tracks! has sparkle and charm.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival:
• Dingo & Wolf in Winning at Life
Posted on 30 March 2012 | No responses
Dingo and Wolf in Winning at Life were top on my list of acts to see this comedy festival. A friend of mine had been raving about them and I thought it was about time I gave them a look-see. I was mightily entertained.
Dingo & Wolf (Laura Dunnemann and Eleanor Webster) are a tightly knit comedy duo. Melbourne had been running short of fine and funny teams. So, it’s a delight seeing these two young women riffing off each other with such skill.
Comparisons were made on their marketing material with Kath and Kim and Lano & Woodley. They certainly are drawing from a long tradition of double acts and those are the more famous Australian duos, but they bring their own flavour to the genre.
People are most familiar with the combination of straight and comic in a duo. One performer behaves in an odd and humorous manner, and the other performer is either the butt of their jokes or provides a sharp distinction to highlight the former’s craziness. Duos who have used this format include Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Kermit and Piggie, and Fry and Laurie as Jeeves and Wooster.
However, any combination of distinct characters can provide the frisson of good comedy. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are both out of control, but Bugs is puckish and charming and Daffy is devious and put-upon. Character combinations that remind us of family dynamics tend to bring out the biggest laughs.
Dingo & Wolf have chosen to portray themselves as contrasting siblings. One takes on the role of the older, bossier sibling, who is emulating her parents. The other takes the role of the youngest, who is going for all the mileage she can get out of retaining childish qualities. Lano and Woodley certainly used this dynamic as well.
Clearly these women have had acting training. Their movement, vocal work, and interactions with the audience were as smooth as glass. The sense of absolute belief and confidence in their characters and the comic situation captivated the audience. The storytelling was also exceptional. A well-pitched rise in tensions between Dingo & Wolf resolved itself in a heartfelt climax, where the characters’s vulnerabilities are revealed.
The only two things I might suggest need twiddling are the opening in the dark, which should be a little shorter, and the visual aids, which needed to be more in keeping with the professionalism of the rest of the show and be faux shonky—not actually shonky.
Dingo & Wolf have every reason to be proud of Winning at Life. It is a fine piece of theatre. Personally, I would love to see these two with their own television series. Their lively company would be welcome once a week in my home.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2012/season/shows/winning-at-life-dingo-wolf/
The Publicity Spreadsheet
Posted on 27 March 2012 | No responses
If you are starting out as a comedian, you may have a minimal budget for your first big show. As such the best way to get the word out about your comedy is publicity.
Publicity is when the media reports on your show as a news item. Not only is this method cheap, it creates a more authentic rapport with your audience and raises your credibility. People may like your poster, but if they enjoy hearing you chat on the radio, they feel thay have a better idea of what you are like and whether or not they will enjoy your humour.
The Business of Publicity
Of course getting publicity takes a lot of work even in the best of conditions. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival is not the best. You are competing with at least 300 other shows and 1000 other comedians. You will have to send out hundreds of releases, each one with a few personal touches so that individual editors feel special, then not mind that only a few respond. This is why in publishing houses and the like, parts of publicity are passed onto the entry level drudges. If you can get a friend to help you with this, do.
However, when someone does respond and you are asked to pose for the local newspaper or talk on community radio, those moments are sweet. You feel validated. You feel like a star. Someone is taking you seriously enough to want to know more about you and your show.
If you are serious about publicity, you need to put together a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet will ensure you hit up on all the right people at the right media at the right time and in the right way. You will want to keep that spreadsheet for future shows, because over time you will build a relationship with some editors and media, and you will immediately know who is most likely to put you in the spotlight.
You will note that the title to this section is also a link. On the other side of that link you will find a sample spreadsheet in html. I created that spreadsheet originally in LibreOffice Calc. If you don’t already have spreadsheet software on your computer, Calc can be downloaded for free and used on Mac, Windows, or Linux. You will want to copy, if not all, at least the majority of the headers of my sample spreadsheet into your own.
Media Outlets
Your first task will be to put together a substantial media list to whom you will be sending your press releases. You will include on this list newspapers, magazines, websites/blogs, radio, television, student media, mailing lists, and venues where you might be asked to speak. You will of course want to include the big media on the off chance someone picks you up, but your biggest supporters are likely to be community and niche media.
So, do send things to The Age, to the producers of The Ant and Becks Show on Mix FM, to The Circle on Nine, etc. I just wouldn’t suggest focusing a lot of energy on these places until you become better known as a comedian. Much better bets would be places like Inner or Eastern FM, Leader newspapers, and student media such as SYN FM. My show Strange Blessings involved a lot of poetry, so I was able to get publicity from Writers Victoria in both their print publication and their electronic mailing list.
