An Interview with Karl Chandler and Cameron Marshall
Does having a festival show together make you a little husband and wife? Judging by this pair finishing each other’s sentences and giving one another a good ribbing, we think perhaps! Lou Pardi caught up with Karl Chandler and Cameron Marshall, two thirds of Comedy Festival show Polycomic after a hard day’s night at Cue Bar.
- Lou: Have you guys done festival before?
- Cameron: Never.
- Lou: So how are you feeling?
- Cameron: Really good.
- Karl: Unprepared.
- Lou: What made you name your show Polycomic?
- Karl: It was the one name we didn’t all hate.
- Lou: What is the show about?
- Cameron: Well, the name Polycomic comes from the Macquarie dictionary of fictional words, it actually means … having two or more comedic values.
- Lou: Are there two or more comedic values?
- Cameron: There are, in fact three.
- Lou: Who are they?
- Cameron: Myself, Cameron Marshall
- Karl: Myself, Karl Chandler
- Cameron: and, Mr Ian Messig
- Lou: You guys all have day jobs…
- Cameron: Karl and I are both actually graphic designers…
- Lou: Do you think that brings something different to the show?
- Cameron: For me that doesn’t make any difference, because I think people onstage and people offstage are so different, and our senses of humour are quite diverse, so I think that will make for a good variety hour.
- Karl: I’m actually looking forward to that aspect of it, different shows and seeing how the same material flies ..on a night who likes things better
- Cameron: Ian, most of his material will be on his day job.
- Lou: Really, what’s that?
- Cameron: Ian works at a paint shop, and so it’s going to form the basis..
- Karl: Customer service,
- Cameron: The retail side of things.
- Lou: Is there something at festival or about festival that you’re most looking forward to?
- Karl: I’m going to take a week off and get drunk every night.
- Cameron: ...after the show
- Karl: oh, that’s right, yeah
- Lou: is there anything you’re least looking forward to at festival?
- Cameron: I’m least looking forward to combining full time work with a festival show.
- Karl: I’m least looking forward to spruiking, just dealing with people on the street, I don’t want to do it, but we’ll have to do it…
- Cameron: He’s trying to get every member of the family and everyone that he’s ever met in his lifetime along to the show so that he can avoid having to flier.
- Lou: Do you have any ideas for how to make people take your fliers?
- Cameron: oh, add that to the to do list
- Karl: We were just talking before, we’re actually quite near parliament station, so at the peak time…
- Cameron: [loudly] The link there is our venue , Loop, 23 Meyers Place, in Melbourne…
- Karl: ...near the metro for all you clubbing fans…
- Cameron: ... is not too far from parliament station.
- Lou: That’s quite a classy little joint, Loop
- Karl: Yeah, very expensive, I mean classy.
- Lou: Do you guys have a website
- Cameron: Nup
- Karl: ‘Yes’, you mean… We’re on myspace, we have a burgeoning fan base. www dot myspace dot com backslash…
- Cameron: forward slash
- Karl: www.myspace.com/polycomic
- Lou: Anything else you want to tell me?
- Cameron: Tickets are $10
- Karl: Very cheap
- Cameron: For other people putting on comedy festival shows, we’re letting them in for free, so they can stand up the back and laugh, at appropriate places…
- Karl: ...and say I’ve heard all this shit before…
- Cameron: ...and we’ve got some really good AV things there… I’m just now announcing that so we’re putting pressure on ourselves to complete that.
- Cameron: There are 15 shows across the festival Tues – Thurs at 7.30, and Saturday at 6.30
For more details go to Polycomic