Tag Archives: guest stars

A Night Terrace Guide to the Comedy Festival

It’s that time of year again! No, not Moomba. The Grand Prix? I don’t think so. Nor the Food and Wine Festival, Fashion Festival, Flower and Garden Show, Motoring Festival or Melbourne Queer Film Festival… No, it’s the Melbourne International Coffee Ex– wait, what? We have one of those? Really?

Do they have tea?

Sorry, got distracted there. No, the particular item we mean from the over-stuffed calendar of the Festival State is of course the Melbourne International Comedy Festival! And many of the performers who appear in Night Terrace are featured in this year’s program.

Petra Elliott (Sue) is one of the stars of the improvised puppet show, The Mighty Little Puppet Show! You won’t want to miss her performing as one of the “Ritas”, colourful puppets on which the audience will build their own characters. It also features guest stars David Innes and Rob Lloyd. The Mighty Little Puppet Show runs at 7:30 PM, upstairs @ Little Sista (next to the Town Hall). It’s a rotating ensemble show, so if you want to see Petra you can catch her on March 25, 27, 29 and 31, and April 1.

Ben McKenzie (Eddie Jones) has had a hand in Claire Hooper’s show this year, through his games company Pop Up Playground; together they present Being Claire Hooper, a whimsical, Claire Hooper-themed treasure hunt through the city. You might even see a familiar face or two… Being Claire Hooper begins at 6 PM each Saturday and Sunday at the statue of Burke and Wills at City Square (opposite the Town Hall). Tickets are very limited so be sure to book!

Amanda Buckley, woman of many voices and one of our company players, features in the completely improvised musical Impromptunes. Every night the ensemble cast will create an entire stage musical based on your suggestions. It’s on at 7 PM at Trades Hall in the Old Council Chambers for ten shows only, March 24 to April 3. Like Petra’s show, it’s a rotating ensemble, so to catch Amanda book tickets for March 24, 30 or 31, or April 3!

You can also find many of our guest stars in the festival! Go see them, do. Check the linked listings for more details.

Season two update!

Recording for season two of Night Terrace is well underway, with six of our eight episodes recorded! Well, mostly recorded. Night Terrace production can be quite timey-wimey, as actor availability leads to gaps to be filled later, but our company actors Dave Lamb and Amanda Buckley are always on hand to fill in a missing voice. Hearing Dave Lamb play a 1950s Tea Lady is… interesting.

Our first recording day saw Lawrence Leung and Mad As Hell’s Emily Taheny joining us, while the second brought us Gary Russell, Jane Badler and Ian Smith. Yes, Harold From Neighbours joined Susan From Neighbours for the time-traveling adventure you’ve always hoped for. And they were all brilliant.
Ben McKenzie, Petra Elliott, Jackie Woodburne and guest star Lawrence Leung in the studio.

One of our other welcome visitors this year has been Madame Fromage, our caterer! Plates of sandwiches, fruit, cheese and cake from Madame Fromage catering.We always stress we can’t make this show without the generosity of our listeners, but Madame Fromage brought crowdfunding to a new level by graciously donating lunch! Not only did this free up our budget to put more money toward hiring actors and studio time, it also gave us more time, since we no longer had to be up late making sandwiches the night before a studio day. (Yes, that’s the glamour of audio comedy production.) We heartily recommend you hire her for your next crowd-funded audio production recording/historical banquet/event.

Our main studio this year has been Bakehouse Studios in Richmond, a massive warren of rooms mostly used as a rehearsal studio. Most musicians in Melbourne have been to Bakehouse at some point, with John and David realising on arrival that they had recorded there 20 years ago when it was Stable Sound. An enormous image of Nick Cave (and The Boys Next Door) greets you as you enter, and by the evening the huge beer-garden-like central courtyard is full of tattooed and pierced musicians. At one point we discovered Frenzal Rhomb were rehearsing in the next studio. We could hear them through the wall of the control room, but we’re confident you won’t in the finished episode!

We then spent some more intimate days at the Sample And Hold studio, with Andrew McClelland and Ming-Zhu Hii joining us for an afternoon of space travel. And then The Chaser’s Andrew Hansen came down from Sydney to record a couple of episodes with us. And a prequel scene. And some webisodes. We may have been out of control. We also made him tell us how great it was to work with us while we recorded him. At that point it had become more of a hostage situation. Andrew Hansen (with a moustache) in the sound booth recording his guest role for Night Terrace

We have one more major studio day left, as well at least two smaller sessions and our live show (September 12! Book those tickets now!), but we have great stuff in the can and we’re looking forward to sharing it with you.

Season two guest star: Dave Callan!

