Innovative production company, Preachrs Podcast OnLine & OnStage has just announced an exciting and massive programme for Adelaide Fringe, which includes comedy, theatre, music and interactive events.
Company founder and creator, Benjamin Maio Mackay broke away from his busy schedule to give us an insight as to what we can look forward to.
SAT: Thanks for your time Benjamin. We are certainly looking forward to Adelaide Fringe next February and March and very excited to hear about the events you have planned. Let’s take a step back momentarily to reflect on what a difficult year this has been. What were the major challenges you faced in the planning of your Fringe events?
BMM: There’s was definitely a time earlier in the year where I doubted that there even would be an Adelaide Fringe. Thankfully South Australia’s response to COVID has been excellent and we’ve managed to get the situation here under control quickly.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been a huge impact on the arts and of course my planning. Firstly the majority of our 2020 shows ended up being cancelled. We were really lucky that we got to produce shows in Hobart, Perth and Adelaide before COVID hit – but we had another 7 months of touring planned – including international shows. Some of that income would’ve gone into producing future shows, so we’re already starting out a little behind.
The planning also started much later this year, which meant everything had to move really fast – normally Fringe registrations are done around August/September – this year the printed guide cutoff was November, so things weren’t able to be locked in until quite recently. That meant there was a lot of stress and dealing with artists, designers, venues etc.
SAT: As well as the planning and uncertainty, what sort of impact and challenges have you faced around the financial aspects of producing shows?
BMM: Budgeting has been very different this year – every venue we’ve got shows in is operating at smaller capacity – rooms typically seating 140 now only seat 60 patrons. Obviously you can’t budget for sell outs every night, so our break even line had to move down to around 30 tickets per show. Therefore we’ve had to be creative when it comes to saving money, as we’ve done our best not to raise ticket prices – as audiences have also had a difficult time during COVID.
SAT: That’s very sensitive of you to be thinking of audiences as well. It certainly has been a difficult time all round. Did you have any other challenges that. you wouldn’t normally face?
BMM: One of the biggest challenges I faced was working out if it was actually going to be possible to bring over anyone from Melbourne. Thankfully it does seem very likely, but I spent a long time wondering how much time/effort to invest in our Melbourne based artist (Bella Green). She won Best Comedy last year, so definitely a jewel in our crown – but with their COVID situation being so dire for so long actually locking in her dates was a decision only made about 4 days prior to registration closing.
(Late Night) Panel Show
SAT: Given the COVID situation, what sort of safety measures have you put in place to ensure guidelines are met and safety for patrons and performers is maintained?
BMM: All our shows will have socially distanced audiences, hand sanitiser available, door sales will be cashless and anyone who is ill is encouraged to stay home. We’re working very hard to ensure all COVID guidelines are met. We’ve even amended audience participation for shows like [Late Night] Panel Show so that audiences can participate from their seats – as they can no longer join us on stage.
SAT: With so many challenges, your Adelaide Fringe programme is even more impressive! You mentioned Bella Green earlier. Could you tell us more about why you are so excited that she could be part of the programme?
BMM: Well firstly I’m excited to bring Bella back to Adelaide because she took out the top comedy award during the 2020 Fringe, as well as a weekly comedy award. Not only is she an award winning comedian, but she has a huge book deal, so she’s currently writing her memoir for a major publisher too. The show itself is incredible, Bella’s stories are filled with humour and emotion. Then on an entirely selfish level Bella is one of my closest friends, so getting to work with someone I love and be in the same state for 3 weeks is an added bonus!
Bella Green, ‘Best Comedy’ winner, Adelaide Fringe 2020
SAT: I understand that your (Late Night) Panel Show has gained quite a following. In its fifth year, what can audiences expect and is it suitable if they have seen this show previously?
BMM: Well the first major change is that our UK born, Perth based host Andrew Silverwood will be stepping away this year as he can’t travel, due to COVID. He’s still actively involved in the writing of the segments and promotion, but it does mean I get to step up and run the madhouse. However, that’s not the only change – every show has a completely different line-up of guest comedians and despite having performed more than 50 shows of [Late Night] not one has ever gotten close to being similar. Audiences members have come every week and seen a different show in the past!
SAT: Popular Fringe performer Jon Bennet, returns with 4 shows. Are they all comedies? I’ve seen ‘Pretending Things are a Cock’ and I don’t want the sensitive hearted to be potential put off by the title – it is a really light hearted, good natured, fantastic and very funny show. Can you tell us more about his shows?
BMM: Jon’s offerings are very diverse and I’m really honoured he asked me to step in and produce him. Also if you’ve seen PTAAC before I’d encourage you to come again this year – there’s a very new take on it, but we’re keeping that under wraps, to surprise audiences.
Rabbit Night!!! is another old favourite, which requires 0 explanation and complete faith that Jon will give you a great experience.
Playing with Men, while being funny could also be put in the theatre category. It’s a show with a real message about toxic masculinity, which I think will resonate strongly with audiences – especially in 2021.
Jon Bennett vs Jason Donovan is an interactive gameshow, which can be hysterical. We’ve been doing some trial shows of this at Arthur Bar on Sunday afternoons and crowds love it. Though, in the show’s long history Jason has won all bar two shows…
SAT: Do you have shows in your programme that are family friendly?
BMM: Absolutely! We’re bringing back Disney Delights, our tribute to the music of Disney for 3 more CBD shows and 1 show in Murray Bridge. This proved hugely popular with families earlier this year, all 3 shows sold out – so we knew we had to bring it back. We’ve also moved the times, so that all the shows are before 5pm to cater for those younger audience members.
SAT: I’m personally very excited that you are bringing back Great Detectives 2! Could you explain what this is about and why you decided to give this one an encore?
BMM: I love this show so much, doing Fringe without it always feels strange. The franchise (there’ve been 3 different shows thus far) is 8 years old this coming year and audiences always come back. We’re also delighted to have our original cast member Julia Sciacca back as Candy, she was overseas last time we did the show – so it’ll be the first time in 3 years the original team are together again.
The two scripts we’re doing are Candy Matson: The Cable Car Case and Johnny Dollar: Murder is a Merry-Go-Round – while we’ve done both of these before they’ve never been paired together in one night, so that’ll be really fun too. We also haven’t done the Cable Car Case since 2016, so it was about time to bring that one back!
Great Detectives
SAT: Are there any other shows you’d like to share with us?
BMM: We’ve got 2 other shows (so 10 in total for 2021!) that I think your comedy fans would love. Firstly Rich Jay: Being Rich But Dying Trying – Rich has travelled and performed all over the world, hosted a radio show in Berlin and motorcycled across Africa. He’s got some very honest and funny stories to tell and his show will be packed full of anecdotes.
Then finally we’ve got local comic JP’s debut solo show. He’s a regular at Cranker, Rhino and AdelMagic Shows and he was so keen to get to finally do an hour – local audiences will absolutely love him.
SAT: Thank you for sharing your insights and your exciting programme with us and best of luck for the season, particularly with this challenging year.
BMM: You’re absolutely right in saying that it’s been a challenging year for the arts – but we’re trying to make the best of the situation and present the people of South Australia with a diverse and creative program for Adelaide Fringe 2021.
SAT: By the sounds of this engaging and carefully planned programme, you have ticked all the boxes!
Tickets and more information for the first 5 shows are available below:
Bella Green is Charging For It
Keep an eye on Preachrs Podcast OnLine & OnStage Facebook page and Adelaide Fringe website for updates and ticket bookings.
