When I caught up with Lawrence Leung and Andrew McClelland they were constructing props for their new show for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, “Time Ninjas”, they were about to build an Austrian cow out of cardboard.
You are both fairly well known in both the Australian comedy scene in general and in the Melbourne comedy scene in particular, but assuming there are people coming to the Comedy Festival who haven’t heard of you, how would you introduce yourselves
AM: Lawrence and I are comedians.
Yes
AM: That’s a start. Lawrence and I started working together back in high school.
LL: I wouldn’t say we were working. I’d say we were getting into a lot of japery.
AM: Yes, all sorts of pranks. We started with theatresports…
LL: Back when it was cool to be into theatresports.
AM: Was that ever the case? Anyway, the last show Lawrence and I did together was called the Secret Society show and it was sort of a documentary show.
LL: A lecture.
AM: Although this show, Time Ninjas, is very different from anything we’ve done before, it’s a narrative fiction sort of show. Like a play.
LL: Like a Saturday morning live-action cartoon. It’s a totally fast, crazy, paradoxical…
AM: Back and forth, forth and back.
LL: Back and forth, we play multiple characters, each other. And it’s about time travel.
AM: A lot of quick changes, running in, running out.
LL: It’s going to be interesting to watch. It’s also a roller-coaster to perform. I’d actually like to do a night where we perform the show back-to-front so the audience can see what’s happening behind the scenes, it’d be awesome.
AM: It’s different. Normally I do a lecture or straight stand-up.
LL: And I do… therapy. Sometimes we will talk to the audience in this show, but it’s much more like a play.
AM: Although my direct interest in history is still maintained.
LL: And my interest in girls is maintained.
Andy your last solo show was about Pirates, and now you’re making a show about Ninjas. Is this going to answer the age old Pirates v. Ninjas debate?
AM: To a degree. We’ll find out what’s better.
In the show?
AM: No, we’ll find out what’s better purely by sales. Pirates has done pretty well over time. I just did it for 700 people in Perth. Can Ninjas make up the ground? Only the public can decide. Our finest arbiter.
What is a Time Ninja?
AM: You’ll have to see the show. Are we the Time Ninjas? Is someone else a Time Ninja? It’s all revealed in the show.
But is a Time Ninja an actual Ninja, or is it just a cool name?
LL: That’s pretty cynical to say that a comedian would just come up with a cool name just sell tickets.
AM: I don’t think any comedian would do that.
Another project you’ve both worked on was Nonstopical, your comedy podcast with Courteney Hocking. In your last show you said you’d be back. Any plans to do another episode?
AM: One day.
LL: We’re all back in the same state. That’s good.
AM: We have the equipment.
Andy, you are also doing a comedy fest show with the sketch group you are a part of, the Anarchist Guild Social Committee.
AM: Yes, we’re doing three best-of shows, and a fourth charity show at Trades, for cancer research. And that fourth show is all new.
Lawrence, you recently finished filming a show for the ABC.
LL: Yes. Choose your own adventure. March 25th
So you might be quite famous soon.
LL: Assuming people watch the show, but if no-one sees it, I’ll still be plain old Lawrence. And I’d like to be plain old Lawrence.
Andy, if Lawrence does become a huge success, would you describe your attitude towards him as more jealous, or opportunistic?
AM: Opportunistic. I am going to ride on those coattails, baby. I want him to have all the success he can, because he promised me he’d drag me along with him. In 1995 he promised me. That said, when it came to the TV show, where was I, Lawrence, where was I?
Time Ninjas is on Tue-Sun 8pm from 1 – 25 April, at Trades Hall