Back in July we noted the announcement of WTF!, a send-up of fast-paced entertainment news shows created by ex-Chaser member Charles Firth. We were fairly sceptical about whether this show would be any good or not, and after two weeks of episodes on GO! (and the thecompleteandutter channel on YouTube) it seems were right to be... Read More »
The comedic story of Election 2010, which we can now finally close the book on, was this: while the ABC broadcast the “official” election comedies, Gruen Nation and Yes We Canberra!, online venues, such as YouTube, were full to bursting with impressionists. So much so, that there came a point towards to end of the election campaign when the joke switched from being about Julia Gillard, to about the people impersonating Julia... Read More »
Unless you're a bunch of mates having a laugh or foolish enough to think there's serious money to be made from the world of podcasting, you're probably making podcasts strategically. I.e. you're “talent” trying to get a paid gig by proving your worth through a podcast, or you're a broadcaster trying to build an audience for a team or concept through a podcast. The latter strategy appears to have paid off for the ABC with the podcast Is It Just... Read More »
It was inevitable that at least one of this country’s female comedians would attempt a Julia Gillard impersonation sooner or later. Sure, someone from Double Take did it last year, but with Gillard now running the country there’s a gap in the market – an opportunity to fill the shoes of Anthony Ackroyd, whose Kevin... Read More »
In yet another indication that the future of entertainment is online, a recent-ish episode of the Mediaweek podcast revealed that Andrew Denton's production company Zapruder's Other Films has employed nine members of the Hungry Beast team to work on “online projects”. What exactly these projects are was not revealed; it's also not terribly clear at this stage what types of entertainment will work best in an online... Read More »
“Catherine Deveny’s column will no longer appear in The Age.” Ahh, does it come any sweeter than... Read More »
It's hard not to have respect for anyone who's gone to the trouble of making a scripted comedy show, particularly those producing podcasts, who are doing it for love rather than money. And if you listen to such a podcast there's a bonus – a bonus I wasn't really expecting after sitting through hours and hours of almost entirely dreadful chat-based podcasts – some scripted podcasts are actually worth listening... Read More »
The majority of comedy podcasts have a “sitting around having a chat” format, and almost all of them shit. Listening to these shows is a bit like having no choice but to overhear an increasingly obnoxious pub conversation in which a small group of blokes in their early 20s are loudly making each other laugh with their stupid, and not really that jokey, views on politics, society, sex and... Read More »
As part of my ongoing examination of Australian comedy online (see my last blog) I've been working my way through every Australian comedy podcast I can find. I'll write more fully about more of them in the future, but one thing I've been struck by is how few of them contain scripted... Read More »
A week or so ago a reader commented on one of our recent blogs: “The networks are useless, dying and clueless. I really hope that Australian comedy can find it's way online. There are some excellent US comedy websites with loads of little web series on them.” And because we take your feedback seriously down here at Australian Tumbleweeds - well, that and there's almost no Australian comedy on that isn't a panel game - I've decided to dip my toe into the wonderful world of Australian comedy content online, starting with... Read More »