In June of this year another comedy festival appeared in Melbourne, The Quarterly Retort. This trimonthly event is a mini festival that features shows from many local comedians over the course of one evening. I spoke to Festival Director Beau Fitzpatrick to find out more.
Is there a story behind the name? Retort is a very strong term.
The Retort is basically an idea I had because there is a malaise following the [Melbourne International Comedy] Festival that it seemed quite proper to start something that would attempt to remedy that. So it was literally a retort that there is no real strong presence of comedy after or before the festival. [MICF] seems to be something that punters in particular save themselves up for as a yearly thing and rightfully so because international comics come down and it’s a very big thing. In the meantime I felt that locals kind of got pushed to one side, not necessarily by the Comedy Festival itself but the punters were unwittingly unaware of them. I just wanted to create something that would bring local and national acts to the forefront and focus on that.
When a comedian puts on their comedy festival show they only get seen by a certain number of people but we put it on one more time so that people have a chance to catch it in an off season. It was part of my frustration because as a comedian, I can’t see any comedy when the festival comes around. I want to see all these shows, local and international, and if I do go and see them I’m so anxious that I haven’t promoted my own show. If I do the constant promotion, I miss out on the shows entirely. For someone who really loves comedy I thought to myself ‘If we do this in the off season, maybe I can see some of the comedy that I missed out on.’ With 370 odd shows on during the festival you couldn’t catch them all, even if you were a diehard fan.
Is there a temptation to put on an overseas act if they happen to be in town?
It’s something I wouldn’t shy away from. If the price is right and they’ve got to be attracted to what we have to offer; our very Mom and Pop terms. We have a price structure in which we tell the performers ‘It’s your show. We’ll promote you as much as we humanly can. If you can bring people through the door, the vast majority of that profit goes to you.’. I think that really appeals to them as well.
In terms of international acts, we are in the process of getting a bigger team together which means we can put our feelers out, find out who is in town and then offer them a spot if it coincides.
The Quarterly Retort is advertised as a curated festival. Do you approach the acts or do they come to you?
Before people even knew what the Quarterly Retort was, I was getting on everyone’s nerves. Inviting them, trying to twist their arm and get them to perform in something that they had never heard of (and nor had anyone else). That was in June but for September, November and next February we are pretty much fully booked. People are calling up, even those who had previously said no, saying that they want to be a part of it. Administratively that has been such a relief to get people wanting to perform in it because it means a whole lot less work. And it seems like it was their idea so they are more keen.
Most of the acts seem to be re-staging festival (MICF, Fringe, etc) shows. Do you actively encourage performers to do new shows?
A lot of the shows that have gone upstairs (into the Green Room) are new. When showing comics the Green Room they have commented ‘Ohh, that’s just a thirty seater. That’s perfect for me to preview my Fringe show.’ For the September show it was used for Fringe shows that were debuting.
The main room is generally for shows that have been run previously. It’s one thing to put on a show that you’ve never done before to test it out but when it comes to big audiences and those who may have missed your show, they really want to see that polished show. If the performer thinks that it’s done to death and they tell me ‘I’ve kind of put that show to bed but I can re-jig some of the material, bring it back and put in a bit of extra stuff’’, that’s fine. If you want to put some old material from your last show and some new material from your future show and it’s sitting in middle ground, we’ll just slap a name on it and promote you. The most important thing is that the punters want to see the performer whether the show is new or old.
Are the shows individually ticketed?
We tried a group ticketing system in the past which is something we will bring back eventually to get the prices down for each person. At the moment what’s selling best with a rudimentary system is where we tell each performer ‘just sell your show’. If anyone wants to kick along afterwards to see further shows, there are some discounts that can be made on the night by the actual performers. It’s a very last minute decision, a bit disorganised in that regard.
All the ticketing is being done through the website for the first time. At previous events we tried a system where we sold all the tickets to the performer for a dollar each and they could name their own price. It was a bit haphazard and sounded like a good idea at the time. It worked quite well in terms of getting people through the door but we want to focus on doing it through the website a bit more just to see how people respond. Afterwards we can compare to see what works best and come up with something that’s just right.
What has the feedback been like from the punters?
The punters have been really amazed by the the idea. Even if you just pitch the idea to them their response is ‘Thank you. That’s awesome!’ I think the most excited punters are comedians because now they can see what their peers are up to without being so stressed. They don’t have to look at it with a critical eye; they can sit back, relax and enjoy the comedy.
In terms of punters who aren’t comedians, they’re really curious at the moment. I’ll go to the effort of putting on two acts are quite separate and don’t really relate to one another. I’ll tell them “Come see the show you’ve paid to see, but try this guy.’ I love seeing them go from seeing one act and then being surprised by someone completely different.
Are there any acts that you are looking forward to at the upcoming event?
Al’s Music Rant, which I’ve already seen, I was blown away by it. I immediately called Al up and asked if he wanted to do that show again in a bigger venue. He replied ‘Yeah, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to push the tickets like I did for Fringe!’ Another is Oliver Clark because he is going away and not doing a Festival show next year. He’s going to New York.
During our chat, Beau confessed to something that perfectly describes what he is aiming to achieve with the Quarterly Retort:
Back in 2003, before I was doing comedy, I though the comedy festival was just the Gala on TV. I thought it was one night only put together by twelve people and now I know different. I know there’s at least 200 more working comedians in Melbourne alone, they’ve all got shows on and the festival lasts for a month. When I’m flyering my own show I’m continually confronted by people who look at the flyer, look at the Town Hall, look at the flyer again and ask me ‘What’s this?’ It’s a mission to broaden the scope of awareness of comedy in Melbourne. You’d think that it wouldn’t need to happen but it really does.
The next edition of The Quarterly Retort happens on Wednesday the 24th of November at The Order of Melbourne (2/401 Swanston St, Melbourne. The lineup is as follows:
6pm: Jack Druce
Kieran Eaton: Random Comedy Show
7:15: Oliver Clark: Warming up the pipes
Ben Lomas: New Stuff
8:30: Al Newstead: Al’s Music Rant
Michael Connell: Acting the Goat
9:45: Michael Williams: John Wilkes Booth & other over achievers
Micah D Higbed: Fear and Laughing at the Quarterly Retort
11pm: Cath Styles presents Girl’s Night Out
Wet Weather Program (assorted stand up)
For full program details and to book tickets, visit www.comedicate.com.au
Many thanks to Beau for his time.