Why Do Musical Comedians Strike Such A Chord With Audiences?

For Andrew Hansen, Michelle Brasier and Sammy J (or Sam McMillan when he’s offstage), writing musical comedy is about so much more than putting a couple of gags over a few chords and calling it a day. There’s a complicated and demanding craft at hand, and one that can manifest differently between each and every comic.

For all three performers, the mantle of ‘musical comedian’ is not necessarily an accurate one for their endeavours. While the entertainers are more than happy to be classified under that genre, they admit there’s more to their comedic personas than just jokes and tunes. “I probably consider myself a writer more than a performer,” says McMillan, who recently took up the role of breakfast presenter on ABC Radio Melbourne. “Or, at least, I try to put them on an equal footing because I’m really happy when I’m on my own writing a show or a book or whatever it may be. In that sense, the words are so important to me, and radio has been so interesting because I don’t worry about what I look like or what clothes I’m wearing or what my face is doing, I’m just really focused on the words. The biggest challenge I’ve found is actually just to concentrate. I have to focus for two and a half hours on every word, and if I don’t then the audience pick up on something that I haven’t and I just look like an idiot.”

“I’m not a stand-up at all, really,” Hansen admits. “I’m not the kind of guy who can just stand there and yabber on, so my show has all these weird little bits and pieces: music, characters, silly voices - all that sort of stuff going on.” 

“I’ve put it together into a suite of different songs on different topics, but they’re all kind of related," he adds of his comedic style. "I’ve got bits and pieces about things like that Ava Max song about being a psycho [Sweet But Psycho], I’ve got some children’s music in there... it’s not safe for children, mind you. It’s children’s music for grown-ups.” 

For Brasier, whose background stretches into the worlds of live music and stage theatre, setting the tone of the piece from the outset is vital. “I think it’s important to walk into a room, decide how you want your audience to feel, and completely pour your energy into that,” she muses. “You don’t want to make them feel confused, because then they can’t feel anything else. It’s hard to laugh or think if you don’t know where you’re supposed to be in the narrative of it all.”

Brasier is also well aware that her new solo piece is quite a thematic throw from her previous MICF appearances. Perhaps best known for her high energy duo Double Denim (along with co-creator Laura Frew), the comic notes that her solo work takes a very different tone, stating, “We’re very specific about what we want to do as a duo. We want to create this party atmosphere and find people in the room and think, ‘How can we make this better for them?’ It’s completely about joy, and the only message is that it’s a feminist show by way of showcasing that women can be just as stupid as men. We’re absurd and gross but we just want our shows to be a little bit of an escape. Average Bear is obviously really different to that and it’s exciting to be able to have that different side come out.” 

Speaking of the contrast between solo and duo work, Brasier says, “I think all the Double Denim stuff is deliberately silly because it’s not really about using our musical skills for that stuff. It’s about just having a party and having fun, and this is more just about using my voice to really properly manipulate some feelings in the audience.”

Hansen, too, is feeling a shift from his group work while going it alone. “It’s wonderful to be free of the dead weight of all those other guys,” he jokes of his time away from Aus comedy legends The Chaser. “I love working with other people, but I do like that when you’re on your own you don’t have to get anyone to agree... I think I’ve maybe learnt how to [do comedy] a bit differently over the years. It’s nice to be able to have a lot of control over musical comedy, and one of the things that I’ve done with my show is that a lot of the songs have my own recordings of multitrack instruments. That way, I can have exact control over the sound and where the drums and guitars come in. I find it’s much easier and more effective to convey the jokes in that way, because so much of it is timing. I like to micromanage the songs, and I think they just kind of land better that way, I’m very fussy about the details of them and making sure everything is in the right place. Hopefully, the tech won’t fail me.”

As for McMillan - arguably the most seasoned of the three when it comes to solo comedy - the introspection comes in seeing just how much his abilities have developed over the last decade of performing. “Ten years ago, the songs I was writing were all 90 seconds long, and sometimes quite terrible,” he laughs. “I’ve gotten a lot better musically and I’m enjoying trying to stretch myself a little more in that respect. I still consider myself very low on the rung of musical talent, but I know if I’ve at least made a catchy tune. It’s nice to back myself a bit more than I used to. I looked at this show with an eye on variety of the music as well, because one person sitting at a piano for an hour can get pretty repetitive if it’s not offering something different throughout that.” 

He also says of his growing fanbase, “I think I’ve learnt that I also had some anxiety about burning my songs too quickly. I’ll write a song, and then I’ll think that if someone has heard it once on YouTube, they’ll never want to hear it again. I’m slowly realising that this isn’t the case. Even in the trial shows, I’m doing some songs that I might have performed on TV two or three years ago, and people actually want to hear it. They’re familiar with it and they know how it goes, but they still want to hear it. That’s a nice little relief to remember: that the songs have a bit more lasting power than just the jokes. People start clapping when you do those first few chords of a song, and it’s exciting because they know all the jokes that are about to come but they’re still looking forward to the song. That’s a nice spot to get to.”