Justin Smith

WHEN THINGS GO AMISS IN TASMANIA...

Since 1948 the Old Nick Company have presented the Uni Revue on Tasmanian stages without missing a single year come theatre fires, wars, bridge collapses...you could always rely on the Uni Revue! What brings us here? Let us explain. But first, let's address one question the uninitiated might be asking - what the heck is a "revue"? Well according to the dictionary:

"A light theatrical entertainment consisting of a series of short sketches, songs, and dances, typically dealing satirically with topical issues."

You can also watch a video about it here. So since 1948 the Uni Revue has lampooned politics, governments both state and local, even councils; local celebrities and notable persons; the goings-on relevant to Tasmanians of all walks of life - basically all chucked together with a bunch of bawdy comedy and some cheap thrills. That's a Uni Revue. Now, you may be confused as to what the Old Nick Company has to do with the university, and we'll say - nothing at all. Some decades ago Old Nick was spun off from the University into its own not-for-profit entity, and the Uni Revue's brand of gags and low brow humour basically single handedly funded every other Shakespeare and fancy man macaroni play we put on. Then came a little bug...

WHEN TROUBLE BUILDS UP AND LIFE GETS TO YA...

So as you may have heard, there's this little thing called COVID-19 and a global pandemic. Yeah. So you can imagine that shutting the theatres hasn't been a massive boon to Old Nick. We weighed up the options before the theatres had even closed and we knew if we decided to risk it and plough ahead, or even suspend the show for later, the costs we were likely to incur would have ruined the company (what was that about COVID-19 and those over 70 years of age...?) However, we weren't about to throw in the towel and just let a year lapse. We haven't missed one since 1948, so why start now?

We looked at our options for funding this sort of endeavour. See, in the theatre, we open pre-sales for tickets months and months in advance, people get tickets, they then come and see the show, and we can track that right down to the seat. So crowd-funding offers us a platform to essentially do the same - you get to pre-purchase your ticket to the show - in the form of a stream, download, DVD or Blu-Ray - and that in turns helps fund us to put it on.

WHEN THE NEWSPAPER FAILS, AND THE TV TOO...

Yeah yeah yeah, so what's the plan you ask? Well since we made the tough decision to cancel the Uni Revue, we basically started planning where we went to next. So bring in UNI REVUE 2020 (take 2): PUNDEMIC. This will be a Uni Revue first - direct to video, direct to your home. Old Nick in many ways are very lucky - we already work closely with many people with the expertise to make this pivot. Now this does mean you'll get a slightly different show, because no, we're not just going to put it on a theatre stage and film it. We're going all out to make this show a show built from the ground up for video. You'll still get the comedy sketches, the songs, the politics, the Tasmanian point of view; it just may come with fewer jokes you heard your grandad tell you. And stuff that works uniquely on stage will be left there, to make its appearance when we return to the boards in 2021. It'll be written by many of the same people who write the stuff that makes you laugh, and we're taking the opportunity to find previous members of the show and life members of our company to appear or contribute material. All in all, we want to make this every bit a Uni Revue and worth every darn cent.

What's more, you'll be supporting Tasmanian artists during the pandemic, as we toil away over the coming months to deliver this show to you. And if we make a profit, that money will go right back in to Uni Revue 2021 and our many various other projects as the theatres begin to light back up.

The only challenges we really are up against are getting the interest in pre-sales to go ahead, and then filming it fast enough to have it out! We're aiming to release in a June-July window, give or take depending on lockdown restrictions. We're being good boys and girls, and there's stuff we're planning which will only be possible when the lockdown eases. If it shows no signs of letting up, we'll just abandon that content, as we're currently working on a mountain of stuff we can do safely and legally. So we will not be reliant on the whims of government, it may just mean we substitute sketch A for sketch B (and we'll just save anything we can't use for later on anyway...)

YOU CAN ALWAYS RELY ON THE UNI REVUE!

We've tried to include as many options as possible to suit your needs best. In a nutshell these are:

• Streaming: Basically a rental. Stream it on your device or smart TV.
• Download: A HD version for you to keep forever. Watch it on your smartphone, your smartTV, your smartfridge, wherever!
• DVD: A classic DVD, in all its crunchy standard definition goodness, with a bonus disc featuring old material, behind the scenes, bloopers and more.
• Blu-Ray: The same as the DVD, just in glorious high definition!

There are some other options for those of you out there who like to go above and beyond, so check out the rewards down the right hand side, make a pick, and get on board! Meanwhile check us out everywhere we exist for news, info, to contact us, or just to have a laugh.

Facebook - YouTube - Twitter

We've basically planned out our minimum budget to get the show over the line. This will include all the filming and editing, music recording including a real band, props and costumes, making the disc media, contingencies, basically everything we might come up against. This is also balanced against a lot of our creatives who have been paid in part for the pre-production work they've done on Uni Revue (the stage edition) and who will be continuing in those roles for the video version. There's already a pile of money invested into this production, so your help is needed to just get us the rest of the way over the line to get the project out the door. We're also fairly experienced with budgets, doing theatrical budgets every year for the Uni Revue. This differs in a few areas, but the concept is basically the same. You have this much money, don't spend more than that!

That all said, if we do make more than our minimum, we're across that too. We have contingency plans to upgrade certain production elements - basically if we make our goal, we'll make the best show we possibly can. But if we go above and beyond, it will reflect on screen in the product you get. Whether it means we can bring in additional camera operators for multi-camera shoots, or secure cool locations, get guest performers, or even stretch out to material that might otherwise seem infeasible, we'll make sure you get every last dollar's worth wrung out of us.