Podcast

Episode 5: Steve Kaplan

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Episode 4: Russell Peters, Angelo Tsarouchas and Brendon Burns

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Top 30

The enhanced podcast of Stand & Deliver! has hit the Top 30 iTunes comedy charts. I say a little bit more about it here.

Spreading the viral feed…

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-fe3d1301c563954f1fa501b6b49aecda}

(wondering if the 'enhanced podcast mode' will work for Podcast Alley users…)

Episode 3: Surprise Seasonal Specialwith Adam Hills, Tripod, Darren Casey,Kent Valentine and Dave Jory

PREAMBLE

At census time, when it comes to filling in the ‘religion’ question, it’s none of this ‘Jedi’ nonsense for me. I put ‘Comedian’ [1], because I will worship at the altar of Comedy more readily than any organised religion (or business dressed up to look like the same).

So, as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas day, while my family were organising their attendance at Midnight Mass (which didn’t eventuate, as it turns out – they crashed out in front of the telly watching We Can Be Heroes on DVD!) I pulled together this episode of Stand & Deliver! – a form of rapturous veneration I was still undertaking when they finally did organise getting to Mass first thing on Christmas morning.

The episode is built around a few Christmas routines as performed by the likes of Darren Casey, Kent Valentine and Dave Jory at the year’s final Mic in Hand that took place at the Friend in Hand Hotel on the night of December 14th. It was also a good opportunity to play a great Christmas song by Tripod, recorded on their new mini-album Perfectly Good Songs. I threw in a tiny snippet of Adam Hills’s material that had a bit of a Christmas angle to it (I first used this in a radio interview of some years ago).

It also seemed appropriate to have a little ‘round-up’ of upcoming comedy festivals and competitions.

Download the MP3 file of this episode.

Subscribe to the enhanced podcast of this show using iTunes

OPENING THEME

Announcer: And now for something somewhat derivative.

Soundbite: The ‘Theme to Radio Ha Ha’ plays ever-so-briefly before the stylus of the record is brought across the vinyl, bringing it to an abrupt end in time for:

Announcer: Stand and deliver!

Song: ‘Theme to No Wucken Forries’ (edited version)

INTRODUCTION

Dom: This is Dom Romeo welcoming you to Episode 3 of Stand & Deliver!, the podcast that takes a bit of a knowing look at comedy. Now, it’s just gone Christmas Day, and my family have gone of to Midnight Mass, leaving me at home alone; I’ve snuck downstairs Rupert Pupkin-like [2] in order to squeeze out a special Christmas Day Edition of Stand & Deliver!

In this episode we’ll be hearing from the likes of Adam Hills, Tripod, Kent Valentine and Dave Jory, but to kick us off is the very dry, observational humour of Darren Casey, recorded live at Mic in Hand, at the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe.

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Darren Casey, on receiving presents at Christmas, recorded live at Mic in Hand, at the Friend in Hand Hotel.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Darren Casey talking about inappropriate Christmas presents, recorded live at Mic in Hand at the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe, and you’re listening to the Christmas episode of Stand & Deliver!, perhaps as you unwrap your own inappropriate Christmas presents.

Station ID: Stand! And! Deliver! Oooh, stand and deliver… Stand! And! Deliver! Stand and deliver…

Dom: Now, if this were a show on free-to-air radio, right about now I’d be playing an up-tempo Christmas song like ‘Felice Navidad’ [3] or ‘Happy Christmas (War Is Over!)’ [4] or one of those all-star charity singles by Band Aid or USA for Africa [5]. Instead, I get to play you stand-up comic Adam Hills’s take on those charity singles. This is a snippet from his album Go You Big Red Fire Engine which, if you’re lucky, you might just find on www.amazon.com. [6]

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Adam Hills on 80s music, particularly those Christmas charity singles, as excerpted from ‘Feed the World’ on the album Go You Big Red Fire Engine.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Adam Hills, being funny about Christmas music on his CD Go You Big Red Fire Engine. There’s a great deal of music-related comedy on that disc – which demonstrates why Adam Hills was the perfect choice to host the ABC musical comedy quiz show Spicks and Specks.

You may not be able to find a copy of Go You Big Red Fire Engine; it’s getting a bit thin on the ground. One of the things you will be able to find is Adam Hills’s new DVD, Live in the Suburbs. In fact, chances are you’re unwrapping a copy while you listen to this podcast.

Station ID: Stand! And! Deliver! Oooh, stand and deliver… Stand! And! Deliver! Stand and deliver…

Dom: So I think we’re agreed: there are a number of kind of rubbishy Christmas songs that get played to death this time of year. However, there are some really cool Christmas songs that are clever and funny, and they’re mostly written and performed by Tripod, that musical comedy trio from Melbourne. Tripod have a pile of Christmas songs, as demonstrated on their recent ‘Hey, We Don’t Make The Yules!’ Christmas tour. According to their vocalist Yon, who appeared in Episode 1 of Stand & Deliver! Tripod have about ten Christmas songs now, which begs the question, ‘why isn’t there a Tripod Christmas album?’ [7]

Yon: Well, it’s something I think about every year... ’cause I’m the one who always thinks about merchandise, for some reason. I reckon we’re not far off one. I actually want to do a TV special. We were talking about it. We did say at some point if our TV show doesn’t get up this year, let’s do a Christmas special because I’m sure that would be easier to pitch than some bloody thing with a narrative to networks. But it hasn’t happened.

I don’t know; I’m happy to just keep writing new ones and we'll boil it down to something really good eventually, when we do something.

Dom: Yon Hall from Tripod there, explaining why Tripod don’t have a Christmas album, and in the process, raising some pretty interesting issues [8] that I just failed to chase down. Some journalist I am! In fact, I’m more a fan than a journalist. And as almost any Tripod fan should be able to tell you, Tripod have a brand new mini-album out now, called Pretty Good Songs [9] and one of the pretty good songs on it is a pretty good Christmas song, called ‘I Was the Only Shepherd’ [10].

SONG

Soundbite: ’I Was The Only Shepherd’ from the Tripod mini album Perfectly Good Songs.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Tripod performing ‘I Was the Only Shepherd’ from the new mini-album Pretty Good Songs [11] and if you want a copy of that album, you can buy it via their website, www.3pod.com.au.

And according to that website, Tripod have a brilliant idea for their next festival show. It’s going to be called Idio Clips and it’ll consist of video clips made by punters. That’s right, you can make a clip to a Tripod song, and if they like it it’ll be uploaded to their website and you’ll win a prize and it’ll also be part of their festival show. It’ll be projected in front of the audience while Tripod provide live accompaniment. For more info, check out the website.

Station ID: Stand! And! Deliver! Oooh, stand and deliver… Stand! And! Deliver! Stand and deliver…

Dom: Now, just a little bit of a warning: if you’re particularly religious, this next item may offend. It’s by stand-up comic Kent Valentine, recorded live at Mic in Hand, at the Friend in Hand Hotel – the venue he co-runs with fellow stand-up comic Sam Bowring.

So if you are very religious but not very open to people making fun of religion, perhaps you might consider not listening to the next bit. Otherwise, take it away Kent.

STAND-UP

Soundbite: Kent Valentine, on why you can’t trust Jesus or the God of the various Middle Eastern religions, recorded live at Mic in Hand at the Friend in Hand Hotel.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Kent Valentine recorded live at Mic in Hand at the Friend in Hand Hotel. This and other material in this episode comes from the final Mic in Hand of the year that took place on Thursday December 14th.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Kent and his partner-in-mirth Sam, for the support they’ve given me both for Stand & Deliver! And for my earlier podcast Radio Ha Ha.

Likewise, I’d like to acknowledge the massive support of Sydney’s original Comedy Store at Moore Park, and Comedy on the Rox at the Roxbury Hotel, Glebe. And also Janet McLeod’s Local Laughs at the Local, St Kilda, Melbourne.

I’d also like to thank everyone who gave me permission to play their stuff on Radio Ha Ha and on Stand & Deliver! over the last year. And to help pad out this tail-end of the episode, I might also get Kent to tell us what Mic in Hand has in store for us when it starts up again in January 2007.

Kent Valentine: There’s going to be a Justin Hamilton double shot, there’s going to be Danny Bhoy, there’s going to be a whole bunch of f***ers who are really funny!

