FAQs

What? Who?

Better Billionaires Australia (BBA) is a University of Melbourne, School of Social and Political Science PhD research project belonging to anthropologist Jack Brady. The project is being supervised by Associate Professor Lauren Rosewarne and co-supervised by the Chair of Social Anthropology, Professor Andrew Dawson. The project is titled “You Can’t Laugh at That! The Politics of Laughter and Australian Overidentification Satire”

This project is Participatory Action Research (PAR). The project will ask questions about how and when comedians and/or satirists moderate their content because of social and political pressures. This research aims to put the voices of satirists and comedians first.  It will assist in better understandings of how power relationships and politics impact Australian comedy production.

What is Overidentification Satire?

This kind of satire may make audiences both laugh and feel uncomfortable by mocking political reality closely. Australian examples of this type of comedy are Clarke and Dawe, Mark Humphries, Sammy J and Honest Government Ads.

Are you a comedian? Would you like to participate?

If you have experience performing comedy in topics that are considered political or not, you are welcome to participate. However, you need to have at least 5 years performance experience at a level where you have been involved in comedy production. That might mean being a part of festivals such as Fringe festivals or comedy festivals or coordinated local council or regional events and community arts.

You can participate in two ways:

1. As part of the BBA project (and the rest of this FAQ explains how), and/or,

2. As an expert interviewee. This is for you if you have specialised in political content and have a long view on the Australian comedy scene. For further information, please email jacci.brady@student.unimelb.edu.au

How does Better Billionaires Australia fit in? What will I do if I become a participant?

You will collect data of your experience of being part of the “Better Billionaires Australia (BBA)” events. BBA is an event based satirical critique of wealth inequality (the gap between the ‘haves and the have nots’) in Australia.

You will dress as a billionaire character of your own design and carry a sign in political comedy performances with a group of 3 to 6 other experienced performers.

This is based on an earlier project Billionaires for Bush (from the 1990s) as pictured here, adapted for Australia. For this project, these will not be street performances.  They will be conducted inside comedy venues. You don’t have to have political comedy experience to take part. They will also be uniquely adapted for Australian conditions.

The group of Billionaires may compose a simple song or chant based on those signs.  After you have performed you will give your reflections to the researcher about how you felt and if needed to moderate your content or not.

Each event will be 3 hours in duration (including time to prepare and take observations at the end).  The performance itself will be no more than 15 - 30 minutes.  You will be supported and guided by the researcher throughout.

What are the benefits and risks of taking part?

Participation in a BBA event-based contribution pays you an honorarium fee of $125 for each 3-hour event you attend. Your contribution to the project will also be recognised with a feature article about your comedy work. This will be featured on the project website in late 2022.

This project will make an important contribution to the understanding how political pressures impact Australian comedy and satire production, and the Australian arts industries. It will also start important conversations about how to safe keep satirical and artistic political commentary.

There is little to no risk involved as all events are conducted in non-confrontational ways. The key to overidentification is to mock issues in safe but meaningful ways (close to truth, but funny delivery). This presents less risk to you than the risk of hecklers that as a performer you may be already familiar with. You have the option to be anonymous and your reflections will not be identified, if you wish.

Will I hear about the results of this project?

Throughout the project you will be updated by email and phone. A summary of results will be made available to you at time the thesis is submitted. As it is action research, your reflections on the results are important too and you can comment at any time.

I wanna be a Billionaire! Where do I sign up?

If you would like more information about the project, please contact the researcher; Jack Brady via email on jack.brady1@student.unimelb.edu.au

There is a little process to follow with consent forms and plain language statements and there is a selection process for comedians. We have a limited number of spots for duration of the project, but if you miss out this time, there may be future opportunities.