Roll on Floor Laughing: Interview with Brendan Cowell
August 28, 2002
By Sarah Phillips
What was the appealing thing about Life Support to you, as an actor?
The opportunity to be part of a creative that's intent was to unsettle and
illuminate the gaping holes in john howards Australia. To get a chance to
stick a thump up such a gutless country and get some reactions. As an actor
as well to widen the skill base. Comedy is a difficult form. Especially life
support in that the level of satire and parody had to be so finely pitched
so as not to mock presenters. Or sell the joke too early. Also to have
complete involvement in the osmosis of character. Todd changed as I
discovered things and the writers saw me discovering them.
Were the characters in Life Support written by the writers or were they
developed by yourselves?
All characters were fictionally created by Mcdonald Eastway. We, the actors
were heavily involved in their genesis, and their evolution, but not their
conception.
Is there anything that wasn't put into the show because it was felt that
it was going too far?
Funnily enough SBS let most of our material go through, stuff about heroin
and refugees slid through whereas one joke about Red Bull and its dangers
was withheld. Extremely hard to predict what they'll tick and cross. But
they were great in terms of welcoming the envelope pusher sketches.
Was improvisation used in any of the sketches or was it tightly
scripted?
Ah, yeah. There was a fair bit of improv, or on the spot devising. Especially
the mid show chats and joining dialogues. Nearly all the sketches were
tightly scripted though prior to shoot, sometimes added to and perfected on
set.
How do you think Life Support would go overseas?
I think the UK would love it. The yanks aren't funny so they probably
wouldn't go for it. The level of parody and satire is probably a little
difficult to digest for them. But UK and Asia would love it. A few of the
sketches may be a little Sydney, or Australian though. But yeah, I totally
believe it'd work. It's really funny and really intelligent and really
clever.
What do you think the show can say about comedy within Australian
society?
It's possible. We are funny. Shut up and do it.
The complete website is at www22.brinkster.com/roflcomedy/index.html