We’re pleased to announce another of our great guest stars for season two: comedian Dave Callan! Dave will appear in this season’s historical episode, but that’s all we’ll say. No spoilers!

dave-callanFondly remembered for his long stint as “the beardy one with the beautiful accent” on Australian variety shows Rove and Rove Live, Callan is best known as a Triple J DJ – he presents “The Graveyard Shift” from 1 AM on Sundays – and one of Melbourne’s favourite comedians. He’s often on the telly with appearances on Spicks and Specks, the Comedy Festival Gala and Good News Week, as well as being a regular game reviewer on ABC2’s Good Game. He’s performed live comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe and toured Britain, South East Asia, the U.S. and even Hobart.

In recent years he’s departed from regular stand-up to embrace his other love, one he has in common with our mascot, the bilby: dance! His 2014 show A Little Less Conversation was such a hit he’s followed it up with this year’s A Little Less Conversation 2: A Little More Less Conversation, playing at Trades Hall at 9:45 PM (8:45 on Sundays) until the festival ends on April 19.

Dave is not a stranger to voice work; he’s fondly remembered for his segment on Rove Live, “Words That Sound Better When Said By Dave” (for which a Facebook fan page still exists!), and in 2011 played the role of Fergal, a Sea Cucumber who runs an Irish Pub, in the adult animated web series Mollusks, alongside a stellar cast of Sean Micallef, Roz Hammond and Bob Franklin.

So let’s celebrate that beautiful voice with a clip of Dave dancing!

If you want to make sure Dave Callan has his chance to shine in Night Terrace, why not go to Kickstarter right now and become a backer? There are many wonderful rewards on offer, and you won’t have to watch Dave dance again.

Season two guest stars: Gary Russell and Lawrence Leung

We loved it during season one when we asked people to be in Night Terrace and they enthusiastically said yes – and this season, we have some more great actors and comedians joining us! We’ve already confirmed the return of Virginia Gay (All SaintsWinners and Losers) and Jane Badler (V, Mission: Impossible), and our fantastic ensemble players Dave Lamb (Bell Shakespeare) and Amanda Buckley (Impro Melbourne, Graham Clone: Virtually Live!).

Gary RussellJoining us for the first time, we have Gary Russell! Gary might be best known for his long-time work writing Doctor Who novels and writing and directing audio adventures with Big Finish, but did you know he also played Dick in the television version of The Famous Five??? Amazing!

Gary is no stranger to audio, having appeared in numerous Big Finish productions as various computers, psychic worm and, in one story, “First Yokel”. We won’t say too much about his appearance in season two of Night Terrace, except that he’ll be in the first episode of the season and his character will definitely have a name.

Also joining us for season two is Lawrence Leung! Lawrence is an award-winning stand-up comedian, you might know Lawrence from his ABC1 comedies Choose Your Own Adventure and Unbelievable, or most recently from starring in and writing episodes of Australia’s first kung fu comedy series, Maximum Choppage for ABC2 (still available on iView!).

Lawrence Leung Maximum Choppage
Lawrence in ghost busting mode in Maximum Choppage.

Lawrence is currently performing his new stand up show The Escapist at Melbourne International Comedy Festival until April 19. Lawrence may have solved a Rubik’s Cube while skydiving and have a Jedi named after him in a Star Wars comic, but he’s never travelled through time and space with Susan from Neighbours, so we’re happy to give him a new opportunity for geekery! Though we’ll keep the nature of his role a secret for now…

Watch out for more guest star announcements in the near future!

Adam Richard

Night Terrace stars at Comedy Festival

Night Terrace’s guest cast is full of great comedians, and since the production is based in Melbourne, many of our performers are participating in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival! We thought we’d do a round up of our season one guest stars (and main cast!) so you can go find them.

Ben McKenzie (Eddie Jones) appears as the warm-up guy for WorkSpace at the Carlton Courthouse from April 2 to 12. WorkSpace is a new web series, a sit-com depicting the lives of three entrepreneurs trying to share a co-working space, and it’s being recorded live during the comedy festival. Details here.

Amanda Buckley (various supporting roles) features in Impromptunes: The Completely Improvised Musical at Trades Hall at 8:15 PM, running throughout the festival; if you want to catch her improvising though, better go before April 7, because that’s when she starts appearing alongside Ross Daniels in the extraordinary comedy story of an 80’s synthpop star, Graham Clone: Virtually Live! at 9:30 PM at the Butterfly Club.

Cal Wilson (Vraxnol in Moving House) has come up with a great visual pun in the promo image for her show, Undercurrents. Catch her at the Swiss Club (plus one show at the Town Hall) at 7 PM (6 PM Sundays) for the duration of the festival. Details here.