Blogs are still an under-utilised resource in this country and yet can reap big rewards. If you can get a number of blogs to write about you, then your name will come up closer to the top of a Google search. People also trust reviews from their favourite bloggers. I actually think these are more influential than a review in the big newspapers, because they stick around longer and generate more word-of-mouth.
The saddest truth is that a number of outlets that should be supporting their community have decided that comedy season is a cash cow, and will only run articles or listings of people who have advertised with them. Let’s say you are bald and approach a magazine for people who are bald. They then tell you that if you want their attention, you have to buy a full-page advertisement. If you don’t have the means, you are overlooked in favour of comedians with a full head of hair and big budgets. I feel that certain media needs to be taken to task for such shenanigans.
Contact Information
You will have to check that your information on how to contact a media outlet is correct EVERY year. Make sure you know the name of the current editor or producer for the particular outlet, make sure you have their correct spelling, and that you have their correct title. Nothing turns off an editor more than to have something sent with a wrong or incorrectly spelled name and not being given the respect of having their title attached. This is a matter of pride and can cause your release to sink or swim before anyone even bothers to read it.
You will want both an editor/producer’s email and snail mail addresses. Also find out whether they prefer electronic or paper submissions. Most want the electronic form, but the odd hold out are exceptionally pleased when you bother to post them something, and are then kindly disposed toward mentioning you. This is why I include on the spreadsheet a “release format” section.
Sending Stuff
You will be sending to the media outlets:
- A cover letter
- A press release
- A poster and/or press image
- Possibly tickets
Either the cover letter or the press release need to be personalised to each particular editor and outlet. Yes, it’s a lot of extra work, but it makes a difference. The “notes” section is there to describe what particularly interests an editor, such as wine or water skiing, then if you can fit that into the cover letter or release, you are more likely to get their attention. Don’t push this too hard, but if you can find a natural fit…go for it.
You will of course need to keep track of the tickets you give away to whom and for which night. This will be crucial, if you are having people pick up tickets at the door. Tickets are a more reasonable bribe for inclusion in a media outlet. When you send review tickets, it’s understood that the media is allowed to speak their mind about your show. Ticket give-aways promote both you and the media. I would strongly suggest making give-aways a part of some competition. Earning a ticket causes people to respect the gift more and they are more likely to turn up at your show.
The Dates
One of the boring, but important, parts of the spreadsheet is where you keep track of dates. You need to keep track of when releases are and should be sent. Magazines have a longer lead time than newspapers. If you hear nothing from an outlet, you can give them one well-placed poke to get your information into their media. I also keep track of the date when I can safely give that poke (about two weeks) and whether or not I have done it.
The glory date, the one you need to celebrate, is when someone finally does put you in their newspaper, magazine, radio, television show, etc. Woohoo! You did it! Keeping that information gives you an idea of what a media outlet’s timing is like. You may also feel more confident about sending the same person information about a future show.
Publicity can be a gruelling quest for attention, but stick with it. You can get quite far in putting bums on seats this way. The motto here is: do your best, hope for the best.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
Quotes: Stephen Merchant
Posted on 23 March 2012 | No responses
Many of the unknown people who work behind the scenes writing TV comedy started life dabbling in stand-up. Even though they may not have been great performers themselves, they probably had good ideas and good jokes and befriended other comedians on the circuit. When one of those other comedians got their big break and needed writers, whom do you suppose they turned to? Why, those friendly faces from the circuit. Right place, right time.
—Stephen Merchant , Actor, Director, Writer, Comedian
Stephen Merchant gives some excellent advice on how to get into the television comedy industry, and provides some insight into Stephen and Ricky Gervais’s creative processes in this FAQ on his site:
Stephen Merchant Frequently Asked Questions.
Reminder: Funny Females Networking Brunch
Posted on 23 March 2012 | No responses
To all self-identifying females in the comedy industry. Get your tickets fast, since all bookings close Tuesday 03 April.
Funny Females Networking Brunch
11am-1pm Sunday 08 April
Buffet and Champers $35
Swiss Club
89 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Entry ONLY by pre-payment.
Special guest: Lou Sanz
Our performance list of gorgeousness:
- Jan Maree (in Fever Bitch, Winner Best Show 2009 NZICF)
- Jennifer Wong (in Ouch and Other Words, writer for Good News Week)
- Sarah Jones (in Squeaky Clean Comedy, puppeteer)
- Morven Smith (in One in a Million, sold out Melbourne Fringe)
- Bianca Bruce (in The Musical of Musicals, singer)
- Chin Mayumi (in 100% Nuts and appeared on BBC with Michael Palin)
- Sophie Print (in 100% Nuts)
Contact me about how you can purchase tickets.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
Comedy Trials
Posted on 19 March 2012 | No responses
Well, it’s comedy silly season once more in Melbourne Australia. The comedy festival is about two weeks away from opening and everyone is trialling material. What? You say you are about to launch your first festival show and you haven’t done any trialling? For shame. Trialling is an important part of ensuring your comedy is the best it can be.
