Many Australian media organisations have neither the resources nor the expertise to preserve their own history. Libraries and archives like the NFSA do what they can, but by necessity they tend to focus on mainstream and commercial cinema, television, and radio. The work of independent producers, podcasters, and community broadcasters is often overlooked. Web hosting bills don’t get paid, RSS feeds succumb to link rot, and YouTube channels get taken down due to automated copyright strikes. As a result, much of Australia’s vibrant comedy history is perpetually under threat of becoming lost, or otherwise inaccessible to the public.
For several years I have been maintaining an archive of Australian comedy media, with the intention of preserving it for future use by researchers and academics. It consists mostly of television and podcasts, but also films, literature, and other odds and ends such as interviews and media clippings. I am especially interested in preserving the early-career work of comedians who started on community television or radio before becoming more widely recognised in stand-up or mainstream comedy media.
I am currently seeking:
- Episodes of the ABC2 talk show John Conway Tonight / Aaron Chen Tonight
- Full episodes of these community television shows:
- Under Melbourne Tonight (1993–1998)
- The Loft Live (1997–1998)
- What’s Goin’ On There? (1999)
- Whose Shout (1999)
- Raucous (2001–2002)
- Radio Karate (2003)
- The Shambles (2004–2008)
- The Ugly Stick (2006)
- In Wollongong Tonight (2007)
- Sketchmen (2007)
- Barnaby Flowers / Barnaby Flowers Bumper Bonanza (2007)
- Twentysomething (RMITV version, 2007)
- Planet Nerd (2007)
- Studio A (2008–2011)
- The Mutant Way (DeakinTV, 2009)
- Socially Inadequate (2009)
- The Broken Ones (2011)
- Live on Bowen (2012–2015)
- Familympics (2012), Famous with Luis (2014), Fishcam (2014), and any other Djovan Caro / Luis Brown project
- Community Kitchen (2014–2015)
- About Tonight (2015–2016)
- The Leak with Pat McCaffrie (2015–2021)
- Silent Comedy (2019)
- Any other comedy programmes that went to air on Channel 31 (Melbourne) and Channel 44 (Adelaide), and comedy radio programmes that aired on SYNfm or other community radio stations
If you have access to any of these pieces of media, please contact me. The archive is for preservation and scholarly purposes only, and any material received will not be made public.