News October 27, 2015

Mushroom launches comedy arm, Frontier Comedy

Former Editor

Mushroom Group’s Frontier Touring is making its mark on the comedy industry under the banner Frontier Comedy.

Michael Gudinski has enlisted tour manager, advertising executive and owner of Melbourne’s Cherry Bar James Young, along with comedian/tour manager Matthew Hardy (who has written for Ricky Gervais) for the new venture.

James Young and Matthew Hardy had previously been booking comedy at Melbourne’s The YarravilleClub with their company Young & Hardy. The pair also write and produce comedy including the unauthorised parody of Breaking Bad, One Man Breaking Bad, penned by Hardy.

This year alone the pair had five international comedy shows that they’d self-produced, and according to Young it was this “accidental” feat that piqued the interest of Mushroom Group’s Michael Gudinski.

“Mushroom has clocked on to the fact that there’s a massive appetite for comedy from the public,” Young told TMN. “[…] Michael Gudinski’s a very clever man he likes to have his fingers in lots of pies but doesn’t like to go in to a new area without expert advice in his ear.”

While Mushroom’s promoter arm Frontier Touring has dabbled in live comedy in the past – having promoted sold out national dates for Flight of the Concords and Chris Tucker – this is the first concrete move into the comedy sector.

“It was very good timing because Matthew and I were outgrowing ourselves at Yarraville and we were trying to find a partner who could put our company on steroids and lead us to bigger and better things,” Young said.

Frontier Comedy will be headed up by Young and Hardy, but the pair meet regularly with Mushroom’s executives and when the arm’s projects leave the ‘whiteboard’ per se, they’ll have full use of Mushroom Group’s creative, design, marketing, digital and logistics teams.

“Matthew and I have been a little two-man team doing everything ourselves; can you imagine the excitement and the thrill of finally being able to say ‘oh would you like to tap into this incredible 17-person marketing team who are experts in ticketing and social media?

“Mushroom the most successful independent music company in the world and everyone knows that,” Young added. “Who wouldn’t be excited about working with them and tapping into the incredible Mushroom machine?”

Young does have a strong background in marketing however. He has owned his own advertising agency in the past, owns and books Cherry Bar in AC/DC Lane Melbournealong with its associated music festivals CherryFest and CherryRock, and owns independent labels Rubber Records and Zatzit.

Frontier Comedy will have a focus on showcasing local and international acts and developing local acts. The initial plan is to look into a number of local comics who are touring small national venues.

“One of our reasons [for looking into local comics] is to look for the next Dame Edna Everage,” said Young. “To sign someone, who with the help of a clever and caring team, can develop a new show that’s much bigger and much more of an extravaganza, and take it out of the comedy clubs and into the theatres.

“Obviously as Mushroom has done with Australian musical talent, we feel that once we’ve conquered and shared that talent with Australia there’s a real opportunity – as with Barry Humpries and Dame Edna Everage – to take it to the world.”

In fact, Young told TMN there are plans to produce original shows with the possibility of tapping into Mushroom’s production and distribution company Mushroom Pictures. “We’re already in a discussion with a couple of TV show possibilities involving the opportunity to display and share comedy with Australia,” said Young.

Launching Frontier Comedy is the new stage tour from treasured local comedian Effie aka Mary Coustas. Effie – The Virgin Bride is Coustas’ biggest production to date taking in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney in February/March 2016 (dates below).

Young has said international acts are already locked in for next year: “Look out for Mushroom to announce some big international names in comedy coming out in 2016.”

EFFIE – THE VIRGIN BRIDE

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2016

Frontier Members pre-sale via frontiertouring.com/effie

Tue 27 Oct (2pm AEDT) to Wed 28 Oct (2pm AEDT)
(or ends earlier if pre-sale allocation exhausted)

General public on sale Friday 30 October, 10am (local time)

Thu 4 Feb (8pm) Comedy Theatre | Melbourne, VIC (Preview show)

Fri 5 Feb (7pm) Comedy Theatre | Melbourne, VIC

Sat 6 Feb (7pm) Comedy Theatre | Melbourne, VIC

Sun 7 Feb (5pm) Comedy Theatre | Melbourne, VIC

Fri 26 Feb (7pm) Astor Theatre | Perth, WA

Sat 27 Feb (7pm) Astor Theatre | Perth, WA

Fri 4 Mar (7pm) Tivoli | Brisbane, QLD