Matt Kelly is rifling through a duffel bag stuffed with severed arms and Viking headgear.
Matt Kelly is rifling through a duffel bag stuffed with severed arms and Viking headgear. Despite appearances, the pair aren’t preparing a grungy staging of Wagner’s Ring cycle (although note for next year guys: think about it);they’re props for the Listies’ upcoming children’s show, The List Operators for Kids Do Com-poo-ters And Wig-i-pedia.
“Andy Griffiths—the children’s writer—was talking to us last night and he said, ‘You guys are kind of like a punky vaudeville,’” tells Rich Higgins, Kelly’s comic cohort and the Abbot to his Costello – or, for you millennials, the Howard Moon to his Vince Noir. “That’s kind of theatrically what we do,” agrees Kelly. “But mainly it’s just the opposite of The Wiggles. No-one sings a happy song about a fluffy dinosaur that is your friend. If there was a dinosaur in our show it would eat your head off then poo it out and then eat its own poo and poo you twice.”
“We aim to make the parents laugh as much as the kids,” he continues. “We skirt the line of good taste. We like to investigate how far you can go, [which] makes the parents laugh, and makes us laugh, and then the kids just kind of laugh along. They don’t really get it, but everyone’s laughing!”
Com-poo-ters And Wig-i-pedia might be technology-themed, but the Listies’ lo-fi ethos remains intact. “It’s ironing boards and cardboard and bits of paper and two-dollar-shop props,” Higgins explains. “The whole idea is it should look like Matt and I are big kids mucking around in the lounge room – two insane uncles.”
“Everything is sweded, for want of a better word,” tells Kelly, referencing the DIY process coined in Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind, whose characters battled small-town ennui by creating endearingly crappy, homespun versions of popular Hollywood blockbusters. “We did toy early on with the idea of this high technology show,” Higgins admits. “But then we went, ‘It’s more fun [this way].’”
Kelly agrees. “Things fall apart and get broken mid-performance.”
“We’re not really into preciousness,” Higgins asserts. “We’re like the David Shrigley of kids’ performers!”
The show has garnered five-star raves and sell-out crowds when it played to the discerning audiences of the Edinburgh Comedy Festival last year. “We’ve been invited to go back next year,” Kelly tells – quite a coup for the pair, especially knowing the fest has bought Com-poo-ters… sight unseen. “And this show is every bit as disgusting and raucous as the last show!” he grins, a bloodied hand peeking out in absurd, gory testimony from the oversized bag at his feet.
The List Operators perform The List Operators For Kids Do Com-poo-ters And Wig-i-pedia at The Melbourne Town Hall over April 2-3 and between April 9-24, with no show on April 17. Tickets are $16. For show times and to book tickets, contact Ticketmaster on 13 61 00, or book online at comedyfestival.com.au.
