By Luke Simmons
Andrew Spiers and Elliott Tiney of UK sketch quartet Idiots of Ants had a moment in St Kilda to answer some important questions for us.
Luke: Are there any comedians or groups that inspired you to get into sketch comedy?
Elliott Tiney: Obviously there’s the Monty Python stuff and perhaps the Goodies. But I wouldn’t say we’re surreal so we’re not really like them. Our stuff’s probably more akin to Big Train and Not The Nice O’Clock News. It’s quite traditional sketch comedy what we do rather than having 4 stand-up comedians like some other sketch acts out there.
Andrew Spiers: What we do is we take traditional sketch comedy and put a modern twist on it. We sketch about modern things that people can relate to.
Luke: What are the strangest things you’ve ever seen on the tube in London?
Elliott Tiney: A friend of mine opened up the doors which link up the carriages and had a wee in between! Which I think is dangerous. You could get electrocuted!
Andrew Spiers: I once saw a man swinging from the handrails by his knees with his trousers and underpants around his ankles. That was pretty bad. Oh no! Wait!
Elliott Tiney: Here we go.
Andrew Spiers: I saw a man take off both of his shoes, take off his left sock and then his right sock. He put his left sock on his right foot, he put his right sock on his left foot and then he put his shoes back on.
Luke: What do you guys think will be the next Internet craze that will take over the world?
Elliott Tiney: Ough, if only you could predict the next viral hit…. I tell you what’s never really been done on YouTube. It seems like a wasted opportunity. When I was a child in the 80’s, mooning was a big thing. And you know how they brought out that Rick Astley thing where you’d be watching a YouTube video and suddenly his song would cut in. What was that called?
Andrew Spiers: RickRoll’D!
Elliott Tiney: Yeah, RickRoll’D! This is what we should do. Listen up. We get videos with some really interesting titles and it must have a good start so everyone’s focussed and then BAM. My arse is there.
Andrew Spiers: Is it always yours?
Elliott Tiney: It’s my arse, yeah. And what I’ve done is, I’ve pulled my bum cheeks apart a little so it’s disgusting.
Luke: We call that a brown eye in Australia.
Elliott Tiney: Oh right, we call it arsing
Andrew Spiers: So brown eyeing.
Elliott Tiney: Yeah, so that’s going to be the next Internet craze. You heard it heard first kids!
Idiots of Ants are performing their sketch type comedy at the Victoria Hotel in the Banquet Room
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/model-citizens-idiots-of-ants