I walked away from RMIT University’s Studio A on fabulous Swanston Street last Thursday evening feeling like a million dollars! Nothing beats a great comedy performance. Although in fairness, some of that may have been the cocaine.
On April 26, we shot episodes 6 and 7 of 31 Questions and it went splendidly. I believe it also marks the first time 31 Questions will require a “drug references” warning at the start of the broadcast.
Our audience warm-up guy wasn’t there again, but it didn’t seem to matter because there was a really positive vibe in the studio this week, which wasn’t quite all there last week.
It’s still proving difficult to get people to come to the taping. Five minutes before we were to start the first of our two shows for the evening, I walked out onto Swanston Street in a last minute desperate attempt to find some audience members.
Incredibly, I was somehow able to drag in two Queensland girls who had only been in Melbourne for about four hours! They were just wandering aimlessly around the city streets. Now they’ve got a great story for their Sunshine State friends: “Oh yeah, you can’t walk down the street in Melbourne without being dragged into a TV studio.”
We shot a little behind the scenes video with them, which I believe has been sent off to Lisbon, Portugal for editing. I’d say it will be “coming soon” to the 31 Questions YouTube Channel, so keep your eye’s and bananas peeled.
In the mean time, here’s a still:
Also, here’s a photo that has something to do with 31 Questions:
Another great moment while filming came about a third of the way into taping the first episode of the evening.
We’ve been having some trouble with the buzzers. Simon had organised their construction through a friend of his at a cost of something like $250. But with the constant battering they’re receiving from over-zealous contestants, the plastic casing has cracked and the wiring is starting to come loose.
I actually have a little reset button on my podium. So after each question, I press the button to reset the buzzers for the next question. But after Act 1 of episode 6, the reset button stopped working, meaning the buzzers essentially became very expensive (and tall) coasters.
So we took a little break to chat to the audience, while the very talented technical director James Gormley got out a soldering iron and set to work on repairs. About seven minutes later, he’d done it!
I think James actually got the biggest applause we’ve had on the whole series so far.
We were probably 60 seconds away from carrying on without the buzzers and implementing our very sophisticated back-up plan of contestants raising a hand when they know the answer. And let’s face it… That would have been pretty lame.
I’m thrilled that 31 Questions is finally starting to resemble my initial vision for a funny low budget TV show. Now, if I can only get my hair to stay in place…
There’s still 6 episodes to go!
So come join the party! We’re taping episodes 8 and 9 this Thursday May 3, 7PM. Studio A, Level 2, Building 12, RMIT University, Swanston St, Melbourne.
Kind regards,
David M. Green
31 Questions! Or as Ben Cousins calls it, “Getting Arrested”.
