Within it’s first year, The Vault has quickly become a staple of Melbourne’s live comedy scene. Every Tuesday night this room features a great line up of performers and the added danger of “The 3 Minute Challenge”. With The Vault’s first birthday looming, Head Honcho Col Cameron took the time to field some questions.
As a performer, Colin decided to start The Vault after finding “the process of getting spots very slow. I was getting 2 or 3 five minute spots a month with the MC’s mucking up my name and after 6 months I was frustrated. After a while I began to form opinions on what made a good and bad comedy room and when the opportunity arose to run my own room I jumped in.”
Colin ended up at Caz Reitop’s Dirty Little Secrets through his previous life as a musician. “I used to play drums/percussion in the Australian Showband…[when] looking around for a new room for the band I found a classy underground bar/restaurant called ‘The Apartment’ off Little Bourke St. The barman at the time was Zac Potier. I left the band to pursue stand up and months later met Zac at a gig. He explained that he had opened a new bar of his own called Caz Reitop’s (his name backwards) Dirty Secrets and that he had an underground bluestone walled room.” When Colin saw the room downstairs it was instantly christened “The Vault”.
When it comes to booking acts Colin has developed a particular philosophy. He explained “I try to be fair and give as many comics a run as possible. I reserve the right to not book some comics who I think are either not ready for the room/audience yet or who don’t understand the room/audience. I also try where possible to go and see comics in action if I don’t know their work. I believe strongly in the importance of having an experienced, quality headliner. I am also very demanding on the MC as I see this role as crucial to a great night. Good momentum and pacing is everything to me and this starts and finishes with a good MC.”
In an attempt to encourage performers to develop new material, Colin devised “The 3 Minute Challenge” where volunteer comedians have their names drawn from a hat and are given a newspaper article. They then have until the start of the second bracket to write about 3 minutes of material on that clipping. The comedians of Melbourne seem to have embraced this idea that’s “something a little different and …lots of great material [have] come from it”. It has been so successful that the concept has crossed borders with Josh Thomas starting his own version in Brisbane called ‘Iron Comic’.
The Vault has produced many memorable moments in it’s first year. These have included Rod Quantock’s royal bagging of the room and Smith St in general, Rohan Harry (SA) setting his pubes on fire stinking out the room for an hour, Jimeoin doing his ‘new stuff’ and Harley Breen doing the Comic’s 3 Minute Challenge then headlining immediately afterwards. A huge effort!”
When asked for his dream lineup at The Vault, Colin outlined a well balanced night of entertainment that was as follows:
“I would choose an MC who can do the whole night on virtually no ‘material’. Someone like Adam Hills, Rod Quantock and Daniel Kitson. I prefer MC’s who can create comedy originating from the audience.”
“The line up would then range in experience from a newbie with a committed, passionate approach to a few mid range comics who are clever, original, funny, happy to slip in new stuff and very much on the way up.”
“The Comic’s 3 minute Challenge would see 2 comic’s frantically pack as many punchy gags into the 3 minutes as possible with the final punchline just beating the hooter.”
“Finally the headliner has to either engage the audience in long form funny stories so that 20-30mins goes by in a flash, or pack in gag after gag and have them still laughing out the door. Ricky Gervais, Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Gleeson are examples of awesome story tellers and Paul Martell, Brian Doyle, Pommy Johnson and Bruno Lucia are more quick fire laugh upon laugh. Both styles are fantastic.”
The Vault’s first birthday bash promises to be a top shelf line up with many surprises. All Colin could reveal was “we have just secured Cal Wilson as headliner! The Comic’s Challenge will have a twist and someone will be doing a Brand New Five as well.”
Everyone here at Squirrel Central would like to raise our glasses in a toast to The Vault. Here’s to many more years of laughs!
The Vault’s First Birthday Show is on Tuesday 5th of December at Caz Reitop’s Dirty Little Secrets (80 Smith St, Collingwood). The entertainment starts at 8:30 and entry is $3.
Many thanks to Colin Cameron for his time.