Ben McKenzie, also known as The Man in the Lab Coat, is one of Melbourne’s Kings of Geek Comedy. Ben has performed Impro with The Crew, is regularly seen on Channel 31’s Planet Nerd and recently performed as part of Science Week at the Melbourne Museum. His last Comedy Festival show, Scienceology, was a fabulous comic lecture complete with PowerPoint. This year Ben has written and produced his first comic fictional play A Record or an OBE and it’s about none other than The Goodies. Being a rabid Goodies fan myself, my curiosity was piqued and I sought Ben out for a chat.
Why The Goodies?
“Because they’re the most fantastic thing to happen to comedy. Ever!” Then he calmed down a bit and explained that considering their enormous output of Christmas specials, hit songs, albums and books as well as the beloved TV series “The Goodies had an incredibly high hit rate. There are very few dud episodes and it’s such a brilliant idea. The format is so open, you can do anything with it.”
Are you using The Goodies TV show Format?
“Not really, it’s half an hour at 6pm in the old Goodies timeslot, and that’s a conscious decision, but it’s more about telling the story succinctly. It worries me a little that fans will come along thinking we’re going to do an episode of The Goodies live on stage, but that’s not what the show is about. The premise of the show is that in 1975 at the height of their career Bill has decided to leave the team and go be a rock star. How will Tim and Graham carry on without him?”
Ben is playing his idol Graham Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor is being played by fellow comedian (and Dr Who look-alike) Rob Lloyd. Ben says that Rob and the Director Scott Gooding also had quite a lot of input into the script. Ben’s initial inspiration came from the liner notes from the The Goodies’ 1998 Best Of Album, where Bill, who composed the music wrote rather facetiously ‘I’d like to thank the other two Goodies but I really can’t, it would’ve been so much easier without them’. “So we sort of took that idea and ran with it. I think anyone who’s watched The Goodies just can’t really conceive of how it could work without all three of them, so we are seeing what happens if you take one of them away. Bill doesn’t actually appear in the show but his presence is strongly felt. As well as being funny, it is also a serious story exploring the way that relationships work, they were like three brothers or even a marriage”
Within six hours of Ben advertising ‘A Record or an OBE’ on his Website, the President of the Goodies Fan Club had emailed him with a list of questions. The show is now being advertised on The Goodies fan Website – “The Goodies Rule OK?”:http://www.goodiesruleok.com/ and they are discussing it excitedly on their forum.
How do you think fans will take to the show?
“I think they’ll dig it. It is a comedy, but the play is also quite dark in its way. I just hope that people take it for what it is, which is a kind of ‘what if it all went horribly wrong’ scenario. I’m as fascinated as anyone else to see what audiences will think of the show.”
Finally, What is your favourite episode of The Goodies?
“Hmmm, I’ve got lots. I’ve been trying not to watch too much of the series because we are playing the actors rather than the characters. But my fave, all time, is from the first series, it’s got to be Pirate Radio. It’s Graham central and he’s my favourite Goodie. I wanted a Gestapo uniform as a kid. I didn’t know its political or historical significance, I just knew that Graham looked hot in that episode.”
I couldn’t help but agree and look forward to seeing Ben’s portrayal of Graham in ‘A Record or an OBE’ at The Vault from Friday October 5th until Saturday October 13th. See the “Fringe Website”:http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/season/2007/show/46/ for full details.