Amateur Hour, the brain-child of Melbourne’s favourite music nerd Laura Imbruglia, is a web based variety show bringing together a stellar cast of local Australian bands, artists, performers, and straight up weirdos. Each episode features a selection of interviews, skits, surprises, curios and live music filmed in Melbourne’s most iconic bars and rehearsal spaces. This is a unique arts & culture show created by the artists of Australia.
WHY
We miss Recovery. We miss Countdown. We even miss Hey Hey. We miss the much needed support and showcase of creatives in Australia. We have such a long and successful history of wild variety shows that we’ve watched disappear as funding for tv has dried up. The weirder tv options have definitely fallen by the wayside, and we want to change that.
We want to showcase local talent from a local perspective in a way that is distinctly Australian – slap dash, DIY and above all else: chaotic fun.
HOW
We have collected an incredible array of talent both on and off screen. Everyone has signed on out of pure passion and a genuine desire to support our arts and culture scene.
We are calling in favours throughout the arts world to get this show off the ground. You’ll see industry veterans across many disciplines side by side with fascinating people you’ve never heard of or seen before. You’ll be befuddled, entertained, dazzled.
WHO
Laura has rounded up her favourite musicians, visual artists, actors and comedians and asked them to appear on, or contribute content for the show.
You can expect to see a range of talented artists performing across all manner of genres…Season 1 featured Sarah Blasko and Batpiss among many others. Season 2 features Camp Cope, Mere Women, The Laurels and more.
Laura Jean will show you how to cook or manage lifestyle concerns with minimal fuss and even less enthusiasm. We interview creative people about their work. We ask musicians to try their hands at acting, and the results are amusing. Just watch the fucking thing.
WHEN
We released Season 1 in late 2015 and Season 2 in June, 2017. You can catch up on both seasons right here on our site.
Subscribe to our youtube channel now so you’re the first to know whenever we make anything new.
EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS
ABC Iview Arts acquired parts of Season 1. We received grants towards Season 2 Production from Creative Victoria, APRA AMCOS and City of Melbourne. We raised 15k in crowdfunding too. All this resulted in a progression from $0 to $50k production budget from Season 1 to Season 2.
In 2018, we’ve been hired to produce Music Victoria’s most engaging promotional video to date, been featured in the “Her Sound, Her Story” documentary, and made it into St Kilda Film Festival’s “Australia’s Top 100 Films“.
Pretty impressive considering we’re largely a bunch of amateurs, huh? Live your dreams, kids!
(Cute photo of some of the AH team by Ian Laidlaw)