Cate Wolfe, Cal Wilson, Francis Greenslade

Andrew Hansen (additional cast, Moving House) and Chris Taylor (starship captain, Starship Australis) appear together in a send-up of arts festival in-conversation events, In Conversation With Lionel Corn. They’re on at 7 PM (6 PM Sundays) at the Forum Theatre for two weeks from April 7 to 19. Details here.

Virginia Gay (Miss Baker, Time of Death) stars in a cabaret version of that timeless book of tales, Cautionary Tales for Children, returning from a hit season earlier in the year. Virginia performs at The Famous Speigeltent at the Arts Centre on the 12th, 18th and 19th of April; check here for details of show times.

Andrew McClelland (The Colonel, Time of Death) premieres his new stand-up show Overdressed & Underwhelmed. It’s already scored a four-star review from the Herald-Sun, so get in quick! He’s on at 9:45 PM (8:45 PM Sundays) at Trades Hall for the duration of the festival. Details here.

Alan Brough
Alan Brough (image supplied)

Alan Brough (Barry, Sound & Führer) has teamed up with Casey Bennetto (of Keating! The Musical fame) to bring you the story of The Narelles, the Australian pop group who never were but are nevertheless coming back. They’re at Trades Hall for the duration of the Festival at 8:15 PM (7:15 PM Sundays). Details here.

Adam Richard (Bubbles, Discoworld) appears in his own show #FGT at 8 PM at the Imperial Hotel for the duration of the festival; details here. He is also co-host with Justin “Hammo” Hamilton for the much-loved comedy variety show The Shelf, Mondays at 7:30 at The Toff in Town, plus ten live recordings of The Shelf Podcast, mostly on Saturday and Sunday afternoons at the Imperial Hotel. You can find details for the variety show here, and for the podcast here.

We’ve also announced some guest stars for season two, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and a couple of them have shows too!

You can catch Dave Callan in A Little Less Conversation 2: A Little More Less Conversation, and Lawrence Leung in The Escapist, both at Trades Hall until the end of the Festival! Check out our News page to find out more about them.

Casting update: Cate Wolfe, Cal Wilson and Francis Greenslade

Now we’ve completed the bulk of recording for our first block of four episodes, we have a moment to update you on our progress – and we’re stoked to announce three more of our guest stars for Night Terrace!

Cate Wolfe, Cal Wilson, Francis Greenslade

Cate Wolfe graduated from the Victoria College of the Arts in 2010, having won the Beleura Estate John Tallis award for Drama in her second year. As well as a slew of theatre appearances, Cate has appeared on Australian TV in Winners and Losersand Australia on Trial, but is best known as Mattie O’Brien in popular ABC1 series The Doctor Blake Mysteries starring Craig McLachlan.

Night Terrace isn’t Cate’s first brush with time travel – she features opposite Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor in the new sci-fi thriller Predestination, based on the classic time travel short story “All You Zombies” by Robert Heinlein. Predestinationpremiered at the SXSW film festival in March, so watch out for Cate in cinemas later this year!

Comedian Cal Wilson is well-known to Australian audiences not only from her live stand-up but from appearances on everything from Dancing with the Stars and Thank God You’re Here to Spicks and Specks, Good News Week, SkitHouse, Last Man Standing, The Wedge and QI. More recently Cal appeared in hit ABC comedy It’s A Date, and will soon be seen in the upcoming short film anthology Locks of LoveNight Terrace episode one will reunite Cal with her opposing team captain from Channel 7’s SlideShow, Toby Truslove.

Francis Greenslade is a twenty year veteran of Australian television with roles in many series including The Damnation of Harvey McHughFull FrontalSeaChange and Blue Heelers, and he currently stars in Winners and Losers as Denise Scott’s husband. Francis is also well-known as a long-time collaborator with Shaun Micallef, appearing inThe Micallef ProgramWelcher & WelcherNewstopia and Mad As Hell.

Francis might not be known for sci-fi action, but he has form: in 1990 he appeared in Ultraman: Towards the Future, the only series of this Japanese series to be filmed in Australia. Ultraman is a Tonkusatsu show, chronicling the adventures of a masked hero fighting rubber-suited monsters – the Towards the Future version featured Gia Carides as the female lead! You can watch Francis’ episode, “Tourists From the Stars”, in full below; you’ll spot him trying to drunkenly chat up an alien about five minutes in.

Our latest guest star: Alan Brough!

We’re pleased to announce another addition to the Night Terrace guest cast: Alan Brough!