Most of you will know about preview nights. Those are the cheap ticket nights at the beginning of the comedy festival, where the comedians are allowed to have a few slips of memory and a few technical failures. Even so, the preview is just a running start to launch a final product. Trials are when you haven’t finalised your material. You are testing stories, jokes, and gags to see whether they are a hit or a miss.
I have been to several trial shows through the years. I highly recommend up and coming comedians do the same. You will gain insights into how others develop their material. Trials are meant to be a sheltered place where comedians can expose themselves, warts and all. So I will talk about three I have seen held by TV personalities, but their names will be changed to protect the guilty.
What to Expect
These shows will be rough. Not just a little rough, very rough. No one will be bothering with lighting or microphones. Props can be pieces of paper with hand drawn images. Sound can be a boom box that has the play button pressed awkwardly now and then. You will see comedians carrying around cheat sheets with an outline of which jokes happen when. They will sometimes forget to do certain bits and back track.
As part of the audience you are asked to just be yourselves: laugh when you think something is funny, and don’t laugh when you don’t. You are also asked to be patient. If one joke doesn’t work, be open to the next one tickling your fancy, rather than rolling your eyes and switching off. So the comedian is looking for audiences who can be both honest and generous. This is why many trial shows are arranged privately.
How Macadamia Wills Trials a Show
It has been a number of years since I went to this trial. The trial was privately organised by a mutual friend. What I remember is that Macadamia seemed to be using the trial largely to gain confidence in interacting with his audience.
Macadamia would make an observation such as, “People are using the term surreal without really understanding what that means.” He would tell a few jokes based on that observation, then start querying the audience about their experience. What Macadamia seemed to be testing is, “Have I thought this subject through enough that I have something to say for every come back.” I’m sure he was also gauging how much laughter each segment was receiving.
When this show finally made it to the festival, Macadamia even used some of the material that was developed with his trial audience, referring to some of their comments.
How Blaire Bloops Trials a Show
Blaire is a list woman. However, she didn’t carry her joke list around with her to remember what comes next.
Blaire would tell a few jokes in a measured pace, carefully observing her audience. She would then stop and write down a few notes. Every so often if a joke failed, she would follow it up with a saving line, then put a large mark across the non-joke on her list. “We’re not doing that one again.”
She clearly wanted to reward those kind enough to donate their time to her show’s development by giving the best performance possible. So, she wouldn’t let a wonky line drop. Something that WAS funny had to be put in its place. This is a good habit to get into, and trials are a great place to practise rescuing material.
I also loved the way Blaire would on occasion simply ASK people: did you like that bit? She does a lot of smile-worthy humour. People love that stuff, but as a comedian it’s hard to gauge whether you’ve hit the mark, because lighting conditions make it hard to see people’s reactions. It’s much easier to hear laughter. Asking also shows great respect for the opinions of audience members.
How Hobbes Woodrow Trials a Show
Hobbesy’s anecdotes were already highly polished and guffaw-worthy on the night of her trial. Character and delivery were a beautiful blend of silly joy. Her trial had more to do with mechanics.
Props are a lot of fun, but they also bring their own special problems. It’s well worth the time to see how they will work, how you will work, and how the audience will work when you start using them in a real situation.
In this show Hobbes had a wall covered in pieces of paper. Each piece had written on it a topic she could talk about. Every time an audience member shared a particularly good story about the topic, she would put their name on the back of that piece of paper and re-stick it to the wall. Well, in theory. The sticky wasn’t cooperating and paper fell to the ground. She quickly shifted gears and used a whiteboard sitting in the room on which to write names. People actually felt a greater sense of pride having their names on the board. That small change may mean a lot in the success of her show.
Trials are nervewracking to the comedians using them. No one likes to have a joke fail, but you have to put yourself out there and find out…is that joke funny. If you don’t take risks, you don’t find the gold. This is a safe way to take those chances. If you ask me, the real courage comes when 1) comedians allow themselves to listen to feedback and 2) they are brave enough to recognise and cut material that isn’t working. It’s not easy hearing your babies criticised. It’s not easy slashing your babies to pieces. Only these babies are more like bonsai trees that are trimmed to create greater beauty.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
Quotes: Daniel Townes
Posted on 16 March 2012 | No responses
Yes, I have heard most of this at one time or another. Good job Daniel.