Dom: “F***ers who are really funny?” Fantastic, Kent! They tend to be the best kind of f***ers.

Speaking of which, even though the Comedy Store takes a short break at this time of year, it re-opens January 2 with Tahir Bilgic – yes, Habib from Fat Pizza - headlining for the week.

Following that, expat Aussie comic Brendon Burns returns from the UK to headline for two weeks.

And, if there’s not a lot of comedy for you to see right now, be aware that some shows have already gone on sale for the 21st Melbourne International Comedy Festival, taking place April 4th to April 29th next year: namely, Danny Bhoy and Tim Minchin.

Now’s also the time to register for Raw Comedy, the national competition that unearths new comedic talent, run by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in collaboration with Triple J. For details go to www.comedyfestival.com.au/raw. There’ll be more details in future episodes of Stand & Deliver!

Meanwhile, Comedy on the Rox at the Roxbury Hotel in Glebe, will again be hosting their ‘Quest for the Best’ comedy competition. The first heat takes place on February 14th. That’s right, Valentine’s Day. Make it a date to remember.

There are of course other comedy festivals taking place next year, tickets for which have already gone on sale. For instance, there’s Sydney’s Cracker Comedy Festival, taking place from 7th March to 1st April. There will be heaps of stuff featured in future episodes of Stand & Deliver! but for now, check out www.cracker.com.

Adelaide Fringe takes place from March 8th to March 31st, and Sydney’s Big Laugh Festival takes place from March 22nd to April 1st in Parramatta. But the most important comedy festival to be aware of right now is the Hobart Comedy Festival, taking place from January 9th to January 20th. There’ll be more about this in an up-and-coming episode of Stand & Deliver! also.

But now, here’s a bit more Christmas comedy recorded live at Mic in Hand at the Friend in Hand Hotel, courtesy of Dave Jory, another dry, observational comic. Dave took the stage last in a long night of comedy, and he realised that the audience weren’t as receptive as perhaps they might have been an hour earlier, so he truncated his performance accordingly. I’ve edited it even further just to keep it to the Christmas bits. Here he is: Dave Jory!

STAND-UP

Soundbite: Dave Jory, on Christmas, recorded live at Mic in Hand at the Friend in Hand Hotel.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Dave Jory recorded live at Mic in Hand at the Friend in Hand Hotel in Glebe, and you’re listening to Stand & Deliver!

Well, there’s nothing else left in this episode, really. [12]

Bye now!

CLOSING THEME

Soundbite: ‘Theme to No Wucken Forries’

TAG

Soundbite: A bunch of stand-up recorded at the Laugh Garage when it used to be in Sydney’s CBD as opposed to its current location in Parramatta

FOOTNOTES

1. I’m probably most inspired to list my religion as ‘Comedian’ because Frank Zappa claimed his as ‘Musician’ when filling out the admission form for his wife when she went into hospital to give birth to their first born, Dweezil. At least, that’s what he says in his autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book.

2. Robert De Niro’s character in the Martin Scorsese-directed King of Comedy (1983). See the film; the explanation of the reference will be self-evident.

3. Christmas song by Jose Feliciano, whose title (and almost all of the lyrics) translate to ‘Happy Christmas’.

4. Christmas song released as a single by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir in 1972.

5. ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and ‘We Are The World’, respectively.

6. You’d have to be very lucky indeed to find it on www.amazon.com; it is in fact www.amazon.co.uk that is rumoured to still have stock of this rare gem. Try here.

7. It’s probably a bit early to be cannibalising previous episodes – but on the other hand, it’s good to have a break from my relentless monotone.

8. The new topics of ‘television series’ and ‘television special’ are opportunities just as painfully missed now as they were in the first episode.

9. Crap journo, crap fan! The mini-album is in fact called Perfectly Good Songs, not Pretty Good Songs. Don’t hold it against me.

10. This song really should be called ‘The Only Shepherd’. Why? It’d be a subtle piss-take on a song called ‘The Lonely Shepherd’, a mainstay on instrumental albums and the signature tune of a musician called Gheorghe Zamfir, master of the pan pipes. Which would have nice comical resonance, given Yon’s early ‘pan pipes’ routine. Worth mentioning in passing that it is a Gheorghe Zamfir album – Improvisations: Flute De Pan Et Orgue – from whence originates the piece of music made famous as the theme to Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Whatever else you may say in praise of director Peter Weir, his choice of soundtrack music is always inspired and interesting.

11. Perfectly Good Songs.

12. 12 A dirty lie – there’s a bunch of stand-up I found while cleaning up in the early hours of Christmas – and after careful consideration and the consultation of the opinion of a trusted friend, I decided I would bung it on the end of the episode…

Episode 2: Kitty Flanagan, Adam Hills, Tim Minchin and a bit of Shaun Micallef

PREAMBLE

I remember seeing Kitty Flanagan at the Harold Park Hotel in the inner city Sydney suburb of Glebe nearly a decade ago, when Stand & Deliver! was a photocopied zine whose copies barely outnumbered issues (Richard Neville speaks of being able to afford to travel back to England after selling issues of Oz along the Rue St Germaine; I occasionally had busfair home to North Manly after selling issues at the Harold Park Hotel!)

Kitty was back on the stand-up circuit after having been a castmember of Full Frontal, the sketch comedy show into which Fast Forward evolved after some cast changes. Then, as now, Kitty was hilarious on stage, and down-to-earth and approachable off, and so the opportunity to feature her as a ‘co-host’ was a pleasure, so much so that it turned into quite a yack-fest; there probably should be one more bit of comedy somewhere in the last fifteen minutes. But Kitty, her work and her attitude to it are all entertaining enough – and besides, you should be going out and seeing live comedy, rather than merely downloading it and enjoying it in the confines of your own headphones.

In addition to Kitty Flanagan, there are just too many quality Aussie comics who have decide to expatriate themselves to the UK, many of whom we don’t see enough of back home. At least Hillsy and Tim Minchin return often enough to make their inclusion in this episode a popular choice, as well as an easy one.

Download the MP3 file of this episode.



Subscribe to the enhanced podcast of this show using iTunes

OPENING THEME [1]

Announcer: And now for something somewhat derivative.

Soundbite: The ‘Theme to Radio Ha Ha’ plays ever-so-briefly before the stylus of the record is brought across the vinyl, bringing it to an abrupt end in time for:

Announcer: Stand and deliver!

Song: ‘Theme to No Wucken Forries’ (edited version)

INTRODUCTION

Dom: Hello and welcome to what will be Episode 2 of Stand & Deliver! I consider this ‘The Expat Aussie Comics in London who Come Home for Christmas Episode’, because my co-host is Kitty Flanagan who is back in Sydney for a short time, at the end of year, back from her London existance.

Kitty Flanagan: Yes, I’m home for the summer.

Dom: How are you, Kitty?

Kitty Flanagan: I’m very well, thank you, Dom

Dom: Are you happy to be home for the summer?

Kitty Flanagan: I love it. I’m in love with manly at the moment. I’m living with my parents and I'm having the best time. It’s quite odd. It’s like being eighteen again, except I like my parents this time round. It’s great. I just stay at home and hang around with them. Eat dinner, they let me borrow the car, it’s terrific. I'm such a dag. It’s great. And I can’t get home early enough. I love getting home and hanging out with them, going, ‘let’s have another glass of wine,’ got good food… it’s unreal. Hang out with you’re parents more. That’s my message to the kids.

Dom: Well, we’ll talk about…

Kitty Flanagan: Your parents are good peeps! C’mon!

Look at me speaking the language of the kids.

Dom: We will talk about parents and kids in this episode, as we listen to some of your comedy, Kitty, but…

Kitty Flanagan:Yes.

Dom: We’re also going to hear from Tim Minchin, who is also an expat Aussie currently in the UK, but first, another expat Aussie comic in London who is back for the summer is Adam Hills.

Kitty Flanagan:Oh, Adam Hills? Who’s ever heard of him?!

I’m kidding! He’s so massive.

Dom: Here’s a bit of Adam Hills from his Live in the Suburbs DVD that’s out now through Roadshow.

