Golden Phung fear sketch comedy is becoming a dying artform.
Golden Phung fear sketch comedy is becoming a dying artform. “We’re all huge fans of the classics, Fast Forward, Monty Python, The Micallef P(r)ogram(me), but somewhere along the line great new sketch comedy just stopped being made,” laments Peter Cortissos.
So Golden Phung – acting graduates from the Adelaide College For The Arts Cortissos, alongside Andrew Crupi, Lucy Markiewicz, Eddie Morrison, Roy Phung and Graham Self – are “doing what we can to make sketch comedy how we like it”.
Nominated for two “best newcomer” awards in Adelaide last year (Adelaide Fringe and Adelaide Comedy Awards) and winning the City of Adelaide Performing Arts Award, “we know we must be doing something right,” says Cortissos. Now, after their second Adelaide Fringe show, they’re making their Melbourne International Comedy Festival debut with their show Phung Harder.
Golden Phung perform “self-referential, surreal, non-sequitur, intelligent and punful” comedy. “I’d like to think we’re sketch comedy with a difference. There’s six of us, so there’s always going to be a mixed bag of everyone’s senses of humour which kind of adds to it all,” he says. “We mostly perform live sketches but we do have a few film breaks within our show to shake it all up a bit. We try to work in using both stage and screen at the same time with some sketches,” says Cortissos.
As a name, Golden Phung first came about as a term when Roy was playing poker a few years ago and called his “secret” hand The Golden Phung. Since then, we “turned it into a sort of strange verb/noun that can be twisted into just about any meaning you attach to it,” explains Cortissos. “Prepare to be Phung’d, Melbourne!”
Golden Phung perform Phung Harder at The Portland Hotel’s Portland Room from April 12 – April 24. It’s at 6pm Tuesday – Saturday and 5pm Sundays. Tickets are $15 through Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 013 and on the door.
