Wednesday Night Fever

I have had a professional relationship with Rick Kalowski since the Comedy Inc days (where he was writer, producer, sometime director) through Double Take and onto At Home With Julia, a narrative comedy about PM Julia Gillard, featuring my Double Take cast-mate Amanda Bishop in the eponymous role. I played Kevin Rudd in two episodes of that award-winning show, and was asked, in 2012, to participate in a workshop development for a new sketch comedy program for the ABC, produced by Rick and the team behind At Home With Julia, including Amanda, and Quail TV.
The result was the barrel of fun now known as Wednesday Night Fever, which aired for the first time during July and August 2013. The show featured an ensemble cast with varying levels of experience. Amanda Bishop, Genevieve Morris, Robin Goldsworthy, Heath Franklin, Dave Eastgate and myself had all done sketch shows before, and, in particular, Gen, Amanda, Robin, Heath and I were very familiar with the parody requirements of WNF. Anne Edmonds and Lisa Adam were newer to the genre and spent more time focusing on generic characters. Dave Eastgate was primarily in charge of the house band, metal parody outfit Boner Contention.
The result was the barrel of fun now known as Wednesday Night Fever, which aired for the first time during July and August 2013. The show featured an ensemble cast with varying levels of experience. Amanda Bishop, Genevieve Morris, Robin Goldsworthy, Heath Franklin, Dave Eastgate and myself had all done sketch shows before, and, in particular, Gen, Amanda, Robin, Heath and I were very familiar with the parody requirements of WNF. Anne Edmonds and Lisa Adam were newer to the genre and spent more time focusing on generic characters. Dave Eastgate was primarily in charge of the house band, metal parody outfit Boner Contention.

Our host was Sammy J, a young (he's 30) musical comedian form Melbourne. The show was recorded live before a studio audience with location sketches added into the broadcast. I was lucky in that the show lent itself to political impersonations, and I had a few on the go: Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott, Julian Assange, Malcolm Turnbull.
I was lucky enough, as well, to have the Prime Ministership change from Julia Gillard (whom Mandy Bishop impersonates) to Kevin Rudd (my guy), and the Federal Election announced, so I got a bit more airtime as KRudd too. Not that I needed it. I had a great time chopping and changing personas, throwing in impersonations of journalist Tony Jones, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and cinema critic David Stratton along the way.
The last episode saw me play four politicians debating each other in a 12 minute sketch. Great fun. Hopefully another season will be commissioned soon. Like most sketch performers/comedians, I love working at the ABC: it feels like home.
I was lucky enough, as well, to have the Prime Ministership change from Julia Gillard (whom Mandy Bishop impersonates) to Kevin Rudd (my guy), and the Federal Election announced, so I got a bit more airtime as KRudd too. Not that I needed it. I had a great time chopping and changing personas, throwing in impersonations of journalist Tony Jones, filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and cinema critic David Stratton along the way.
The last episode saw me play four politicians debating each other in a 12 minute sketch. Great fun. Hopefully another season will be commissioned soon. Like most sketch performers/comedians, I love working at the ABC: it feels like home.
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