LIVE STAND-UP

Soundbite: Adam Hills performs a routine dealing with the way we stereotypically sum up the speech patterns of people of other cultures; taken from his DVD Live in the Suburbs as released by ABC/Roadshow.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver! [2]

Dom: That was Adam Hills from his DVD Adam Hills Live in the Suburbs, and he’s in one of the outer suburbs of Melbourne. [3] And that DVD is available now through Roadshow. Adam Hills is one of several favourite expat comics in London who come back for the summer.

INTERVIEW

Dom: Another favourite is Kitty Flanagan, who is sitting opposite me.

Kitty…

Kitty Flanagan: Yes.

Dom: … Welcome once again.

Kitty Flanagan: Thank you.

Dom: How is it when you come back? Do you go straight into gigs? Or do you need to ‘acclimatise’?

Kitty Flanagan: No, I love it. I love coming home because I’m ‘flavour of the month’ on so many levels. All my friends like seeing me, I get all the good gigs, I get a few extra bits and pieces, and then, just as everyone’s getting sick of me, I leave again. So it’s just the perfect crime to come home for one or two months a year, everyone loves you, and then you get out before everyone hates you again. Before they remember, “Oh yeah, I don’t really like her that much!” So it’s great. I love it!

Dom: So that’s your little scheme!

Kitty Flanagan: Yep.

Dom: That’s how it works!

Look, I saw you the other night at the Comedy Store.

Kitty Flanagan: I had a great week at the Comedy Store. As in, ‘I really enjoyed it’, not, ‘I was great’. Rather than sitting here trying to talk myself up, sitting here going, “Yeah, I was fantastic at the Comedy Store! Thank you!”

Dom: That’ll be my job. “Kitty was fantastic at the Comedy Store!”

Now, one of the bits that you did pretty early in your set on the night I was there was about the Sydney Tunnel. Not the Cross City Tunnel, the original Harbour Tunnel.

Kitty Flanagan: Well it wouldn’t be the Cross City Tunnel, because no one uses the Cross City Tunnel; that’s just sitting there empty.

Dom: I assume you can adapt material like ‘The Tunnel’ to where ever you are in the world that has a tunnel, which has got to be everywhere, these days.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah, you can, to a point, but ordinarily I wouldn’t. I did that bit purely because it happened to me on the way over. I’d completely forgotten about it. I mean, obviously, everybody’s got ‘bits’, but I had actually forgotten that bit because I never actually do it in the UK because it’s quite specific to Sydney, but I was in the tunnel and it actually happened again and I went, “oh, that’s right, this happens in the tunnel…”. I’m now leading into my own bit to tell you “what happened in the tunnel”.

Dom: Let’s bring on the bit.

This is Kitty Flanagan recorded live at Sydney’s Original Comedy Store.

Soundbite: Kitty Flanagan performs her bit about the Sydney Harbour Tunnel, as recorded live at the Comedy Store.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: You’re listening to Stand & Deliver! and that was Kitty Flanagan, recorded live at Sydney’s Original Comedy Store. And Kitty Flanagan’s appearing live opposite me as we record this episode of Stand & Deliver.

Kitty Flanagan: I am. I’m so live.

Dom: You are so live!

Kitty, I’m going to do something contentious.

Kitty Flanagan: Okay.

Dom: Are you ready?

“I don’t like women comics apart from Kitty Flanagan and Sarah Kendall and Fiona O’Loughlin ’cause they’re not really funny!”

Kitty Flanagan: Well that’s not contentious because at least you put me in there. It would have been rude if you’d said, “I don’t like women comics except Sarah Kendall and Fiona O’Louglin”. That would have been contentious with me being here live in the studio. I woud have said, “well that’s just plain rude, Dom, to not include me, even out of politeness.”

Dom: I am speaking the truth – people have said that to me. I don’t agree with it…

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah, I think people say it all the time. Not with the, “… except for …”, but I get that a lot after gigs. People come up to me, and they’re saying it as a compliment, but it is a very ‘back-handed’ compliment, to the point of being a slap in the face and then a compliment. They do always say, “Aah, you know, I saw you walk out and I just went, ‘Oh no, a woman!’ But you were funny.” And you just go, “Oh…”. Okay, well that’s nice, they’re telling me that I’m funny, but they’re also saying that, yeah, women comics do have a harder time of it because you come on with that preconception of, “Oh, it’s going to be rubbish; it’s a woman!” So you have to work hard in that opening five minutes to convince them that you’re not rubbish.

Soundbite: Kitty Flanagan performs her opening gambit – addressing the unspoken fears of a typical comedy-going audience regarding their common reaction to women comics, as recorded live at the Comedy Store.

Dom: So does the opinion that you just shouldn’t be as funny as you are – does that just come from people who don’t see enough comedy and don’t know any better?

Kitty Flanagan: I think people are always very passionate about comedy anyway. Whether it’s a sitcom or whether it’s a film, people have such strong opinions when it comes to comedy. They’ll always say, “That’s not funny!” Whereas, if you’re watching a drama or a romance, people don’t say, “That’s not dramatic!” or “That’s not romantic!” When it’s comedy, everybody’s got the opinion. Everyone knows what they think is funny and what isn’t and, in general, I think people have this presumption that women aren’t going to be funny. It can work to your advantage, because then you surprise them, and you pleasantly surprise them…

The other thing is, people don’t remember. If they see a woman comic – I think this is the most important bit: – if they see a woman comic and she’s not funny, they immediately go, “Tchoh! I knew it! Women aren’t funny!” Whereas they will sit through a dozen men not being funny and not at any point will they think, “oh, mean aren’t funny”. That never crosses their mind. But if they see one unfunny woman, it all of a sudden becomes, “Oh! Women aren’t funny!” and they get so, “Tsk! I told you women weren’t funny!”

Dom: I still think that comes down to, if you see enough comedy, you don’t think that way when you see one bad comic.

Kitty Flanagan: Well the other thing is, there’s not as many of us doing it. It is down to numbers as well. I don’t know if these statistics are right, so obviously, I’m pulling them out of the filing cabinet in my arse, but say for example, Dom, there are a hundred comics. Of those hundred comics, only ten will be women.

Sorry, this probably isn’t good radio because I need some charts.

Ten are women; there’ll be ninety men. Now if ten percent of comics are funny, that means that one out of the ten women will be funny, however you’ve got ninety male comics, and ten percent of that is nine. So for every one funny female you’ve got nine funny men.

Dom: And so people will naturally assume, because they see a lot more funny men, that women [are not as funny].

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah. I think so. Or, basically, we should just it back in my arse, where those statistics belong. I think that might be a better place for that.

Dom: I think the final thing is, people ought to see more comedy and get a broader view of things.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah. And maybe just sit there with an open mind when a woman comes on, and go, “Aaah, well this could be funny!” instead of going, “Tsoh! It’s a woman!” which is what most people do.

Soundbite: Kitty Flanagan talks about her UK success as proven by her ownership of stuff she bought herself as opposed to affording on welfare as a single mum, as recorded live at the Comedy Store.

Dom: You talk a lot about children at the moment.

Kitty Flanagan: I don’t know that I do. If you watched me do a forty minute set, there’d be maybe – I don’t know – five to seven minutes on kids.

Dom: You’re right. And that statistic isn’t a lot.

Kitty Flanagan: No, it’s not really. That’s not a massive bit. I probably talk more about travelling than I do about kids. That would be a larger part because that’s what I do. I don’t want people to get the idea that I get up there and bang on about kids, because, for a start, I don’t have any so I’m hardly a great authority on children.

Dom: I think that’s what makes the bit particularly funny.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah. So when you say I’m talking about children, it’s not like I’m up there talking about my own children. I’m merely talking about those really irritating women that bring their kids into a café where I’m trying to enjoy a coffee. “Get out of my café, ladies! You’ve got the joy of children, let me me have the joy of coffee in peace, please.”

Dom: Let’s listen to a bit, because you also talk about teen mums, which, again…

Kitty Flanagan: Teen mums rock! I’m all for them.

Dom: Again, for someone who’s not a teen mum, you’re an awefully good authority from a comedic point of view.

Soundbite: Kitty Flanagan on motherhood as a young woman’s pass time, as recorded live at the Comedy Store.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: Kitty Flanagan, again, recorded live at the Comedy Store, talking about teen mums.

Kitty, where do you get your information about teen mums? What inspires that bit of comedy?