What’s my motivation?
Sam Bain on writing for TV
Posted on 13 March 2012 | No responses
“You’ve written a surefire-hit TV script, and the producer wants you on set. Fun and canapes all the way? Fresh Meat and Peep Show writer Sam Bain shares some advice (and a few regrets)”
Excellent article from The Guardian:
Stories, Comedy, and Emotion
Posted on 13 March 2012 | No responses
Why do we like films? Why do we like television series? Why do we like comedy? Two key elements are having the opportunity to observe other people’s lives and to share in other’s emotions.
Emotion
We are constantly comparing and contrasting ourselves with the people around us and the people we experience in stories, whether the stories are fiction or non-fiction. When we diverge from what seems to be standard or what we set as our standard, we question ourselves. That questioning includes whether we are feeling the right things at the right moments. Humans are a pretty insecure bunch.
On a less insecure level we are also curious about the diversity of human behaviour and experience. It’s useful to practise empathy. Empathy makes civilisation possible. More problematic is when we have cut ourselves off from our own emotional experience and seek vicarious emotional rushes from the extreme behaviour of others.
Emotion and Subtlety
When writing comedy we want to take people on an emotional journey. People tend to better remember those moments where we inspired tears or laughter, than what only intellectually engaged them. So, we want all the fervency we can pack into a five to sixty minute routine or sitcom. The problem is you can’t start with trying to deliver an emotion. You have to start with a story.
Story provides context. We know certain situations are sad, happy, or funny. If we plunk a character within sad, happy, or funny circumstances, people will automatically start interpreting that character’s behaviour as being reflective of those circumstances. Subtle acting and storytelling techniques are often the most effective, because audiences more frequently experience having to interpret emotion, rather than being confronted with someone emoting at them. They are more likely to believe subtlety.
Sergei Eisenstein is one of film’s and film theory’s earliest pioneers. He demonstrated that when you create a montage of terrifying events, if you then follow this montage with an image of someone’s face, that face can be completely neutral, but the audience will see it as expressing terror. Putting certain types of music behind a neutral face will also encourage particular interpretations.
Emotion and Exaggeration
Now you may be saying to yourself: but I do comedy, and comedy often uses emotional exaggeration. Yes, it does. You still have to understand the subtleties in order to more effectively wield your giant comedy hammer. Not everyone in a comedy routine or story is going to be exaggerating or using the same sort of exaggeration. Your comedy leads may be playing off straights in order to create a comic contrast. Your comedy lead may be mostly straight, and it’s funny when they lose their cool in an exaggerated manner.
In the new Australian comedy Woodley, Frank’s estranged wife is practical, down-to-Earth, and sober. He wants to win her back and knows he needs to bring a seriousness to his behaviour that just isn’t part of his character. So when we sense she is assessing Frank and he is making increasingly outrageous mistakes due to his nervousness, the dynamic feels right. Our own mistakes feel exaggerated when we are squirming under what we assume is a judgemental eye. We empathise with Frank and find the whole thing exceptionally funny.
Show Me the Emotion
Woodley is a particularly good example when it comes to emotion, because it almost entirely follows the old film dictum, “Show us, don’t tell us.” When Frank is standing on a bridge dressed as a giant mascot egg and is about to jump, he doesn’t tell us he’s in despair, he shows us. He doesn’t even tell us why he is in despair, we are shown that in flashbacks. We then share some of his feelings.
As comedians we often base our routines on our own lives. Humour is a way to gain perspective on our lives, but it doesn’t guarantee perspective. When we feel something deeply or strongly, the temptation is to try and enforce that feeling on our audience. So we may over-describe or over-emphasise the importance of an event. We may say “I was SO ANGRY!” rather than showing the audience angry or simply presenting circumstances that would make anyone angry.
In the end you can’t demand people feel things. You can only provide the context whereby they may allow themselves to feel emotion. This is where you have to be honest about your own feelings and you have to respect other’s feelings every time you tell a story. The better artist avoids emotional manipulation. The better artist educates us in what our emotions are and how we can make them a part of a mature and fulfilling life.
Peace and kindness,
Katherine
2012 Funny Females Networking Brunch
Posted on 7 March 2012 | No responses
Do you work in the comedy industry and identify as female? Are you going to be in Melbourne for the comedy festival in April? Then come join us for a yummy brunch and connect up with others who share your passion.
We will be having champagne, a Swiss buffet, and performances by YOU! Just let me know if you want a five minute spot.
We will also be awarding the inaugural HA-HA Ta-Tas Award to acknowledge the admirable women of comedy.
Contact me about buying tickets: muse@glasswings.com.au
See you there!
Peace and kindness,
Katherine