Young Talent Time

If you haven't been listening to SYN breakfast radio you have been missing out. I have been listening and I have been missing out on sleep. I mean fuck can't we all agree just to start our day at 10? fuck.
Anyway I just wanted to say I dig these kids on SYN's breakfast program get cereal, and they have their last show tomorrow, I mean the show will continue but the hosts wont, and in its own way, thats kind of cool too. I mean they are on to a good thing but they'll churn through hosts and not let the show stagnate either.
Plus if I wasn't getting paid there'd be only so long that I was willing to get up at 5am every day.
Anyhoo, I couldn't put my finger on what it is that makes me think this breakfast crew is particularly good, possibly the most enjoyable since the McDermott and Mikey Robbins days of my youth on triple j, though I now dislike both as comedians. Mikey you ruined the bouncing man act!
Anyway I couldn't put my finger on it until I watched what was possibly the worst episode of Spicks and Specks ever. My housemate is a fan of spicks and specks and I would rather sit on the couch than do anything productive with my life. The shows redeeming qualities are Alan and if they manage to get a good guest and not a total douche like the dude from Augie Marsh that was on. Miff makes me angry she gets paid at all (and furthermore along with Jay and 'the doctor' are the funky cool faces of jjj now, what the fuck?) and Adam Hills I believe Morley summed up as smarmy and talantless.
I just don't know whats going on with casting, I wouldn't have thought it hard to find, someone more rock, someone more comedian, someone more likable than adam hill.
Anyway, I take the role of the guy who yells out swear words at the TV and now the Wednesday double feauture of Shane Borne and Adam Hills is my swearingest swear fest.
But it clicked, last night it clicked ABC has the same problem I do/did? We are both trying to recapture the glory days of the early 90's where alternate rock took over the world for approximately 2 years.
Whereas the get cereal crew from SYN they are just themselves and that's what being cool really is.
Specifically, Spicks and Specks last night had a section where Adam Hills danced and the contestants had to name the dances, a departure from normal proceedure? yes. funny, entertaining or worth the time? no. But the subtext I sensed was that somewhere, producers, contestants and all in the studio were having the proud thought "you don't see this on 1 vs 100" maybe patting themselves on the back thinking "that really looks spontaneous" and combined with a few set ups like the mood music of mna mna and singing mna mna with the panel it came across as totally trying to pretend that Adam Hills and perhaps on a broader level Spicks and Specks and on a broader level yet the ABC is perhaps a little more off the wall, a little more raw, a little more cutting edge than it is.
Infact after they dedicated two or three minutes to Alan reenacting the Madman shuffle something that probably was spontaneous but more importantly not actually entertaining. The only feeling I was left with is, this whole experience is like going to poorly attended, birthday party of somebody you don't like on a night when you'd rather be doing something else and you all gather round to sing happy birthday but in your heart there is no joy, only pitty.
And to be fair, this was a particularly bad episode of Spicks and Specks, normally it follows the formula they have Dave O'neil or Peter Hellier or Hamish McDude, all dissapointingly commercial comedians that tend to do well on the show and the questions are straight forward and somebody says something funny.
But the tragedy is that I get a feeling that someone out there is proud of the worst episode of spicks and specks being somehow what tv should be all about, A Dead Poets Society standing on desks type of craziness.
Get Cereal is much harder to analyse than something bad. You know what I like about it, its a schoolyard conversation made public. Tim Brown is one understated comedian, Bryce explained how he had sort of this secret following from Kicking behinds, his mind is fragmented and sharp and he uses cunt strategies when debating Kiara who can talk, Kiara I gotta give props to as a female host for a being able to get a word in between SPK and Tim brown and fucking just be funny. Maybe a little too dominating but it works. And SPK is just a lovable nerd, funny in his own right but such a good dynamic that is totally like the schoolyard group dynamic that made going to school bearable. Smart-arse nerds, that's what I like, not trying to quest after a holy grail of alternative culture. It doesn't try to promote its own credentials, it just is what it is. There spontaneity is just bringing a paper in and talking shit about the articles, and then they talk to the many volunteers SYN has to create their own distinct programming, and some interviews and thats it. No radio dramas, no impressions just talking shit.
Anyway they have their last show as hosts tomorrow and listen in, especially if your an ABC producer looking for ideas.