Kitty Flanagan: Ummmmm… Going to the Central Coast and doing gigs at Mingara, maybe…

Dom: Can I just slip in a quick plug for your your website, there is a postcard from Mingara.

Kitty Flanagan: There is a postcard from Mingara, and I promise to anyone who looks at my website, if you do go there, I am going to start updating it, because I recently got this thing where you can see if people look at it, and it turns out that people actually do look at my website, whereas, I didn’t think they did, so I never bothered updating it. But now that I know there are people looking at it, I am going to address the fact that the same postcard from Mingara has been on there for over a year. Sorry about that.

Dom: www.kittyflanagan.com.

Kitty Flanagan: That’s it.

Dom: Now Kitty, on top of the…

Kitty Flanagan: Oh, can I tell you something really funny about the postcard from Mingara?

Dom: Please.

Kitty Flanagan: Now, with this new thing that I’ve got where you can look at stats and see who’s been looking at your website, you can also see what people googled to get your website up, and somebody – get this! – somebody was googling “nude teenagers” and up came my website because, in the postcard from Mingara, there is a reference about nude teenagers copulating in the sea. I’m just imagining this poor man’s disappointment: he’s got his pants off, he’s googling ‘nude teenagers’, he gets ‘Kitty Flanagan Gallery – nude teenagers copulating in the sea’, he thinks he’s going to be hittin’ on the jackpot of all these nude kids in the sea, and up comes my face going, “Hi! I’m doing gigs at all these venues and I’ve got my clothes on, and I’m thirty-eight; I’m not a teenager!” That man must have been so disappointed.

I know you’re out there, you pervert. Get off my website. And put your pants on!

Dom: In addition to… I’m sorry, I’m just going to laugh at that a bit longer…

Soundbite: ‘From Beginning To End’, by Psychedelic Spew.

Dom: Now in addition to your Central Coast experience, you’ve also got some insights about the mid-30s mothers.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah, or, basically, all my friends.

Dom: Will they still be your friends when they listen to this?

Kitty Flanagan: Oh, probably not, but it doesn’t matter. I don’t want to be their friend anyway, now that they’ve got noisy kids screaming in my ear.

It’s not true. I love kids. My sister has three of them, and I adore them. I’m going to babysit them after this.

Soundbite: Kitty Flanagan on mature mums, recorded live at the Comedy Store.

Dom: Now Kitty, I’d just like to interrupt with a kind of an ad…

Kitty Flanagan: Yes

Dom: Registration has opened for Raw Comedy, a national competition that’s run by the Comedy Festival in conjunction with Triple J, that unearths new comedy. Young comics… or up-and-coming comics – ‘young’ is the wrong word; they can be of all ages! But they’re fresh comics…

Kitty Flanagan: Yes.

Dom: Now, you never came through with a Raw Comedy, did you.

Kitty Flanagan: What are you saying? I wasn’t enough?

No, I’m just old. There was no competition – no Raw Comedy – when I started. There used to be a fantastic venue in Sydney that you would remember called the Harold Park Hotel.

Dom: I remember it well.

Kitty Flanagan: I don’t know how people start anymore without the benefit of the Harold Park Hotel, which was on a Monday night, and you could get up and do your open mic stuff there. I think the Friend in Hand has probably taken that role. And it seems to be working, because this is the first trip that I’ve had back – I come back every year, and this is the first time I’ve come back – and seen so many good, really promising, new comics, doing the most original and unique material. It’s fantastic. Because it’s been a while: there have been so many young guys just standing up, telling us how they do their girl from behind, or how they love to wank, or blah, blah, blah… all the same old, same old, and this time back there have been so many good new comics, it’s fantastic. Especially coming out of Sydney, which is really good.

Dom: Okay, so back to your early days: Harold Park…

Kitty Flanagan: Speaking of, yes, wanking and taking your girlfriend from behind, back to my early material, yes, I did a lot of that.

Dom: Maybe he was just closing the filing cabinet, Kitty.

Sorry, that was uncalled for.

Kitty Flanagan: I’ve gone all shy!

My early days: yes, I started at the Harold Park. There was actually a competition the first night I started. I didn’t know that when I signed up to do it. I tried to bail, and said, “this is my time and I don’t want to do it,” and they said, “please, please come down, because we don’t ever get any women,” so I went down. And, yeah, I was lucky. It went all right. Because had it not gone well, I probably would never have done it again.

I think that’s the difference with women as well, we take it a lot more personally and we get out of it rather than stick with it and persevere. I think men are much better at persevering. You can see a man who’s unfunny for two years, and then all of a sudden, it clicks over and he’s funny, and he’s stuck with it, and he’s really good. Whereas I think women tend to go, “I’m so humiliated, I’m never doing this again.” We take things so personally.

Dom: That is a pity that that’s the case.

Kitty Flanagan: We don’t have as thick a skin as a lot of men.

Dom: In that case, I’m glad you were really good from day one.

Kitty Flanagan: I wasn’t ‘really good’, I just got lucky. And also, I went over to my sister’s house because I wasn’t going to tell anyone that I was doing it, and I thought, “I’d better just run this material by my sister.” So I performed it to my sister, in the living room, just her. And let me tell you, that is harder than actually doing it in front of an audience. Performing what you think is stand-up, when you’ve never done it before, to one person who just sits there going, “ummmmm… mm-hmm… mm-hmm…” She wasn’t exactly pissing her pants, let me tell you. So that was good, in a way, because I just kept adding bits until she finally laughed. What I’d actually written never made it to the stage at the Harold Park.

Dom: You must have had some spark of brilliance, because, from memory, you made it to television pretty quickly, too.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah, but then again, that’s the advantage of being a woman. I come on stage and people go, “Tsoh, it’s going to be a woman!” but then there’s the other advantage: there’s not as many of us, so you do get picked up a lot faster. There’s not as many of us competing for the jobs… It can be a good thing and a bad thing. That was the bad thing for me, because I only really had a ten minute act and I got to be on television and I wasn’t able to take advantage of being on television by going to do a live tour because who wants to tour Australia with, “Woo! Who wants to come and see my ten minutes? It’s brilliant! It’s me off the telly, and I’ve got ten minutes of GOLD stand-up!” So, yeah. That was the problem. I did two years of television and then went back to stand-up and went, “Oh… I’ve only got a ten-minute act. I’d better start working on that.”

Dom: Of course, in addition to the Full Frontal stuff you did, Kitty, you were also on Shaun Micallef’s Program, or Pogram, or Programme with… [two m’s and an e].

Kitty Flanagan: Yes. Shaun Micallef, one of my faaaavourite performers. He should be back on television here. Start a petition. He’s the funniest man on television. Well, he’s not on television anymore. But he should be!

Soundbite: Sketch from The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) featuring Kitty Flanagan as a psychic called ‘Clair’, from the Granada DVD The Micallef P(r)ogram(me) Series Un distributed by Shock.

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Kitty Flanagan on The Shaun Micallef P(r)ogram(me) that’s available now, released by Granada in Australia and distributed by Shock.

I’ve spoken to you just after things have been released on DVD, and you’ve kind of been, “Oh, I was just in a shop and I was on the screen, and I don’t know if I felt good about that”. How do you feel now? Can you look at the old stuff?

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah, but the problem I have now, looking at the old stuff, is that I want another chance to do it again. Especially with Full Frontal. It was such a great time… When I was doing it, I was so new, and so raw, and I was always so nervous because I’d never done anything like that before. Everyone else was very experienced. I was always worried that I was gonna be busted and caught out and someone was going to point the finger and go, “Do you know what? I don’t think she knows what she’s doing!” So I was always really nervous. Whereas, now, I’ve got a lot more experience and a lot more confidence. I would love to go and do it again, and I would probably be horrendous because I would just over-act and I’d be way too confident. I would probably really annoy everyone. But I would like the opportunity to do that sort of thing again with the benefit of a bit more experience.

Dom: I would argue that you have been given that opportunity, and it’s called The Sketch Show.

