Reviewed at the Sydney Opera House, Saturday December 17 – Sunday December 18 (photo by Daniel Boud)
The Sydney Opera House’s newest inaugural festival is perhaps the least expected thing to happen at the venue since rock gigs – a series of panels, podcasts and performances dedicated to the dank and crispy world of internet obsession.
Less still could we expect, in the age of Bairdian lockouts, for SOH to be encouraging people to stay overnight in the Joan Sutherland Foyer, buoyed by unlimited Street Fighter access, Redfern Convenience Store’s globally sourced snacks, and a cushy bed under the watchful eye of a De Rucci mannequin.
The event kicked off with the single most uncomfortable panel to grace the stage outside of FODI: The Harambe Memorial Service. Despite a collection of clever comics and surprising academic cred, this dissection by a panel in their 30s of the year’s hottest memes was neither dank nor spicy. Ironically, as Dan Ilic introduced the concept of dead memes and #normiezone, stating that “It’s all over once you get on Ellen,” he seemed awkwardly aware of how closely the event embodied those concepts and how far past cool they all looked. The panel itself – Twitter comic Bec Shaw, Instagram celebrity Celeste Barber, YouTuber Superwog (AKA Theo Saidden) and no-shit meme scholar Emma Balfour – seemed just as fidgety, with Saidden in particular looking totally lost. It didn’t set a promising tone for the event, despite providing a few nostalgic laughs. James Colley was wise not to rock up.
Fortunately, Christopher Borrelli of the Chicago Tribune was around to lift the mood in his address When TV Got High, getting serious talking about ‘middlebrow’ media and how important television is to our existing culture. Sure, there was a little too much Sopranos love, but Borrelli’s impressive knowledge bank alone sustained an hour, providing his audience with both a fascinating insight into TV evolution and a heckin’ watchlist for the holidays.
Naturally, on his watchlist was seminal classic Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which The A.V. Club marathoned through the night for the cosy stay-in crowd. It gave people who weren’t keen on mashing Street Fighter keypads with the boys from professional fighter collective OzHadou some small respite from the queues of people waiting to get into #ANDINTHEEND. The latter, the latest uninspired performance art effort from Shia LaBeouf, Luke Turner and Nastja Säde Rönkkö, saw the trio once again outsource all effort into creating their work to their audience as a means of getting free flights to Australia.
Perhaps this is simply this writer’s cynicism shining through, but the emphasis on “making connections” seems like the artists are merely using their profile to make friends. Whether the face-to-face interaction touched people individually or the LED message board outside spoke some truths to weekend ferrygoers is hard to say, but props must go to the person who supplied this phrase: “#ANDINTHEEND EVERYTHING COMES UP MILLHOUSE” (sic).
Then there was Harmontown, the live podcast recording by supernerd and hero of the people Dan Harmon, which I wish I could say more about, but these sessions sold out incredibly quickly, as did an appearance by Serial creator Julie Snyder. Fortunately, being as they were recorded, you can access them soon via all the normal channels.
Also fortunate was Harmon’s appearance on The Writers’ Room panel, overseen by the acerbic Gretel Killeen. The event was pitched as an opportunity to sit inside the writers’ room and see a brand new show concept come to life, but this took up very little of the overall runtime as none of the panellists had bothered to bring in any material. Harmon is a human stream-of-consciousness, a never-ending supply of witticisms, self-reprimands and segues, and he made the affair effortlessly entertaining, even as it devolved into a discussion of inequality among writers. All credit to the panellists – Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor of Rosehaven fame, and Please Like Me’s Josh Thomas – for their progressive thought, but as they were all on the same side of the debate, it felt less like a powerful statement of progress and more like the echo chamber in which those of us in progressive politics find ourselves increasingly trapped.
The A.V. Club folks returned to see out my festival, running a competition between the three of them as to what the defining TV shows of our age are, decided finally by a randomly selected audience member. This was just a big ol’ TV fan love-in, and as comforting and fun as the Bingefest-goer could want.
It was no doubt the strangest virgin event to appear at the Opera House, and the teething pains were plain, but there’s potential in this youth-oriented festival once it stops trying so hard. Nerd-magnet that it is, it’s still just that little bit #normiezone.
