Jason & Jimmy
give some
Sketchual
Can you tell me a bit about Spark?
Jason: We’ve been working together for
nigh on twenty years, Rik Brown, Karl
McConnell and myself are ‘Spark’.
Jimmy, what’s The Big HOO-HAA! all
about?
Jimmy: ‘The Big HOO-HAA!’ was created by Sam Longley back in Western
Australia. Sam studied at ‘Second City’
With ‘Spark’, we’re doing a bit of a
in Chicago, which is a big sketch mecnewish thing. We’re doing a thing
ca and they base a lot of their sketch
called ‘mono-scene’, which is from the off impro. He created ‘The Big HOO‘Annoyance Theatre’ in Chicago. We
HAA!’ because there seemed to be a bit
just walk out onto the stage, we get
of a stigma around gagging in improv
nothing from the audience, we just look in WA at the time. They had theatre
at each other, we take our time, take
sports, but it was run under an iron fist
maybe a minute to find our spots on
at that time and comedy was seen as a
the stage, kind of take an attitude, look bit of a side-step. So there was comat each other and then someone starts
edy sports before that and then that
and that’s it. Fifty minutes. No cuts, no evolved into ‘The Big HOO-HAA!’,
anything, just one, long scene.
which has been running for about ten
years.
I think I heard this on a podcast and
they had a sample of it and it was just
About three years ago, myself and Miincredible. It would just be silence, peo- chelle Nussey brought it over here. It’s
ple looking at each other for a couple of great because it’s evolved quite a bit beminutes, until someone says something cause of Melbourne audiences, they’re
and you just go from there...
different and I think audiences are
different all over Australia. I like that.
It’s a pure joy, it’s great. We’re touring it Because audience will dictate what
around a little bit now. That’s just like
happens, due to giving suggestions and
elongated sketch now: there are gags
playing a big part in the show, HOOthere, and plenty of them, but it’s one
HAA! Melbourne has really become
scene, three characters, status shifts,
its own. Like Jason said, it really is like
narrative, but we don’t do any hoop
a sketch show: we get our suggestions,
stuff, we don’t do any theatre sports, it’s but the scene are like sketches that we
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