Kitty Flanagan: Yes, that’s very true, and I certainly did enjoy that, but I simply mean, all those people on Full Frontal were such wonderful people to work with, and they all taught me so much – Glenn Butcher, Shaun Micallef – all those people – Eric Bana, obviously – and I would just love the opportunity to work with all those people and enjoy working with them. Because, if you forget to enjoy the experience… That’s what I’ve noticed about myself; I tend to do these things and I’m so uptight about mucking it up that I don’t actually enjoy the experience. But when I got to The Sketch Show, yes, I knew what I was doing, and I wrote a lot more of my material, which was great, but the way that show was made, it wasn’t as fun a way to work as Full Frontal was. Full Frontal was a very fun show. The people were very fun. Whereas The Sketch Show was far more business-like and is about the individuals, and not the team effort.

Dom: Okay. So just for people who aren’t as familiar, who will be soon, because Full Frontal has been issued on DVDom: and The Micallef… stuff that you were in has been issued on DVD…

Kitty Flanagan: Yes.

Dom: … I don’t think we’ve got the second season of The Sketch Show, which is a British show, in this country…

Kitty Flanagan: No, it doesn’t exist on DVD, I don’t think…

Dom: … Which is a pity, because the best of the first season has been issued here…

Kitty Flanagan: Right.

Dom: … and that’s just before you were on the show.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah. I was in… The first season of The Sketch Show starred Ronnie Ancona, who’s an English comic and a very good impressionist, and that series won a BAFTA, which is like an English Logie, and then I joined the second series when she left, and that series got axed! So, I’m not sure what changed, or why there was such a massive difference, but it has become quite the thing to point the finger at me and say that perhaps I was the reason.

Dom: There was no need for you to be so honest there, Kitty, and I don’t believe it for a minute, and the reason I don’t believe it is because the producers of The Sketch Show went on to produce your award winning short film…

Kitty Flanagan: They did.

Dom: … called Dating Ray Fenwick which you don’t seem to appear in. You wrote and directed it…

Kitty Flanagan: I wrote and directed it, and I also gave myself a cameo in it, but then, typical me, didn’t like my own performance so I cut myself out of my own short film.

Dom: Will you be in the director’s cut?

Kitty Flanagan: Well that’s the thing… it is already the director’s cut, and I didn’t make it to my own director’s cut. I’ll be in the extras when I release the extras of the twelve-minute short film.

Dom: I can’t wait to see you bitching about the director who cut your one and only seen!

Now we haven’t seen Dating Ray Fenwick in this country.

Kitty Flanagan: I know. But that’s fine, you know. I don’t mind, because it’s appeared in film festivals around the world. It’s debut screening was in London, which was really exciting. That’s a really big film festival so that was absolutely thrilling to get it on there. It also was on in New York, at the NYC Shorts Festival, where it won a couple of awards, and it’s been on in Canada at a few festivals. It’s quite popular in Canada. Quite a few festivals have picked it up there. It’s been on in LA…

But I’ve submitted it to all the festivals here in Australia and I don’t mind that they rejected it, that’s fine, because I have been rejected by film festivals around the world; that’s just the nature of the business. But do you know what? Australian film festivals don’t even e-mail you back to say, “I’m sorry, we had a lot of entries, and you haven’t been accepted”. Not one of them sends you a rejection letter.

I’ve got piles of rejection letters from much bigger festivals than the Australian ones, and they at least have the courtesy to write to you and go, “Oh, sorry, we enjoyed your film…” – what a lie, they probably didn’t watch it but at least they lie to you and make it pleasant; they go – “sorry, we enjoyed your film, but we’ve got a lot of entries and it didn’t quite fit…” In Australia, nothing! You don’t hear anything. I think they’re rude.

Dom: They are rude.

Kitty Flanagan: So I’m having my own screening.

Dom: When are you screening it?!

Kitty Flanagan: I might reject myself. I might write back to myself and go, “I’m sorry, you’re rejected”.

I’m screening it at my show at the Vanguard in Newtown on 19th December. The one and only Australian screening.

Dom: Is this the ‘Festival of You’?

Kitty Flanagan: It’s ‘A Festival of Me’, Dom, so obviously, if you’re not a big fan of me, it’s not a show that you’re going to enjoy.

Dom: What makes it a ‘festival’?

Kitty Flanagan: Well, it’s pretty much everything I like doing. This is going to be my first one-woman show ever in Sydney. I’ve done a one-woman show in Edinburgh, I’ve done a one-woman show in Melbourne; I didn’t particularly like either of them, and this show – I like all the stuff that’s going in it. I like my short film, I like the stand-up I’ll be doing. And I also like the fact that my support act, in my one-woman show – I’m going to have two women in my one-woman show – my support act will be my sister, who will be doing a few numbers. My sister Penny Flanagan, who was a singer-songwriter; she still is. But she had a bit of success in the 90s, wouldn’t you say…

Dom: I would!

Kitty Flanagan: … in a band called Club Hoy.

Dom: I remember when she was in Club Hoy and I remember when she went solo.

Kitty Flanagan: Well yeah, she’s going to do a few numbers and we’re going to do a big number together at the end which will be entertaining on so many levels, because I’ll be singing.

Dom: I must say, I can’t remember hearing you sing.

Kitty Flanagan: That’s because I haven’t. Ever. Although I did the other night. My sister and I tried out my musical finale at the Comedy Store the other night. We went down and did an impromptu five minutes, so I sang for the first time on stage the other night.

Dom: How’d it go?

Kitty Flanagan: It was terrifying. I had a lot more wine than I would usually have before I appear on stage, but it was great fun. I was so much fun being on stage with someone, and especially with my sister, cos she’s fun, and she’s funny.

Dom: You know what, Kitty? This is the perfect cue to play that song!

Kitty Flanagan: I know, but I don’t have a copy of it because we’ve only played it once.

Dom: So I’m not going to play it. Instead…

Kitty Flanagan: I’m sorry about that. It did feel like a build up: “And now, throw to the song, Dom. Oh, sorry, I haven’t got one.”

Dom: That’s okay, I have Plan B.

Kitty Flanagan: Good.

Dom: I have Tim Minchin.

Kitty Flanagan: Yes. Tim Minchin. A professional funny song man. That’s a much better idea. Play him. Don’t play my amateur efforts that don’t exist on recording anywhere. That is such a much better idea.

Dom: Now I’m going to do something a bit dodgy here. When he appeared on Spicks and Specks, he appeared a song called ‘The Adam Hillsong’. It’s all over the internet…

Kitty Flanagan: Who is Adam Hills? You keep mentioning him. I’ve never heard of the man…

Dom: Like Tim Minchin currently and like you quite often, he’s another expat Aussie comic who spends a lot of time in the UK… Tim Minchin wrote a love song for Adam Hills and performed it on the show. It’s all over the internet. You can find the clip of it on Tim Minchin’s webpage, timminchin.com. Here it is.

Soundbite: ‘The Adam Hillsong’ as performed by Tim Minchin on Spicks & Specks, and found on YouTube and www.timminchin.com

Station ID: Stand… stand… stand and deliver!

Dom: That was Tim Minchin performing ‘The Adam Hillsong’ which you can see the clip of on www.timminchin.com…

Kitty Flanagan: You can also go to another fabulous site called whoisadamhills?neverheardofhim.com… That’s not true. We all know he’s massive…

Dom: And if you’re a massive fan of Spicks & Specks – a show which, Kitty Flanagan, you have been on…

Kitty Flanagan: I have, I got to be on it with Rich Hall, which was such a delight… he’s the funniest man in the world.

Dom: Excellent…

Kitty Flanagan: I also got to be on it with Angry Anderson, who isn’t the funniest man in the world, can I say…

Dom: You can say that.

Kitty Flanagan: He’s quite a creepy man.

Dom: There is a Christmas Special taking place with no Rich Hall, no Kitty Flanagan, no Angry Anderson…

Kitty Flanagan: That’s a good thing! The ‘Angry Anderson’, not the ‘Rich Hall’ thing.

Dom: Or the ‘Kitty Flanagan’. Being broadcast on Sunday 17th, and guests include Ross Noble, Frank Woodley, Deborah Byrne, and Dame Edna Everage!

Kitty Flanagan: Oh, well they’ve amped that up a bit and pulled out the celebs, haven’t they. That’s good news.

Dom: That is good news.

CLOSING

Dom: Kitty.

Kitty Flanagan: Yes.

Dom: We’ve nearly come to an end.

Kitty Flanagan: Have we? All right.

