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http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/the-singing-invective/2008/03/13/1205126112557.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

The singing invective

John Bailey
March 16, 2008

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Why are jokes funnier if you sing them? Four melodic comedians explain to John Bailey why they get away with more if they set their gags to music.

Music and comedy go together like a "boom" and a "tish". From the corny gags of vaudeville to the political satire of Keating! audiences have been laughing along to gags with a back beat. So if there's nothing new about musical comedy, why are the recipients of this year's Moosehead grants - given to shows promising innovative, original forms of humour - all united by a musical thread?

There's a twisted tribute to Disney musicals featuring puppets run amok; an absurd take on jingle-writing; a "comeback" special from a band that never existed; and a bloody tale of butchers and Broadway. This year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival is tuning up.

For Warwick Allsopp, one half of The Jinglists, it's the important role timing plays in any form of humour that makes music a natural ally. "All comedy's probably timing and rhythm within a scene or a joke, and having it either in song or having music accompanying what you're doing is another element to provide that comic timing. If we do a joke without the music it's OK, but bring the music in and it's automatically funnier."
Jordan Raskopoulos, lead singer of faux-rock band The Axis of Awesome, says that music gives comics more room to move. "Stand-up audiences are very impatient. It's 'Get to the joke quickly and make me laugh or I'm getting out of here.' With musical comedy, you can take a little bit longer to tell the joke and if the music's good, the audience is enjoying that too. You've got other things to fall back on than just jokes."

Sammy J has already bagged awards and acclaim for past festival shows featuring the skinny comic serving up comic songs from behind a keyboard. He discovered early on that music allowed him to push the boundaries of what's acceptable material. "Throughout school I wrote songs about teachers and I found you could get away with a lot more in music," he says. "I wear a very dapper suit onstage and drink from a juicebox. So when I suddenly come out and say something wrong, it really comes out of left field. Not only is it shocking, it's also not as offensive."

The Mooseheads have been around for two decades, memorialising comedian Brian McCarthy after his death in a car accident at 23. Past recipients have included Lano & Woodley, Judith Lucy, Dave O'Neil and Corinne Grant. The award offers its recipients a complete package: a publicist, advertising, festival support and the appointment of a director. "It just means we're left to focus on the creative side," says Sammy J, "which has been fantastic. I'm a self-produced, self-managed performer and for the last five festivals I've been the one getting on to journalists and sending out emails and things."

Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams follows a disillusioned Melbourne comedian who leaves his dull life to journey into a magical land of colour and enchantment - and potty-mouthed puppets. "We take a traditional Disney narrative and completely pervert it," he says. "After the test show, people have said it's quite adult. To the point where Ticketmaster are going to have a special warning that it's not a show for children. The show ends with a song called I'm Learning How to be Less of a Dick and that really sums up my character's trajectory."

Perhaps it's the ability of musical comedy to relax audiences with a toe-tapping tune before twisting the knife. This year's Moosehead recipients certainly play with darker themes. Amelia Jane Hunter and Hannah Gadsby's Meat the Musical traces the fortunes of a pair of identical twins who inherit the family butchery.

Hunter's character - obsessed with stage musicals - isn't far from the performer herself, who was "raised by a mother who had Phantom of the Opera and Porgy and Bess blaring through the lounge-room window at 2.30 in the afternoon". Gadsby, conversely, can't stand the things. "Let's just say that she lived in New York for two years and never went to see Phantom of the Opera," says Hunter.

The Jinglists plays a similar melody. Allsopp and co-conspirator Tamlyn Henderson are half-brothers abandoned as children by their mother, growing up as agoraphobic jingle-writers who haven't left their apartment in 29 years. Contrasting this bleak scenario with the superficial world of advertising ditties allows the satire to become more absurd.
"It just kind of happens instinctively for us," says Allsopp. "We both come from a music theatre background so we were brought up on a rich diet of cheese. As someone said in a review once, we're using our evil powers for good."

The Axis of Awesome's Raskopoulos agrees that playing with the darker edges of musical comedy has made the Moosehead committee sit up to attention. "When you are ruffling feathers, that's when people take notice. When you're borderline offensive, that's when there starts to be a fuss about it. Musical comedy does let you get away with a bit more, but you have to push the envelope if you want people to take notice."

Axis of Awesome Comeback Spectacular is at the Portland Hotel, Russell Street.
The Jinglists is at Bosko Theatre, Federation Square.
Meat the Musical is at the Victoria Hotel, Little Collins Street.
Sammy J and the Forest of Dreams is at the Bosco Theatre, Federation Square. All shows run March 20 to April 13.