Oliver Phommavanh, Eric Hutton and Shane Materson are three Sydney comics who have been entertaining the rooms of the Harbour City for several years. This year they have joined forces as The Zinger Machine to bring their individual takes on comedy to Melbourne in one package that features music, stand up and possibly an appearence by the titluar machine (assuming freight logistics are sorted out!). The blog on their Myspace Page details the humourous preparations for the show but to find out more, I caught up with boys:
How did you three end up working together?
After running into each other at open mic nights for several months, the gravity of our egos slowly pulled us together.
Has the process of organising the show been democratic? Has anyone assumed a leadership role?
Oliver organises all the meetings and has a nice collection of felt tip pens to write notes with. I don’t know if that’s a leadership role, but I did notice Vladimir Putin using the same brand of felt tip pens in a recent UN meeting. We also have a ritual of Oliver drinking bubble tea and getting high on chewy pearls.
Is this your first trip to the Melbourne Comedy Festival? Do you have any goals to achieve whilst there?
This is our first trip performing, but Shane’s made a couple of trips in recent years to steal material. Our major goal is the manufacture and despatch of zingers, and to convince people that although no-one’s ever heard of us and we’re one of the cheapest things in the festival, we really are real funny.
Your highly entertaining blog on your MySpace page promises all sorts of wackiness. What can punters actually expect?
We three and our MC Ally-Syn all have very different styles, so there’s something for everyone, unless you like full-frontal nudity or lion taming. We’re all at different levels of wackiness/zaniness/dryness/weirdness, so there’s something for the whole family! Except for Aunt Glenda, who’s really into nude lion taming, but she doesn’t usually go to comedy festivals anyway.
Visit the Comedy Festival Website for booking details.