Dom: So I think I’d just better say again, the ‘Festival of You’…

Kitty Flanagan: ‘Kitty Flanagan: A Festival of Me’ is on December 19th at the Vanguard, which I’ve discovered is a lovely venue in Newtown, so I’ve very much looking forward to playing that… um… I’ll just plug it myself!

It’s going to have me; there’s going to be a film; there’s going to be me on the egg shaker, keeping rhythm, which is going to be so entertaining. Oh, and there’ll be some stand-up comedy as well, don’t forget that bit. That’s probably going to be the bulk of the show. There’s some highly amusing stand-up comedy from me.

Dom: Am I allowed to plug some other shows that you’re doing or would you prefer that I didn’t?

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah. I don’t think that I’m doing any, though, am I?

Dom: Well you’re going to be in Melbourne from 13th to 16th of December at the Crown Casino supporting Jason Alexander. Yes, that’s true. I’m doing a support for Jason Alexander. There’s a few of us on, actually. Akmal as well, and a couple of other people. Jason does a few numbers because he’s quite a broadway musical star. He’ll also do a Q&A about Seinfeld which will no doubt now be about, “Er, was Michael Richards a racist when you worked with him?” So that’s going to be a bit tedious I think, poor Jason Alexander having to answer questions about Michael Richards the whole time. But it should be a really fun show. Rebecca De Unamuno is going to be on, doing some improv as well…

Dom: Oh wow! And Tom Gleeson’s on, as well.

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah, and Tom Gleeson. So it’s a really big show.

Dom: Geez, I wish I could get to Melbourne!

Kitty?

Kitty Flanagan: Yes?

Dom: It’s been a pleasure!

Kitty Flanagan: Thank you so much.

Dom: Thank you.

CLOSING THEME

TAG

Kitty Flanagan: How outrageous: ‘nude teenagers’, he was googling. Isn’t that against the law? He didn’t write ‘nude teenagers over sixteen’. He didn’t do anything legal like that.

Dom: You’re right, it is against the law!

Kitty Flanagan: Yeah. It’s against the law.

Dom: I’ll make sure I word it better when I google.

FOOTNOTES

1. For a breakdown of the elements of the Stand & Deliver! theme, read the first bunch of footnotes from Episode 1.

2. This Station ID was devised and recorded by gentleman country doctor and composer predominantly of songs of faith, Joe Romeo.

3. Recorded live at the Cardenia Cultural Centre, Packenham. A great DVD it is too.

Episode 1: Yon from Tripod

PREAMBLE

I was heading down to Melbourne for Lano & Woodley’s last ever performance ever, and took the opportunity to organise a couple of interviews to make it more of a ‘business’ trip rather than just an indulgent weekend away. I was grateful to catch up with Yon, from Tripod, as there was much to discuss seeing as Tripod were about to release a live mini-album before going on tour. Or so I thought. It turns out there was about to be a live album, a studio mini-album and then a brief Christmas tour. Yon met me in a cool café after a Tripod ‘rehearsal’ (more of a barbecue, according to Yon) where we spent a good couple of hours yacking, some of it, recorded for posterity. It was a good, fun chat.

Somewhere along the way, my old podcast Radio Ha Ha came to an end. What a great way to baptise a new podcast series! And the beauty is, had this interview been included in Radio Ha Ha it would have been cut to at least half its size – I get to be as self-indulgent as I like, making for a great opportunity to chat in-depth about where Tripod is at right now, and illustrate it with lots of bits of songs.

Download the MP3 file of this episode.

Subscribe to the enhanced podcast of this show using iTunes

OPENING THEME

Announcer: And now for something somewhat derivative. [1]

Soundbite: The ‘Theme to Radio Ha Ha’ [2] plays ever-so-briefly before the stylus of the record is brought across the vinyl, bringing it to an abrupt end in time for:

Announcer: Stand and deliver! [3]

Song: ‘Theme to No Wucken Forries’ (edited version) [4]

INTRODUCTION

Dom: Hello and welcome to a new comedy podcast called Stand & Deliver! I’m Dom Romeo:  a kind of comedy nerd. But that’s all right.

To kick off this first episode, I’m handing it over almost entirely to Tripod. But first, here’s a word from our sponsors.

AD BREAK

Advertisement: silence

Dom: Well, of course, there are no sponsors yet. But that empy air could have been an advertisement for your product; your show; your gig; your CD; your book; your service. If you want to advertise on the fastest growing comedy podcast – true for at least this first episode [5] – get in touch. Here's the e-mail address: [email protected].

Interlude: ‘From Beginning to End’ by Psychedelic Spew. [6]

INTERVIEW

Dom: Anyone who’s been paying attention to comedy lately has to be aware that there’s been a bit of a rise in musical comedy and cabaret over the last few years – all of which appears almost irrelevant to a band like Tripod, who have been doing great musical comedy just about forever now. Their show this year, Tripod Are Self-Saucing, was easily their best yet.

I caught up with Tripod vocalist Yon at a cafe in Balaclava, Melbourne (I need to tell you this so that you can tolerate the sound of traffic in the background, throughout); we didcussed Tripod’s new CDs - the live album Songs From Self-Saucing plus a new studio mini-album – all on the eve of their Christmas tour, Hey, We Don't Make The Yules!

But before the interview, here’s a bit of a live rendition of Gonna Make You Happy Tonight one of the Songs From Self-Saucing.

Soundbite: ‘Gonna Make You Happy Tonight’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Dom: Yon, Tripod’s about to embark on their Christmas tour, entitled ‘Hey, We Don't Make The Yules!’ Tell me, what goes on? How do you go about planning a Christmas tour?

Yon: Well, we usually just start by deciding to do one at all. We usually just do one in Melbourne, actually. A few years ago we did a bit of a regional one, which was okay, but this is the first time I think we’ve done... I mean, it’s Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, so it’s a ‘tour’. You can call it a ‘tour’. And we’re calling it a ‘tour’. But it’s only just a tour. What defines ‘tour’? I’m not sure. How many gigs? How many places? I don’t know.

Dom: Well, you’re going to the trouble of travelling interstate; I think it’s a tour. My question to you though is, is the reason why it’s worth taking a Christmas show beyond just Melbourne because this has been a great year for you? I mean, Tripod Are Self-Saucing, this year’s show, was pretty phenomenal.

Yon: Oh, thanks! I reckon it’s ‘cause we’ve built up a Christmas repertoire over the years. We’ve done Christmas shows for probably ten years now, and we write a few Christmas songs a year and then we usually end up with one good one at the end of each year; maybe sometimes a couple. So we’ve got about ten Christmas songs now so it will be fully Christmas content. There’ll be a few other songs – we'll put in a couple of oddities and a couple of other ones we’ve been doing around the place this year as well.

Soundbite: ‘Fabian’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Fegh Maha

Yon: It’s how we approach most of shows, actually; we don’t really sit down with a grand plan, or anything. We just sort of end up clumping a bunch of songs together in the way that a band would. Unless we were doing Lady Robots or something like that, and then we actually have come up with a concept. And a story. And it all has to fit together and shit.

Dom: If there are ten Christmas songs, why isn’t there a Tripod Christmas album?

Yon: Well, it’s something I think about every year... ’cause I’m the one who always thinks about merchandise, for some reason. I reckon we’re not far off one. I actually want to do a TV special. We were talking about it. We did say at some point if our TV show doesn’t get up this year, let’s do a Christmas special because I’m sure that would be easier to pitch than some bloody thing with a narrative to networks. But it hasn’t happened. [7]

I don’t know; I’m happy to just keep writing new ones and we'll boil it down to something really good eventually, when we do something.

Dom: I’m just thinking about the poor fans who, so far, can have ‘I Hate Your Family’ I think it’s called from the Open Slather album, and... what’s the other Christmas album that’s been released? There isn’t one! [8]

Yon: And that wasn’t even a proper Christmas album. That was a bloody... that was rubbish! We basically had a live album that had all non-Christmas songs on it, and then we called it ‘The Christmas Edition’ and we put a studio version of one of the Christmas songs on it. We shouldn't count that. That was shameless - and shamefull - marketing.

Dom: And I can only blame you, now, because you just admitted that you’re in charge of ‘merchandise’ thoughts. So you must have been the one that went, ‘let’s get this album, put a different cover on it, add a new song to it, and re-issue it’.

