Vale SBS Comedy
Added 2017-06-06 08:39:45 +0000 UTCSince March 2014 I've been writing articles of various quality and popularity for SBS comedy, as it grew, establishing a weekly Friday routine:
http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/person/alice-rebekah-fraser
I've written more than a hundred articles, on planes and buses, at home and overseas. From mad midnight inspirations that I had to solidify in the brutal light of day, to editorial suggestions, to "we need to run that by legal" edgy content that even I wasn't sure would work.
SBS Comedy is one of the few places around that pays comedy writers, and my weeks have been punctuated by a reassuring routine of sending crazy article suggestions to Neal (joined later by Rebecca Shaw) in the middle of the night, having them pick one, and then researching and writing on an incredibly broad range of subjects.
It's been an incredibly useful discipline; writing to deadline and extending my capacity to write comedy in a workmanlike way, not just in response to the vagaries of creative inspiration.
At times, the regular paycheque of SBS has stood between me and having to give up full-time comedy.
They've never been afraid to let me push the envelope, from publishing content that was critical of clickbait to content that was critical of elements of their core audience.
I'm very sorry to see them go; a nurturing home for Australian comedy writing that has allowed many people to grow, develop their individual comic voices and pay their rent at the end of the week.
Much of Aussie comedy suffers from an unwillingness by moneymakers to take risks, back anything that isn't a sure thing or work through initial rough patches (comedy always has to be bad before it's good) to let something properly bloom.
I don't know what the backstory is in SBS, that's led them to drop such an incredible grooming field for young diverse Australian comedy talent, but I know that while the channel may be richer in money for trimming this warped, funny little online branch, it will be poorer in originality, diversity and young vibrant comic sensibility.
Bye team. It's been a blast.
