|
Juke Magazine, 30th May, 1992. By Dino Scatena
The boys are back - this time in space - for a second series of DAAS Kapital. But will they be able to cope with another bout of abuse from the critics back on Earth? DINO SCATENA joins the mayhem.
"And as for the new flag!" Tim Ferguson is talking. Raving, perhaps. "F**k me!" Yes. Raving. "We do not want a new Australian flag for a simple reason. "Sure, we know the Union Jack is a pile of crap and shouldn't be on our flag. Sure, I've never seen the Southern Cross and actually doubt its existence: I don't know what the fifth big one is doing there. But we don't actually want it because we know that the next
Australian flag will be green and gold and that makes me want to spew!"
Tim, we're told, is in a peculiar mood today. The remaining Allstars, Paul and Richard, aren't too far behind either. You see, the lads haven't seen each other for two weeks and there's some catching up to be done. "And it's probably been the most pleasant two weeks of my entire life," says Paul. "But, once again, you can see the happiness and joy rolling of our cheeks."
Here in the ABC's Melbourne studios, conversational conventions have been asked to leave the room as the Allstars renew their lust for life and the ridiculous. They've gathered to discuss the second series of DAAS Kapital. The first series was a massive success: despised by critics and completely incomprehensible to most viewers. The new series extends on the winning formula.
Richard: "It's an extension in the sense that it's tacked on the side with a bit of 4x2 and stuff."
Paul: "It continues the incredibly exciting adventures we began in DAAS Kapital 1. Except in the last episode of DAAS Kapital 1, we blasted off into space.... Well, we were destroyed. Unbeknownst to people in Australia we actually blasted into space and now we're circling the earth."
Richard: "We're in a submarine which is stuck to a chunk of rock which is now orbiting the earth."
Tim: "The submarine being called the Titanic II as usual. It's basically just more frolics along the same sort of lines really. More animation."
Paul: "We are building up now to DAAS Kapital III. We've been under the oceans of the world in DAAS Kapital 1, in space in DAAS II and, hopefully in DAAS Kapital III, we'll be in the fourth or fifth dimension."
Richard: "Well, that's Paul's idea actually. I want it to be in a livingroom in LA somewhere. People wearing cardigans and things like that."
Tim: "I actually want to adopt cockney accents, get a fourth member who's a hippy and just have crazy episodes like where we find a bomb in our house or when Alexei Sayle comes to visit."
Richard: "It's new, it's crazy, it just might work."
Tim: "I think we've found our footing a lot more with the second series because we were farting around a lot in the first one, experimenting with all sorts of things. We've basically taken the experiments that worked and done them again. And the ones that failed, we've done them again as well."
Richard: "Including the jokes. We took the jokes that worked and did them again as well."
Tim: "There are a lot less jokes in DAAS Kapital II. We actually feel it was the jokes that were holding us back. It was the jokes that were really confusing people and making the stories hard to comprehend. And there's nothing people like more in comedy than a good story. Much more than a good joke. So there's only in fact seven jokes in DAAS Kapital II and each of those is a cast member. And the director."
Richard: "Tim's mum hated the show. It was that bad. Tim's mother HATED it."
Tim: "I told her we were going to do another series and you know what she said? 'Don't! Do something nice'."
Paul: "If we manage to cut out all of the jokes out of the series, I think it will put us along side other great Australian comedies that are now being shown on commercial stations."
Richard: "When I told my Mum we were doing a second series she said, 'Mmmmm....... Mmmmmm..... Your Big Gig thing is what you do best. Why don't you just stick to that?' Thanks for your support mum."
The second series will undoubtedly be more favourable to all mothers throughout the land as it has the boys delving into such nice themes as Christmas and wonderlands. There's also wicked witches and caterpillars and all things sweet. So what has made these hardened men - brutal and often tasteless anarchists of the mass media - caress and devour themes of such simplicity and beauty?
Richard: "There's sexual overtones in it. That's the attraction."
What? Like, little girls and things?
Paul: "Not necessarily."
Richard: "Hey! No!"
Tim "Not just girls"
Richard: "What's wrong with animals mate?"
Tim: "Why limit yourself? You've got to look ahead. Bestiality is seen as a horror in this world but I believe that if you confine an Alsatian of legal age - consenting, who's happy to go along with it - sure! Go for it! Just as long as it doesn't hurt the dog. And all the dogs that we've used in DAAS Kapital II have been pretty nice dogs.