Yon: I can’t say for sure that it was me, but I would be money that it was me who suggested it. I’m the cynical merchandising arm of Tripod, that’s for sure!

Soundbite: ‘I Hate Your Family (Studio Version)’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Open Slather - Special Christmas Edition

Dom: Now, speaking of merchandise and CDs, I was under the impression that you had a mini-album coming out of live stuff from Tripod Are Self-Saucing; I now find out that you do have a mini-album coming out, as well as the live album of Tripod Are Self-Saucing. I think that’s exciting. I think Tripod Are Self-Saucing was an awesome show. I love the sound of the band now that there are two guitars, which means that Scod can actually concentrate on playing intricate melodies while Gatesy strums a bit more.

Yon: Well, I feature more heavily as the ‘lead singer’, I think it’s fair to say, because the other two play guitar. It’s good that they’re not here because they would shout me down as I said that, but it’s nice to be able to say it and tell people the truth!

Soundbite: ‘Autistic’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Yon: We should have introduced the other guitar ages ago. I mean, Gatesy’s always been good at it. It actually pretty much happened that we only had one guitar for so many years because there was a guy who was in Tripod before Gatesy and he didn’t play the guitar, and we were just sort of stuck in this ‘Scod plays the guitar’ thing, and I think we also thought that comedically and performance-wise, it worked better for Gatesy to have his hands free. But he actually moves around a lot with the guitar anyway so I think it’s a forward step.

Soundbite: ‘Autistic’ (two guitar instrumental excerpt) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Yon: The songs are more re-playable for us, too. I just stand there and enjoy listening to the two guitars some of time, you know.

Dom: So do I. Which is why – I mean, for comic effect it has to happen, but – I always bemoan the fact that during the song ‘Too Many Remotes’, we never get to hear the end of Scod’s fantastic guitar solo because you’re busy doing a sort of ‘mouth fiddle’ solo with the ‘remotes’.

Yon: No, I interrupt his solo. That’s what happens in that bit. Sometimes anything can happen in our gigs, but I don't actually do the ‘mouth solo’ at that point. I do it earlier. [9]

Soundbite: ‘Too Many Remotes’ (excerpt from Scod’s guitar solo, interrupted by Yon and Gatesy’s discussion about remotes) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Dom: I think it’s significant because I remember it, because it’s a great ‘mouth solo’. We hear all of it, in that case, which is even worse that we don’t get to hear Scod's solo.

Yon: Well, it’s a shame that you value his guitar solo over my ‘mouth solo’. I guess people don’t value ‘mouth solos’ in general, do they.

Soundbite: ‘Too Many Remotes’ (excerpt from Yon’s ‘mouth solo’, interrupted by Yon and Gatesy’s discussion about remotes) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Dom: Tell me what the mini-album’s about, if it’s not the live stuff from Tripod Are Self-Saucing.

Well, the mini-album, which is the one that we’re more excited about, is basically seven songs that never went that well at gigs. But we like them. So it’s sort of like this catharctic ‘get it out of your system’ exercise, really. And for anyone who's interested in finding out what those songs would be like, they’re the people who are going to buy it. So we'll probably just sell it at gigs and release it later on for distribution.

It’s sort of ‘us’, but a bit more esoteric. And it was actually really fun to do. We didn’t do the band thing like we did with Middleborough Road; we stripped it all the way back again. It’s just us singing them in a room live. There’s a few little moments of putting extra tracks on, but it’s pretty much just us, singing it live at my parents’ holiday house, with microphones, sitting around us. It’s very informal.

Dom: Does it have a title yet, Yonnie?

Yon: It’s called Perfectly Good Songs.

Dom: Okay. I think it should be called Tripod’s Odds & Sods.

Yon: Oh, sorry about that. Sorry that it’s already gone to print and we can’t change it.

Dom: Of course, come Christmas: new cover, one extra song – new album!

Yon: Yeah, I know! I... I can’t do that again, can I?

Soundbite: ‘Ain’t No Oil In The Congo’ (excerpt from the passionate opening) from Tripod's contribution to the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala from the limited edition DVD Boxed Set Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala Collection

Dom: Now Yonny, I know I'm not the Lone Ranger on this one: I honestly think that Tripod Are Self-Saucing was probably one of the best shows you've done. The music was more spectacular because of the new arrangements, given the two guitars. I think the level of satire in the music was also really good. For example, if I may: ‘Ain’t No Oil In The Congo’, which begins as a passionate political piece that you and Gatesy just throw and turn it into cheap and nasty razzmatazz. It's like, why ruin such an impassioned political stance for the razzmatazz, until you realise hey, that is the political statement, that impassioned politics is being ignored for the sake of commercial razzmatazz.

Yon: I didn’t realise! I never realised we were making that statement. I just thought that we were making the statement and then making it more entertaining to make the statement. That’s much cleverer! From now on, I’m gonna sell it on that level, because I think that’s really cool. That's a good idea. We should have thought of that.

Soundbite: ‘Ain’t No Oil In The Congo’ (excerpt from the cheap and nasty razzmatazz ending) from Tripod’s contribution to the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala from the limited edition DVD Boxed Set Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala Collection

Dom: And of course, that song about King Kong – I don’t know what it’s proper title is; I’m tempted to quote the chorus but I’m going to have to bleep it when I do because it’s called ‘Get to the bleeped Monkey’.

Yon: I think we call it ‘King Kong’. When we right the set list out, we usually put the shortest version, so I think we just put ‘Monkey’ or ‘King Kong’. Although there are a few other ‘monkey’ things that we do so if we right ‘Monkey’ it might confuse us about what song’s coming up. But on the album I think it’s called ‘King Kong’.

Soundbite: ‘King Kong’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing.

Dom: I think, again, it’s a fantastic song; it catches peoples’ thoughts and beliefs so well. As a song, it’s got a bit of everything in it. It’s still got the vintage Tripod nerdery of the whole Star Wars thing happening. What are your thoughts on it? Tell me about the song?

Yon: Well it was my wife’s idea, for a start. She goes, as she often does, “Why don’t you write a song where this happens?” Usually I ignore her, but I put it to the other guys. I think I told them – because they’ve heard all her other ideas, I didn’t say whose idea it was; I just told them the idea and they liked it, and then I told them that it was her idea. ’cause that was the only way to sell it to them. ’Cause if they’d known it was hers, they wouldn’t have touched it.

Dom: Do you get to sleep on the sofa if your wife hears this interview?

Yon: Aah, she knows what they all think of her!

Dom: Do you get to sleep on the sofa if she hears that bit of this interview?

Yon: I sleep on the sofa anyway. We’ve got children; we sleep at opposite ends of the house. Preserving sleep is the order of the day at the moment.

Soundbite: ‘Tall Man’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Dom: Now look, ‘Tall Guy’ [10] is something we’ve featured on the show because it was inspired by Tom Gleeson, who a lot of people know. Do you have anything to add on that? I mean, it’s a beautiful… you make ‘country and western’ sound so beautiful to an audience that probably wouldn’t necessarily go into that sort of thing.

Yon: I think with ‘country and western’ I’m a bit of a late convert. Scod sort of pushes that all the time. He really likes it, although he listens to a lot of different things. For some reason that’s sort of his ‘default’ position when we start writing a song.

Soundbite: ‘Tall Man’ (excerpt from instrumental break) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Yon: I’ve been listening to that Bob Dylan radio show that he does. Have you heard about that? [11]

Dom: Yeah, yeah.

Yon: So many of the songs that he plays are ‘country and western’ and you just realise that it’s a really good starting place for just the form of song writing. I don’t know what it is. Because everything’s stripped back to their most basic – the ideas, the emotions and the tune. And the way you play it. There are no ‘smart arse’ chords. It’s really honest; you can’t hide behind flashiness. I think that’s what’s good about it.

Dom: You say there are no ‘smart arse’ chords, but in ‘Too Many Remotes’ there are some nice little chord movements…

Yon: Oh, but that’s… I would call that ‘country jazz’ or maybe ‘ragtime’ or something. I don’t know if that’s country, that one.

