Hey, didn’t Matt Tilley get hit by a car a few days ago? Why, yes he did: he was out riding his bike along Melbourne’s St Kilda Road and BAM: a variety of somewhat serious sounding injuries (fractured vertebrae, bruised kidney) have him bailed up at home with bed rest for the foreseeable future. Ouch.... Read More »
Hamish & Andy's announcement that they will cut back to a weekly show next year to give themselves time to work on other projects was big news yesterday, but so far the details of what the other projects are, what they'll do in their weekly show, when the weekly show will air, and who will replace them in the drive slot have not emerged. So let's indulge in a little speculation...... 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 »
Over the last few weeks word has been filtering back from the UK division of 21st Century Daryl Worldwide about the massive – well, noticeable at least – impact Hamish & Andy’s recent visit has had over there. Supposedly they made a surprisingly good impression on The Graham Norton Show (shown recently on the ABC…... Read More »
Can you remember the last time anyone produced a full length scripted comedy show for a mainstream radio station? Apart from ABC Local’s lacklustre 2008 new talent scheme The Comedy Hour? You probably have to go back as far as the late 70s or early... Read More »
Every week for more than 20 years John Clarke has been writing two and a half minutes of some of the best satire you'll find anywhere in the world, which he performs with fellow satirist Bryan Dawe. Highly intelligent, stuffed with gags and brilliantly performed, this is at the pinnacle of comedy in this country – and as an insight into Australian politics it puts a lot of serious analysis to... Read More »
Whilst updating iTunes last week I noticed that what had been the podcast feed for ABC Local Radio's 2008 comedy talent quest The Comedy Hour has now become the podcast feed for ABC Adelaide's Talkback Gardening, that perennial favourite of my father and many of his friends. If it wasn't for the fact that the ABC are great fans of recycling podcast feeds (do they think they're rationed?), I could probably draw a crap metaphor for the ABC's interest in The Comedy Hour from this – and indeed, there wasn't much interest in it from them - but my main feeling is one of sadness, that The Comedy Hour is yet another comedy writer's competition that's been shut down for good (although that's been pretty clear for a year or so... Read More »
I haven't had time to watch much comedy in the past few weeks apart from catching up with LOLZ RANDOMS-magnets Beached Az and The Urban Monkey with Murray Foote - hey, at least they're short! - and fast-forwarding through several weeks worth of Rove to see how Judith Lucy's segment's been going - she's great, but as someone who's always divided audiences I worry how long she'll last...which kinda brings me to what I have had time for: Tony Martin and Tony Wilson filling in for Derek Guille on 774 ABC Melbourne and ABC Victoria's evening... Read More »
Yeah, yeah, we’re just re-printing the press release. But it’s still big news – after all, when was the last time a comedy CD came out in this country that wasn’t just a collection of radio prank calls or a live stand-up set? Plus it’s Micallef mucking about for just under an hour, making it... Read More »
As recently as this week, MMM in Melbourne were (and for all we know, could still be) running promos for the Pete & Myf breakfast show that proudly announced it as the show "Melbourne wakes up to". As the show was recently dumped after well over a year of falling ratings, we'd like to suggest that Melbourne woke up to Pete and Myf a long, long time... Read More »