Massage My Medium
Starring: Mark Fennell and Dan Ilic
Appearing at: Arthur’s Bar at Rosati, Melbourne, for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

At one point in the show, Dan Ilic made a throwaway comment that this was his and Marc Fennell’s pitch for their own Gruen Transfer-style show about the TV industry’s personalities, foibles and clichés. The thing was, I totally believed him. This is the only show I’ve seen all Comedy Festival that has an opening credit sequence. There was a celebrity guest and throws to pre-recorded segments. It was being filmed. And we were the studio audience.

Perhaps it’s a sophisticated meta-commentary on TV that the show itself is constructed like a TV show, but Ilic and Fennell are both industry-savvy types. Ilic has worked on all three commercial networks and pay TV, Fennell has worked for SBS and ABC, and both have plenty of experience creating online content. I couldn’t help but see this as a live series pilot rather than a standalone comedy show.

Ilic and Fennell contend that while the kind of content we think of as “TV” is alive and kicking, the medium of network television is moribund, catering to an increasingly dull and imaginary idea of outer-suburban spectatorship rather than asking what people might actually want to see and how they’d like to see it. The research that’s gone into the show is really impressive, although it often proves how shamelessly TV networks rip things off from each other and from elsewhere.

Later, we discover the secrets of viral video and learn that internet content can be both more popular and more lucrative than network content. That’s perfectly demonstrated by the cheeky commercial parodies Ilic has produced of Freeview Australia and Tourism Australia’s “So Where The Bloody Hell Are You?” campaign. However, this segment felt more like an industry presentation on ‘monetization’ than a comedy routine.

It’s all very slick stuff, and performed with plenty of polish. Fennell and Ilic are energetic and likeable in slightly different ways – Ilic is more of roguish rabble-rouser, Fennell more of a nerdy fanboy. They come across like genuine enthusiasts (wa-hey!), and they bounce well off each other. The pre-recorded segments are also fun and well produced, especially one hosted by Fennell that’s about TV station idents – the branding spots you never seem to notice, except if they’re really irritating and poorly done.

The show’s celebrity guests in Mebourne include Wil Anderson, Ed Kavalee and – the jewel in the crown! – Dicko, but we got Glenn Robbins. He took to the stage looking as though he’d been abruptly woken up five minutes earlier, and shared some behind-the-scenes yarns from his earlier days in TV. Trouble was, he seemed to be speaking only to Ilic, leaving Fennell standing there awkwardly.

While it’s more an infotainment show for the media-savvy than a comedy routine, there are plenty of laughs to be had as Ilic and Fennell point out the kind of small absurdities you often notice while you’re sitting in front of the box on the couch, but never get to tell anyone. Watch out for Massage My Medium on a station – or a computer screen – near you.