Dom: But your mouth solo sounds to me like it should be a fiddle solo…

Yon: Yeah, but again, it’s definitely ‘jazz-tinged country’. I wouldn’t call it a ‘country’ song. ‘Tall Man’ is very, very country, though. It’s like four chords or something.

Dom: While we’re on ‘Too Many Remotes’, just for a moment, indulge me. That guitar solo with moves into jazz chords… reminds me of a story that I think Scod once told me – I think it was Scod – that he got thrown out of a band for suggesting ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’, which has those sorts of chord moves in it! [12]

Yon: Yeah, he’s… we’re a bit… I don’t know, ‘gay’ is almost the description for some of those… some of that… [13]

Dom: ‘Sophisticated’ would have sufficed!

Yon: Well, you know, another one we do is ‘Let’s Take A Walk’, which is in that – I don’t know – ‘jaunty’ jazz/country sort of style. I think it’s also conducive to comedy; I don’t know why. Or maybe just the kind that we do.

Soundbite: ‘Let’s Take A Walk’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Fegh Maha

Yon: I think the thing we all come together on is those Queen songs from A Night At The Opera. I think there’s a couple that are just fantastic. One is ‘Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon’ and the other is ‘Sea Side Rendezvous’.

Soundbite: ‘Sea Side Rendezvous’ (excerpt) from the ‘Sounds’ section of Tripod’s website [14]

Yon: They’re that sort of 1920s (song, from) before jazz got too wanky. We just love that stuff.

Dom: It’s funny that you should bring that up. You’ve been covering that stuff in shows recently, and for a while there were downloads available of some of those songs. Also, I know – from my earliest ever interview with one of you – that you began busking elaborate Queen songs before Tripod was well known as Tripod. [15]

Yon: We used to like getting really complicated songs like ‘Flash’ – you know that Flash Gordon song? [16] In some ways it’s really simple, but in other ways, no two bits are the same. And I’m a big fan, in an arrangement, of no two bits being the same. You can play the same section – you know, when you get to the chorus the second time – you can play it the same way and it can work – but I guess I do come from the school of thought that you’ve already heard that, so let’s hear something different each time you hear that same tune. I like that sort of ‘fiddly’ stuff. But again, the ‘country’ stuff – I like the really simple thing and I like when no two bits are the same.

Soundbite: ‘Forgive Me Father’ (excerpt) from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Yon: I think you get into formulas and you get into grooves with different songs. Particularly because we did that ‘song in an hour’ thing, it’s really hard not to not have formulas – arrangement formulas – like ‘second verse, aaahs will come in’. You know, shit like that. So it’s good to recognise the different philosophies and try them out rather than have this set method. I’m sure people who know our things well will hear patterns in the way we arrange stuff. You know, you try and do things differently but I think there are things that you don’t even notice, that you just take for granted that you do the same every time.

Dom: Given all of that, I think the last question should be as much of a doozy as I can bring to you on short notice. What’s the one song that should have been a ‘dog’ that should have been taken out the back and shot, but you nursed it back to health and now it’s winning dog shows as a song.

Yon: Ooh, on that goes well that we hated at the start?

Dom: Yeah.

Yon: Um… I think I really hated the idea of ‘Congo’ at the start because comedically, we have about three formulas that we do. One of them is that one of us starts a serious song, the other two f*** it up. Or maybe two of them start a serious song, the other two f*** it up. With ‘Cong’ I thought, ‘it’s just another one of them’. But you know, it’s the way you do it. There are only a few jokes in the world and as long as you do them a different way each time, it’ll feel fresh. But that was one that I didn’t really like at the start. Didn’t really like it musically, didn’t really like it comedically. But I think as a whole piece, it’s a good journey.

Dom: I’ve already told you why that song is just awesome, so…

Yon: Yep, and now I know. Now I know the truth about what the idea behind that song is!

SONG

Soundbite: ‘Suicide Bomber’ from the Tripod album Songs From Self-Saucing

Dom: We finished there with ‘Suicide Bomber’, from the newly released album, Songs From Self-Saucing, which you can buy via Tripod’s website: www.3pod.com.au, or at music stores, or, along with the new mini-album, Perfectly Good Songs, at gigs. Which gigs would they be? Why, the live gigs, on the ‘Hey, We Don’t Make The Yules!’ tour.

On Saturday December 2nd, they’re at the Metro, in Sydney, New South Wales.

On Friday 8th and Saturday 9th December, they’re at Fly By Night in Fremantle, Western Australia.

On Thursday 14th they’re at The Corner, on Friday 15th, at the East Brunswick Club, both in Melbourne, Victoria.

And I guess I should point out that all the music you heard during the interview with Yonnie came from the CDs Songs From Self-Saucing, Fegh Maha and Open Slather – Special Christmas Edition, plus there’s one song from their website and one from the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Gala as filmed by GNW Productions, shown on Channel 10 and released on DVD by ACMEC, in the Best of the Gala Collection limited edition boxed set. All of which could make great Christmas presents for someone.

CLOSING

Dom: Well, that’s all we have time for in this first edition of Stand & Deliver! Get in contact. Or don’t. But keep listening. Because over the next few weeks we’re going to feature interviews with the likes of Kitty Flanagan, Michael Palin, Chris Franklin – lots of people whose surnames consist of two syllables, the second of which ends in ‘n’. But keep listening. Especially if you like Tripod. Oooh, mysterious. Or even if you don’t. Bye now!

CLOSING THEME

Soundbite: ‘Theme to No Wucken Forries’

FOOTNOTES

1. A reference to the introduction to episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus spoken mostly by John Cleese, but sometimes by Eric Idle: “And now for something completely different…” Hence it also being the title of the first Python film – which consisted of sketches from the first two seasons, filmed for the big screen.

2. That is to say, the wow and flutter of bad radio reception is followed by the static and noise of a radio tuner being spun through various stations – sampled from ‘Reception’, from the Paul McCartney & Wings album Back to the Egg – before giving way to ‘Holiday for Strings’ by Spike Jones and his City Slickers, but only for the briefest of moments.

3. Spoken by John Cleese as the highwayman Dennis Moore from the sketch of the same name, a send-up of Robin Hood, that appears on the newly remastered and re-released CD Monty Python’s Previous Record.

4. By Psychedelic Spew, and originally written and recorded as the theme for a sketch comedy show called No Wucken Forries. The first episode contained a recurring sketch that tried to come to grips with the correct spelling and pronunciation of the word ‘forries’.

5. Not true in any way, shape or form. WTF was I thinking?!

6. In fact, the very opening and very closing seconds of ‘Twist & Shout’ by the Beatles; let’s see how long that stays before I’m served with a ‘cease and desist’ notice!

7. Hang on, did he say ‘Tripod television show’? Jesus H.M.A.S. Christ, Dom, talk about your ‘missed opportunity’! There was your next question right there… fool!

8. What I meant to say was, “apart from ‘I Hate Your Family’, what other Christmas song has been released?” And the answer is, ‘Fabian’, on Fegh Maha, as I discovered when I was looking for music to mix into the interview. Still, this bit worked. As to the ‘Christmas album’ Open Slather – Special Christmas Edition, I got to interview Yon about that all those years ago. See for yourself. (OMG – not quite a decade ago now!)

9. Of course it’s just as Yon says; despite having seen the show three times – well, okay twice, and the songs from it performed as a set at the Comedy Store – I could never quite remember the technical construction of ‘Too Many Remotes’ – or ‘Tall Man’, for that matter. But now I’ve got the CD Songs From Self-Saucing to set me straight. And I played the relevant bits in the interview to illustrate Yon’s points!

10. I meant ‘Tall Man’, of course, and ‘the show’ refers to Radio Ha Ha, for which this interview was orginally recorded. Tripod and Tom Gleeson appear in Episode 31 of Radio Ha Ha, with an exclusive preliminary mix of a live version of ‘Tall Man’?

11. Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host Bob Dylan is the name of the show.

12. It was indeed Scod who shared this anecdote and it was during this interview featuring Yon, Scod and Gatesy, conducted for ABCNewsRadio a couple of years ago now. In many ways, this Yon interview is that one’s companion piece, since we get to go a little in-depth and use a lot of music to illustrate points.

13. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that…”

14. Here you go.

15. As Scod explains in the second interview in this here blog entry.

16. Title track from (and theme to) Queen’s soundtrack of the film Flash Gordon.