After having a hand in creating the experimental stand up room Shapiro Tuesdays in Perth, Dan Brader and Kieran Eaton have joined forces with Damian Briese and Karl Woodberry to bring a similar room to Melbourne. After two weeks The Misfits of Comedy is beginning to build up quite a following. I spoke to Dan about this new venture.
How do you see the current state of Melbourne rooms and how does “Misfits..” fit into the scheme of things?
Melbourne has plenty of good comedy rooms but other than “The Local” (an excellent comedy room) there doesn’t seem to be any rooms that offer a more “alternative” option. “Misfits” is a way of filling that gap, and we definetly feel we have more edgier, anything-goes vibe than any other club in the scene. At “Misfits” we are interested in the true believers and most of all comedians we feel are doing something unique and original, pushing the boundaries of stand-up comedy in one way or another.
How have both punters and performers responded to the room?
So far the response has been terrific. We’ve had two full houses with the crowds loving the unique ‘anything-goes’ atmosphere of “Misfits Of Comedy” and with the bulk of the crowd staying after the show to discuss the night and enjoy the music of Tim McMillan (who plays after every show). The performers are also loving the room! After just two shows, many have said it’s now their favourite room!
At Misfits we don’t put any pressure on the performers to “kill” we just want them to feel as comfortable as possible on stage. We encourage performers to try new material, characters, showcase stuff from their upcoming shows and basically whatever they want to do! Some performers have chosen to indulge their musical side with free-style rapping! We’re open to almost anything!
As the room is run by comedians who have all felt at one time or another constrained at other rooms we wanted to create an environment where anything is possible! But we want to be careful not to become too indulgent and become a club that’s for comics only, we’re trying our best to keep the crowd involved and excited by what happens on stage. The last thing we’d want to do would be to become a giant circle jerk for comedians!
Have any performers come to you with a concept that you have found that is either too weird or doesn’t fit the spirit of the room?
So far we have been selecting performers that we’ve worked with before and admire. Some of which we feel haven’t been given enough stage time/credit for their great work. So far the line-ups have been largely hand-picked. We’ve picked people who we consider are doing something unique and original in way or another. We have had many requests for people to perform and even requests from street-performers which we declined because we’re a comedy club and not a variety show. We have nothing against street performers, they’re just not what we’re after.
Do you have a line that you draw between experimental and self indulgence?
For sure. When you have a room that puts the emphasis on the comedians letting loose there’s always the danger the night will go on for way too long or become too in-jokey and what not. So far we’ve been careful to make sure this doesn’t happen. But it is definitely a fine-line, policing the comics too much finds us just like every other room but not policing them enough can result in chaos! Between the four of us we’ve seen a lot of comedy and feel we know the difference between self-indulgence and genuine risk-taking. But with all art this is in the eye of the beholder, I’m sure some people would say “Misfits” is too self indulgent but in turn we would find their idea of comedy too safe and constrained.
You mentioned that you took some inspiration from Shapiro Tuesdays. How so?
To give you a brief bit of information on “Shapiros” it is an open-mike/experimental comedy room based in Perth (founded by Josh Makinda and Jack Tandy) that myself and Kieran Eaton were instrumental in setting up also. The room put less pressure on the performers and put the emphasis on comedians exploring themselves on stage, whether it be using new material, trying “characters”, sketches, musical comedy or even sets completely made up of improvisation etc. It was a room that allowed myself and Kieran to really grow as performers as well as others and we found it had a tremendous effect on the Perth comedy scene—encouraging more people to try comedy and allowing existing comedians to break out of their comfort zone and explore. With “Misfits” we want to create a similar feeling of freedom for performers and even though we are not an open mike night we will be on the look out for new talent.
The Misfits of Comedy runs every Wednesday at The Blue Tile Lounge. Keep an eye on our gig listing for line ups & expect the unexpected!
Thanks to Dan Brader for his time.