Conserving comedic history no laughing matter

Mary Kenneally’s pioneering career in comedy began when she was studying at the University of Melbourne in the late 1960s. By the time she graduated as a Bachelor of Arts with honours and a Bachelor of Laws, Mary Kenneally had established a central place in the evolution of contemporary comedy.

From her inner-city Melbourne base, she went on to attract national recognition and inspire a generation of future comediennes.

“I wrote my first professional show for the Archi (Architects’) Revue,” says Ms Kenneally. “It was performed at the Uni’s Guild Theatre and was a crazy, funny thing we called How Many Sugars Do You Have in Your Nose, Vicar?”.

Along with fellow University of Melbourne students, Archi Revue performers and Carlton habitués – including fellow comedic pioneers such as Steve Blackburn, Geoff Brooks, Peter Browne, Sue Ingelton, Evelyn Krape, Tim Robertson and Rod Quantock – Mary Kenneally went on to develop the lethally satirical and high-rating Australian sketch comedy Australia You’re Standing In It (AYSII), first screened by the ABC in 1983.

“We had a specific brief when we started out,” says Ms Kenneally. “And that was to find a contemporary, Australian comedic voice. And once found, places to perform in.”

Theatre restaurants like the Comedy Café and the Banana Lounge, established and owned by Ms Kenneally and her comedic partners, provided two such venues from which to encourage and present new talent, eventually leading to overtures from radio and television and an Australia-wide audience.

And, importantly, a stage from which women working in the performing arts could project a strong presence and a loud voice.

“For most of the twentieth century, comedy was a strongly male-dominated performing sphere where women existed – with one or two exceptions – as the object of public comedy, rather than its producers and deliverers,” says Ms Kenneally.

“The opening of venues where women could produce and perform comedy was done on a shoestring and without support funding of any kind.”

According to Associate Professor Robyn Sloggett, Director of the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation (CCMC), Mary Kenneally gave a new voice and empowerment to women in the arts.

“In the process, she substantially altered the way women were depicted in the public spaces and public psyche that comedy has occupied,” Professor Sloggett says.

However, the frenetic pace of this revolution meant that precious little of it was recorded.

“Live comedy is, of its very nature, ephemeral and, especially in those early years when the challenges were of the moment, little thought was given to preserving scripts, posters or costumes and electronically recording performances was expensive or, in the case of video, non-existent,” Ms Kenneally says.

According to Professor Sloggett there has been little serious documentation of the experience of women in comedy, particularly in the formative years of the 1960s and 1970s.

“So it’s really crucial that no more time is lost in preserving this important cultural heritage,” she says.

“Much of the historical and archival material is lost or fading, and there is an urgent need to collect and conserve the evidence of this very significant achievement before we lose access to the work and the people who were key in this development.”

Now, with a grant from the Victorian Women’s Trust, CCMC has been able to undertake a project titled ‘Laugh out loud: preserving the memory of women in comedy in Melbourne from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s which will document this significant era in the history of Australian comedy.

“We will identify, document, retrieve, recover and preserve original materials, such as audio and videotapes, interviews, radio and television broadcasts, artwork etc, and supplement these with interviews that identify their context and significance”, says Associate Professor Sloggett.

“Mary began her pioneering career as a comedienne in Melbourne and this project will be able to utilise her knowledge and expertise to examine and document the social and cultural consequences of the rise of women in Melbourne comedy.”

The project will spawn a wealth of material, including a written history by Mary Kenneally from which a film documentary will be developed, the establishment of a database that records the material culture associated with the work of women in the emerging comedy scene in Melbourne from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s, a project website, public lecture and multimedia exhibition.

As such, it will be the genesis of a larger project, in collaboration with leading cultural institutions, to trace performances from the Archi Revue and AYSII to The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, thereby providing the basis for an extended history of comedy in Australia.

“Thanks in large part to Mary Kenneally’s work, comedy has become a respected field of artistic endeavour,” says Associate Professor Sloggett. “The Melbourne International Comedy Festival was launched and Australian women’s voices have continued to grow and grow in such shows as The Big Gig, Fast Forward, Big Girls’ Blouse, Kath and Kim, to mention just a few positive consequences of her pioneering forays.”

www.cultural-conservation.unimelb.edu.au