Aunty Donna

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Aunty Donna
Aunty Donna at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014.jpg
Aunty Donna (Bonanno, Ruane, and Kelly) performing at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014
Medium
  • Internet
  • theatre
  • television
NationalityAustralian
Years active2011–present
Genres
Notable works and rolesAunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun
Members
  • Mark Samual Bonanno
  • Broden Kelly
  • Zachary Ruane
  • Max Miller
  • Tom Armstrong
  • Sam Lingham
Former members
  • Adrian Dean
  • Joe Kosky
Websiteauntydonna.com Edit this at Wikidata
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–present
Subscribers468,000[1]
(August 2021)
Total views88 million views[1]
(August 2021)

Aunty Donna are an Australian absurdist comedy group from Melbourne. The group consists of Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane as writers and performers; director/writer Sam Lingham; filmmaker Max Miller; and composer Tom Armstrong.[2] The group has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Origins[]

Aunty Donna was originally formed in 2011 after its five original members (Mark Samuel Bonanno, Broden Kelly, Joe Kosky, Sam Lingham, and Zachary Ruane) met at University of Ballarat's Arts Academy.[3] Kelly has stated that the original vision for the group was to be theatre and live shows only, never envisioning internet based aspects of their career such as Youtube and their podcast. Their first live show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits, debuted in 2012.

Sound designer Thomas Armstrong and film director Max Miller joined the group soon after its founding, while members Adrian Dean and Joe Kosky departed Aunty Donna to pursue other ventures, bringing the group to the current 6 members. Bonanno, Kelly, and Ruane refer to themselves as writers and performing members, differentiating themselves from Armstrong, Lingham, and Miller who work mostly behind the scenes as composer, writer, and director respectively.

Stage shows[]

Aunty Donna has taken live-performance shows seriously throughout their career. On their podcast, they've mentioned the original intention of Aunty Donna was to perform in live-shows exclusively. As recently as 2018, they have stated that their live shows are "deep down, what they are most passionate about in their creative process".[4] As such, they try to plan and perform one live show per year.

Year Show title Tours
2012 Aunty Donna in Pantsuits Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2012 Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop (A Murder Mystery) Melbourne Fringe Festival
2013 Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2013 Aunty Donna (Best Of) Sydney (Factory Theatre)
2014 Aunty Donna's World's Greatest Showbag Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2014 Aunty Donna (Best Of) Edinburgh Festival Fringe
2015 Aunty Donna (Self Titled) Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London (Soho Theatre), regional UK tour
2016 Aunty Donna: New Show Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Perth Fringe, New Zealand International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London (Soho Theatre), North America
2017 Aunty Donna: Big Boys Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Canberra Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Perth Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, New Zealand International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London (Leicester Square Theatre), North America
2018 Aunty Donna: Glennridge Secondary College Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Canberra Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, New Zealand International Comedy Festival
2018 Aunty Donna: The Album Tour Australian tour
2019 Aunty Donna: Glennridge Graduation Party Australian tour

Youtube[]

In December 2012, Aunty Donna created Aunty Donna's Rumpus Room, a seven-part web series which originally aired on C31 Melbourne and its YouTube channel. Since its start, the Aunty Donna channel has been successful, reaching a total of 78 million views and 441,000 subscribers (as of April 2021). Much of its Youtube content derives from its live-shows, and many Youtube performances by Aunty Donna become adapted to live-shows.

Aunty Donna youtube content is organized by the group into different series. These series include:

  • Rumpus Room - 2012
  • Fortnightly Fap Off - 2013
  • Fapé in the Cafe - 2013
  • Fresh Blood - 2014
  • Haven't you done well - ongoing
  • 1999 - 2015/2016
  • Trendy - 2016
  • Ripper Aussie Summer - 2017
  • Best Content Ever - 2017
  • Aunty Donna: The Album - 2018
  • Camp Bush Camp - 2018
  • Glennridge Secondary College - 2019

Typically the videos released in these series are unified by a setting or theme, such as in Glennridge secondary college, in which most sketches takes place in a fictionalized secondary school, and Trendy, which pokes fun at cultural trends of the mid 2010s.

