Dan Harmon Came To Australia And Ripped Into Our Incredibly Wanky Food Scene
"Rockpool is what would happen "if the Little Rascals built 'Eyes Wide Shut'."
Between Community and Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon is clearly one of the funniest guys in TV. But in-between creating and running these shows, he also puts together a live comedy show and podcast called Harmontown. I’ve never listened to Harmontown, but I got my chance to watch it happen live this weekend as part of the Sydney Opera House’s BingeFest.
The whole crowd for this sold out show were clearly huge, huge fans. They started lining up an hour before doors opening and when the perplexed Opera House attendant told them doors weren’t opening for a while and they should go get a drink, they politely ignored her. The Brisbane and Melbourne shows on the previous nights had set Reddit on fire and expectations were high.
If you’ve never heard of it, the show consists of Harmon and his mates Spencer Crittenden and Jeff B. Davis saying funny stuff on stage and getting progressively more drunk over the course of two hours. The live performance is also recorded for the Harmontown podcast.
One of my least favourite things in the world is podcasts consisting entirely of mates who think they’re the funniest people ever and make in-jokes for an hour. That is essentially the concept behind Harmontown but somehow it manages to transcend the formula and present something that’s both funny and charming. (At one point he even pulled off a solid Peter Garrett impersonation. His Australian cultural references might have been dated — ‘Beds are Burning’? come on) — but he nailed Garrett’s voice and dance style).
.@danharmon's in the House! #BingeFest pic.twitter.com/um0dl02BEM
— Sydney Opera House (@SydOperaHouse) December 17, 2016
Another highlight was Harmon and co. ripping into the absurdity of uber pretentious Sydney restaurant Rockpool. He described it as “if the Little Rascals built Eyes Wide Shut.”
Rockpool’s rules are notoriously strict and include things like “Don’t look fiercely at people” and “Gentlemen, don’t interrupt or join any conversation, but if it is general you may seem interested.”
Harmon ended up filming a video on his phone of the journey from his table at Rockpool to the bathroom. It was like an Odyssean epic involving random stoves, two waiters dressed as The Rock doing their tax returns, a locked service room and a visit to purgatory.
Foreigners tearing apart Sydney’s grotesque food scene: Five stars (though it’s worth pointing out Harmon did say the food was pretty good).
Later in the show Harmon turned his mind to current affairs and brought audience members onto the stage to discuss how screwed the politics is both here and in the US. Harmon isn’t shy about sharing his political views on Twitter (he really, really doesn’t like Trump) and his fans clearly respect and crave his insights.
Harmon was also very generous in sharing his thoughts on the process of TV writing and comedy, walking through a young, wannabe TV comedy writer on the dos and don’ts of script-writing.
.@danharmon's 3 writing do's:
1. Prove that you suck
2. Write a shitty draft
3. Write what you know#BingeFest— Stephanie Yousleigh (@stephameye) December 17, 2016
This stuff was great, but unfortunately it was interrupted with Harmon’s stories about the kind of sexual roleplays he and his girlfriend are into. I didn’t think they were that funny, but the crowd loved it. Nearly everyone I spoke too had bought tickets for the second show on Sunday night.
Overall, despite my lack of background knowledge, it was a pretty fun experience. Harmon manages to turn one of the stalest forms of comedy into something genuinely interesting and progressive. I’m happy to chalk up the weird moments to not being regular listener of Harmontown.
The podcast of Harmontown’s Australian shows will be released online sometime during summer. Until then you can check out older episodes here.
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You can read our full recap of BingeFest here.