Wizard of… oh wait, they made that pun already
Vote Tumbleweeds! Wait, we mean Press Release Time!
(but also, you can still vote in the 2015 Tumbleweed Awards here: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/tumblies2015 )
SBS 2 brings original Australian comedy series The Wizards of Aus
Written/directed by Michael Shanks and guest starring Guy Pearce, Samuel Johnson and more
Airs over three nights from Tuesday January 19, 2016 at 8.30pm
TRAILER NOW AVAILABLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nClYDL7jgj0
From the warped comedic mind of writer/director/actor Michael Shanks (curator of popular You Tube channel Timtimfed), comes a brand new three-part Australian commissioned comedy series, The Wizards of Aus produced by LateNite Films.
The series will air on SBS 2 over three nights starting Tuesday January 19, and follows Jack the Wizard (Shanks) as he becomes fed up with the Magical Realm’s obsession with large-scale fantasy warfare and decides to migrate to the sanest place he can think of – Melbourne’s Western suburbs.
After accidentally causing a magical catastrophe, Jack’s existence (and that of his fellow magical immigrants) is revealed to the Australian public.
Fearing a backlash against himself and his kind, Jack swears off using magic in a bid to better assimilate into human life. But fitting in is never going to be easy when people tend to get a bit ‘explode-y’ whenever you sneeze.
With dazzling visual effects and memorable guest appearances from Australian heavyweights including Guy Pearce, Bruce Spence, Mark Mitchell and Samuel Johnson (as the voice of Terry the Shark), The Wizards of Aus is an innovative twist on the fantasy genre that is both side-splittingly funny and a poignant metaphor for Australia’s current socio-political landscape.
To satiate those eager to see all of program in one sitting, the entire series will be available via SBS On Demand immediately following its premiere.
The innovative new Australian comedy The Wizards of Aus will air over three nights from Tuesday January 19 – Thursday 21 January 2016 at 8.30pm on SBS 2. The entire series will also be available early on SBS On Demand straight after the first episode airs.
What, you may be wondering, does this have to do with voting in the 2015 Australian Tumbleweeds Awards (which you can do so here: surveymonkey.co.uk/r/tumblies2015)? Not much. But when we’re not pimping out our own awards we do occasionally like to talk about Australian comedy in general, and this – so far as we can tell – qualifies as Australian comedy.
And with SBS now firmly in the habit of releasing their Australian comedies before rating season starts – presumably they figure someone out there must want a break from the tennis and cricket – we’d be remiss in our self-imposed duties if we didn’t point this particular show out.
Heck, if we’d found a press release for The Family Law (also out this month) we’d probably have run that here too. Vote Tumblies!
The Family Law looks like a solid attempt to make a sitcom which is surprising considering it comes from a ‘writerly-writer’. I guess it’s better than the comedian-as-auteur.
Tumblers, did you see the early-bird showing of The Family Law on Facebook? Man it sucked. It’s basically an Asian version of Please Like Me, complete with kitsch decor and a young dorky gay protagonist. SBS advertised it as “hilarious,” so I wore my adult Pampers for the occasion. To cut a long story short, it was anything but hilarious. The Pampers went back into storage (it looks like I only need to wear them on Thursdays when The Last Man On Earth is on).
Then I had a head-slapping moment. It was co-written by sitcom superstar Marieke Hardy, which means it can’t possibly ever be funny. You guys should unsheath your rapier-like wit and do a review.