Alan Brough
Alan Brough (image supplied)

Alan has worked in film, television and theatre as a writer, director, actor and stand-up comedian. But he’s probably best known for his seven year stint as a team captain on ABC1’s Spicks and Specks. His final episode, which aired on November 23, 2011, was watched by an audience of one-and-a-half million people, an audience figure the ABC is unlikely to ever see again.

He has appeared in feature films including The Craic, Siam Sunset, The Nugget, Bad Eggs and Any Questions for Ben?. His television roles include Something In The Air, MDA, Blue Heelers and he famously got to pash Sharon Strzelecki in Kath and Kim, appearing in series 2 and 3.

On the stage, Alan has appeared in The Production Company’s Sugar Baby, 42nd Street and Sweet Charity and he toured the country in 2013 as the villain Baron Bomburst in the musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He’ll be joining us to play a failed theme-park operator with a talent for robot design, which still won’t be the strangest role he has had. In his home of New Zealand he appeared in a series of butter commercials as a drag queen called Marge, becoming for a while, in his own words, “New Zealand’s most famous transvestite”.

And here’s Tim Minchin’s celebrating Alan in song:

Adam Richard to guest star in Night Terrace

We’re excited to bring you another guest cast announcement: it’s Adam Richard!

Adam Richard
Adam Richard! (Photo supplied.)

A standup comedian since 1997, Adam has performed all over Australia, Britain and the USA. He began his gossip queen career as Triple J’s “Mister Bitch” before becoming part of Melbourne’s Number 1 FM breakfast team, the Matt and Jo Show on 101.9 The Fox.

He was co-writer and co-star of the ABC1 comedy series Outland, about a group of gay science fiction fans, and has been a regular guest on TV shows including Can of WormsChelsea LatelyRove and Spicks and Specks. His impression of an Australian Idol audition remains the most viewed Spicks and Specks clip on YouTube!

In 2014 he became a team captain on the relaunched Spicks and Specks. This was a much surer bet than some of his more questionable television choices, which included appearances on Celebrity Dog SchoolHole in the WallThe Footy Show and Celebrity Splash.

For Night Terrace he’ll be heading back to the 1970s and a disco which may also be ground zero for an alien invasion…

As an extra treat, here’s Adam appearing with none other than Jane Badler on Spicks and Specks in 2011! Another person from this clip will also be joining us in Night Terrace…we’ll be announcing who tomorrow.

Toby Truslove joins Night Terrace

We’re thrilled to announce another member of the guest cast – not just one of our favourite actors but one of our favourite people, Toby Truslove!

toby truslove

Toby is well known to viewers of ABC comedy, with leads in Outland, Laid and The Strange Calls. He starred in the feature film Scumbus, and his TV drama credits include All Saints, McLeod’s Daughters, The Strip and Tangle. He has extensive experience on the stage including Belvoir St’s production of Private Lives, Melbourne Theatre Company’s The Cherry Orchard and Bell Shakespeare’s Troilus & Cressida. He’s also been a regular on celebrity game shows including Thank God You’re Here, Randling, Slideshow and the TV adaptation of popular radio show The Unbelievable Truth. He was even a guest on an episode of Splendid Chaps!

He’ll be playing an alien in an episode of Night Terrace, a role he was born to play. In real life Toby’s a big fan of science fiction, but Night Terrace isn’t his first role involving a spaceship…

You can get involved too! Click here for details on how you can help make Night Terrace.

 

Jane Badler joins the cast of Night Terrace

jane-badler-silver-sweater

We’re excited to announce another TV veteran has joined the cast of Night Terrace – Jane Badler, best known as the huge-haired, hamster-eating reptilian overlord Diana in the classic 1980s TV series V!

Jane will appear as the only person who knows how and why Anastasia’s house is travelling in space and time. But is she a hero or a villain?

In a prolific television career, Jane was a lead in the late 80s version of Mission: Impossible, returned to V for the second series of the 2009 remake, and has appeared on numerous shows including The Highwayman, Fantasy Island, Falcon Crest (where she squared off against Vertigo star Kim Novak), Murder She Wrote, Sky Trackers, Cluedo, Blue Heelers, Spicks and Specks and Offspring.

Night Terrace will be the second time she’s been head to head with Jackie Woodburne, as Jane had a four-month run in Neighbours in 2010 playing a femme fatale named (surprise!) Diana.

Jane also has a successful singing career, with albums including The Devil Has My Double and Tears Again, and she’s currently recording in LA. Her latest single, “Volcano Boy”, is released on March 31st. You can find out more via her web site, janebadler.com.

Night Terrace has reached 80% of it’s budget but we still need to cross that line to produce the show! Become a backer now!