Swag On The Beat On Bringing ‘HIGHER Octane’ Comedy To Stages: ‘It’s The Most Natural Place To Be’

If you’re anything like us here at Purple Sneakers, you’ve probably wasted hundreds of hours scrolling aimlessly through TikTok, fiercely procrastinating sleep, work or study in pursuit of the perfect dopamine hit. And every time a new skit from Swag On The Beat pops up on your FYP, you can’t help but light up a little inside.

The trio of Melbourne-based comedians – comprising Sam Zito, Jack Say and Isaac Gibbons – started whacking up their skits in the middle of 2020, quickly going viral for their quippy and loveable (and instantly relatable) humour. They’ve since racked up over two million followers across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, becoming one of the most popular comedy groups in Australia.

Now, they’re taking their swag to the streets, with their national tour Swag On The Beat: Unplugged hitting stages all around the country throughout July. Up next on the itinerary are their two shows in Queensland – they’ll take to the HOTA stage on the Gold Coast this Thursday (July 13), before whipping over to the Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane on Friday (July 14). Tickets to those shows – and the remaining dates in Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra – can be found here.

Ahead of the local dates, we caught up with Swag On The Beat to learn a little more about the buzziest show on the circuit right now.

So we know this will be your first time hitting the touring circuit as Swag On The Beat, but do y’all have much personal experience with performing live?
Very excited to have the trio together on tour! Yes, Jack and Isaac are both guitarists – Jack plays in a gypsy jazz band and Isaac plays in a doom metal band. Sam is a regular stand-up comedian as well!

What can we all expect from Swag On The Beat’s live-in-concert experience?
A variety of onstage sketches, original music, cinematic throws to the screen – so far in the tour we’ve had some pretty interesting improv moments between ourselves and the crowd.

When the idea came about to take Swag On The Beat out to the streets, what was your modus operandi?
The live show is an evolution of the sketches you’ve seen online, except we’ve got more time to create story arches and be even more cheeky – it feels like that stage is the most natural place for Swag to be – if you’ve seen any of our stuff online it’s true to that style but HIGHER octane.

What are the biggest upsides and downsides of going viral on the internet?
Hard so say, we’ve had some pretty amazing experiences from our work online. I think the most rewarding thing is knowing that we’ve created and built Swag on our own, without the help of a network – it really makes us feel like Swag is as authentic as it could possibly be. The main downside is for Jack’s brother Walter, who gets spotted out and about for looking like Jack. So if you see a guy that looks like Jack, just know it’s probably his younger brother Walter.

I think it goes without saying that your comedy invites a certain kind of chaotic energy. With that in mind, what’s the most unhinged encounter you’ve had with a fan?
One that happens quite a lot is people sending us pictures of ourselves to our Instagram account – our response is usually “thanks for letting me know”.

Beyond this tour, what does the future hold for Swag On The Beat?
We have a few big projects in the works whilst we tour around, we have a really exciting product collab on the way (top secret), we’ve written a show for TV, and we’re really enjoying doing hosting gigs too. Swag is just getting started!

Among the three of you, who has the most swag, and who would make the sickest beats?
Really tough one to split us into who’s the most swag – also if I write my name down it’ll be obvious who’s in charge of the keyboard as we write these answers. But just so it’s known, the most swag of the group is also very handsome and smart and cool. Beats would have to be a dead heat between Isaac and Jack, who both play music – though let’s not forget Sam was the coolest guy in year nine because he DJ’d at every party.

SWAG ON THE BEAT
UNPLUGGED

Thursday July 13 – Gold Coast, HOTA
Friday July 14 – Brisbane, Fortitude Music Hall
Sunday July 16 – Sydney, State Theatre
Thursday July 20 – Perth, Astor Theatre
Saturday July 22 – Adelaide, Norwood Concert Hall
Wednesday July 26 – Canberra, Canberra Theatre Centre

Tickets: livenation.com.au