Description

What happens when you mix comedy news, backstage gossip, showbiz war stories, bizarre historical facts, the occasional existential crisis and a suspicious amount of craft beer? You get This Week in Comedy, Australia’s weekly whip around of what’s funny, who’s touring, what’s changing and what on earth is going on behind the curtain.

Hosted by Ant Littlechild, Morry Morgan and Stig Wemyss, This Week in Comedy sits somewhere between a comedy news desk, a green room conversation and the pub chat you accidentally stay for three hours longer than planned.

The microphones have welcomed a wonderfully eclectic roll call of funny people and comedy insiders. Marty Fields has taken us from Hey Hey It’s Saturday and Ghost Rider to extraordinary stories involving Melbourne’s underworld. Lehmo revealed how he once fired off 549 jokes in an hour chasing a Guinness World Record. Hung Le unpacked 45 years onstage, Wog Boy, cruise ships and The Crappiest Refugee, while Jack Levi, aka Elliot Goblet, explained how a lack of facial expression became one of Australian comedy’s most recognisable characters.

Then there’s Stephen Hall, hand picked by John Cleese to play Basil Fawlty on stage; Wilfred creator Tony Rogers talking handmade movie magic and kangaroo carcass props; Richard Stubbs reminiscing about The Last Laugh, Tonight Live and Hey Hey; Rusty Berther on Scared Weird Little Guys and comedy supergroup The Grats; Nick White on Monty Python's Spamalot; broadcaster comedian Sarah Maree Cameron; and even Scott Dikkers, founding editor of The Onion, dropping in to talk satire.

But guests are only part of the chaos.

There’s comedy news, festival shake ups, touring announcements and industry debates. There’s This Week in History, Import / Export, I Don't Know If You Know This, and the gloriously unreliable Funny in the Moment, stories that were hilarious when they happened and may require the phrase “you had to be there.” And yes, there’s the weekly beer tasting, where flavour, hoppiness, alcohol percentage are important, but not as important as can size.

Along the way we’ve learned that a parasite can eat a fish’s tongue and replace it, an Australian once posted himself from London to Perth in a wooden crate, Kentucky experienced a mysterious meat shower, tens of thousands of frozen pizzas once received something resembling a funeral, and comedy history is considerably stranger than most history teachers let on.

Most importantly, This Week in Comedy is about the business, craft, history and glorious weirdness of making people laugh. It’s for comedians, writers, producers, promoters, comedy tragics, festival addicts and anyone who’s ever wondered what happens before the microphone turns on, or after someone says, “I’ve got a funny story.”

Key Sponsors:

Hard Knock Knocks Comedy School

The Rubber Chicken Podcast Studio

Mezzanine Films

Creative Head Rentals

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.