"Actually, we've chosen things like Christmas, April Fools Day, Alice in Wonderland for episodes because they're good things to hang things on. They're recognisable and they're simple things and it means you can do very complicated and strange things because people go 'Oh, it's Christmas,' and they have that to hang on to and what you put on the coat-hanger can be anything at all. Just gives you a bit more room to move."
Do you think you're coming closer to mastering the beast which is mass media?
Paul: "That's stupid. Next question."
Richard: "No, it's not."
Paul: "Oh, come on! I was just having a joke!"
Richard: "No, I think it's a very fair question. That's a fair question! Tim will answer you shortly."
Tim: "We could never fill Bert Newton's shoes. We could never fill Bert Newton's underwear."
Richard: "Tim, by that, doesn't mean to call Bert Newton the beast which is the mass media."
Tim: "Bert Newton has mastered the mass media. There's no way we could ever do that."
Paul: "The beast of the mass media? No. I think the most amazing thing to come out of the first series was that a lot of our critics were extremely honest with us about what they thought of the show. And of us as personalities and as human beings. And we were hurt for quite some time but we did realise after a while that they were correct when they said it was the most ridiculous show on Australian television and never should have been shown.
"People were right to say that. We were sorry. We did offensive work, we did demeaning work."
Tim: "We thought when we sold it to the United States - a cable network there - and to, strange enough, Japan and also to certain European countries that we had a good product there. But...."
Paul: "The journalists were right. They were right to say those cruel, demeaning things about us."
Richard: "Hurtful, personal things."
Paul: "And it's not their fault that most of them are over 65 and went straight from the f**cking Marconi set and then on to the wireless and then somehow they shifted across to television because it was a visual medium: most of them are half blind anyway.
"Not that that really matters because I respect and love them as human beings. It doesn't help when you're being swabbed down by the nurse or having your bath there to have something to laugh at. If you're laughing and you're 65, it's a problem because it shakes up all your insides, you're more likely to have a heart attack, your arteries have gone hard around your heart, you don't need this sort of thing when you're old.
"What's quite amazing is that after the showing of DAAS Kapital 1 - that incredibly-popular-for-the-people-of-Australia series - a lot of critics have, for some reason, died. Most of those critics have died of old age."
Tim: "We want to give something back to Australia. I've got a cold and a flu and I'd like to give something back to this country."
It's not a problem for you to get anything out, like a book or a record or a TV show.
Tim: "It's because we do it ourselves. That's the only way to get it done. If we hung around and waited for other bastards to come up and offer us books or films or art exhibitions or this or that or the other thing, nothing would ever happen.
"The only way to do it is to do it yourself. It takes twice as much time but it actually does happen. By 'mastering the mass media', if you mean can we get things to happen for us easily, we've never tried. Because you've just got to fiddle with too many willies and stand on your knees too often."
Is truth a subjective concept in the world of mass media?
Richard: "Absolutely."
Tim: "Truth is subjective at any time. There's no such thing as truth. If there is such a thing as truth, you'd be able to prove that God existed."
Richard: " For me, God is like a huge, enormous lemming. You probably don't believe that yourself but I know in my heart that's true. So, for me, that's a subjective truth. Reality, in general, for us is very much a subjective thing. And the circumstances may change from one day to the next."
Tim: "Many people may say Richard is a flatulent dickhead. Is it true or is it not? Who knows."
Richard: "Myself, I disagree. While the idea of Richard as a flatulent dickhead is true for Tim, it's not true for me."
Paul: "And funny enough, I look at Richard and I see a lemming. Which is weird because Richard has that image of God. And it's probably not true that Richard's a lemming."
Tim: "Whenever I'm talking to Christians, I say 'Explain dinosaurs!' That shuts them up for over an hour."
Richard: "It's very sad, I think, that Tim is so easily fooled and pandered to by Satanist archaeologists."
Tim: "Hey, there's nothing wrong with Satanism. Apart from the fact that it's inherently stupid.
"If you think about it, Satanism is very silly because if you say, 'I believe in Satan', it means you must believe in his opposite God, which everyone knows is a really stupid idea."
"So, Satanists are saying, 'I believe in God who created everything - the master of the universe - but I'd much rather believe in this guy because he says I can put my finger up my bottom and dance around a fire naked with a few of my friends from the office. And every now and again, when we get really excited, we can strangle a chook!
"Well, my my, that's so bloody scary! Satanists are not tough at all. All Satanists do is f***k and kill the odd chook and maybe the odd person. Well, big deal! I'm so scared! Watch me run screaming from the room in terror!"
|