Haven't you done well is an ongoing series consisting of one video from each of the other series. All the Haven't you done wells are unified by their loose structure, relying more heavily on improvisation than the other videos from the group and often resulting in the group making a mess of the set with a particular item, such as sunscreen, beer, wine, cake, or cocaine.

1999,[5] was originally developed as a ten-part web series exclusively for YouTube as part of Screen Australia and Google’s Skip Ahead funding.

Television[]

In 2015, the group created Aunty Donna, a half-hour television pilot for the ABC and Screen Australia as part of the inaugural Fresh Blood Pilot Season comedy initiative, however, the series was not picked up by the ABC.

In 2017, the group announced a half-hour pilot, Chaperones, which was created with Australian online streaming service Stan.

In 2020, Aunty Donna launched their Netflix original series, Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, with six episodes of varying length. To promote their new show, Aunty Donna teamed up with I Did a Thing and Aleksa Vulovic to recreate the Utah monolith in Australia.[6][7] It has received positive critical acclaim.

Podcast[]

The group began a podcast midway through 2016, releasing episodes weekly. The podcast involved random riffing and improvised segments, and occasionally included special guests such as comedians Ben Russell, Tim Minchin, Bob Saget, , , Rove McManus, and others. The podcast has since changed towards focusing more on how sketches, characters, and comedic ideas develop during the groups' creative process, but remains very loose in structure.

Music and discography[]

In 2018, Aunty Donna announced they would be releasing their debut album Aunty Donna – The Album on 6 April 2018. On 9 February 2018, Aunty Donna released the first single from the album, "Chuffed (Dad Song)", and accompanying video. On 14 April 2018, the album debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[8]

Accolades[]

In April 2012, their debut show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits,[9] was nominated for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's Golden Gibbo Award.[3] In October 2012, their second show, Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop,[10] debuted at the 2012 Melbourne Fringe Festival and won the People's Choice Award.[3] 2014 saw third live show, World's Greatest Showbag,[11] debut at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as a Best Of live show that debuted the group internationally at both SF Sketchfest[12] and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[13]

Aunty Donna's The Album was a nominee for Best Comedy Release at the 2018 ARIA Awards.[14] Glenridge Secondary College series was nominated for Best Online Drama or Comedy at the 9th AACTA Awards.[15]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "About Aunty Donna". YouTube.
  2. ^ Brookfield, Joanne (17 September 2015). "A comedian's life is not all fun and games". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Low, Lenny Ann (30 June 2016). "Comedy group Aunty Donna is not your father's sister or even your uncle's wife". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  4. ^ Aunty Donna Podcast, Episode 89 https://play.acast.com/s/aunty-donna-podcast/podcast-ep-89-glennridge-secondary-college
  5. ^ "5 Australian Youtubers To Share $500,000 In Google And Screen Australia's Talent Development Initiative, Skip Ahead". Screen Australia. 3 April 2015. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  6. ^ McCarter, Reid (9 December 2020). "Aunty Donna and some YouTubers take credit for one (1) of those monoliths". AV Club. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  7. ^ Jones, Tegan (11 December 2020). "Grab a Cup of Morning Brown and Watch Aunty Donna Erect an Australian Monolith". Gizmodo AU. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  8. ^ "ARIA Australian Top 50 Albums". Australian Recording Industry Association. 16 April 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
  9. ^ Royall, Ian (1 April 2012). "Review: Aunty Donna In Pant Suits". Herald Sun. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  10. ^ Humphreys, Nicole (8 October 2012). "Review: Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop". Crikey. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  11. ^ Walker, Lynette (14 April 2014). "Review: Aunty Donna's World's Greatest Showbag". Herald Sun. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  12. ^ "The Dana Gould Hour / Aunty Donna Review". SF Sketchfest. 5 February 2014. Archived from the original on 4 October 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  13. ^ Boyd, Milo (1 January 1970). "Review: Aunty Donna". Broadway Baby. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
  14. ^ "Aria Awards". www.ariaawards.com.au. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  15. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 1 July 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2019.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links[]

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