Review – Stupid Old Channel launch
Melbourne saw the launch this week of an exciting new project – one of Australia’s first web comedy channels, Stupid Old Channel (named for its spiritual predecessor Stupid Old Man). Couched deep in the hipster enclave of Brunswick lies the retro-fitted warehouse of Stupid Old Studios: the Montmartre of Melbourne’s comedy community. The Studio has become home to comics in need of a place to write (or at least be seen pretending to write) as well as to put on community media productions, photo shoots and more. And now it beams forth comic radiation in the form of Stupid Old Channel.
The team consists of 2013 National Raw Comedy runner-up Andy Matthews, Canadian-made and seasoned comic Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall, comedian and media all-rounder Bec Petraitis and sweet-faced beardie man Matt Stewart. The crew form a pleasing salad of silly: Matthew’s dry wit is kindling to Tremblay-Birchall’s unpredictability, Petraitis packs the quirk and Stewart, well, he’s really good at carrying things. They are joined on a sketch-by-sketch basis by a motley crew of Melbourne funny folk, including the likes of Xavier Michelides, Jonathan Schuster and Oliver Clark.
The launch itself was a great little affair. Matthews capitalised on his slight resemblance to Steve Jobs to deliver us this new product. The drinks flowed, the popcorn popped, and there was an unsettling amount of potato salad. While mingling I bumped into Petraitis’ mum, who regaled me with the story of how her daughter came to have a love of comedy. (She had a case of nits in third grade, which resulted in her being up late while the comedy festival was being televised.) All in all it was a fun and frivolous night.
What can you expect to find on the Stupid Old Channel? A veritable smorgasbord of funny: the entire comedic spectrum from sketch to stand up and back again to sketch. The crew have used the web channel as an opportunity to test some of the boundaries normally set by stage or television. The “Alasdair Lists Everything” sketch, for example, is one hour, one minute and one second of method, methodological, monotonous deadpan. Despite being pre-recorded, the segments retain a hint of the anarchy of live performances. These veteran performers deliver some of the essence of the stage to your laptop screen.
What’s great about this kind of project? Comedians are doing it for themselves. The internet has done away with the middle man between writer/performer and audient, and these guys can create what they want and how they want it without the prohibiting influence of the gate-keepers. (Who, as we all know, no longer exist.) As Stupid Old describes itself, this is hand crafted comedy.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQ7joZGzlQ&w=400]
