Planking seems to be the latest internet sensation, but a few years ago, it was a plankton eating whale that chewed our bandwidth. For you Nick, this birthed The Handsomity Institute and provided a launching pad into a new career. For those unfamiliar with Beached Az, can you please tell us about how it all began?

Beached Az is one of those little ideas that I had... and saying "little" is not me being humble...it was actually reeeeeeally little. I mentioned the concept of a Beached Whale, who was in fact, "Beached Az" to my flatmate at the time, Anthony Macfarlane. He thought it was a sweet idea and suggested I put a Seagull in it... who offers the whale a chip. I thought "genius"!! So...the idea was born...we recorded the little piece on Anthony's bed into a dodgy handy cam [I'm the Whale and Anthony is the Seagull] and sent the audio file to our very talented friend Jarod Green, who drew the characters and created it's direction... and the rest as they say... !

How has the Beached Az brand grown over the last 2 years?

It's a little mental how much it has grown. We're blessed that it has connect with peeps...even in the little way it has...and it has gone a little bonkers. The ABC picked up 2 x 10 part series, and again, it grew! The little cartoon, even though it's a 1 minute long, worked on a TV format getting a new and pretty diverse audience. It's now a bit of a brand also...we are also really lucky to have quite a successful clothing brand. We have sold lots of shirts and merchandise… which has permitted to do other cool things as well.

You are about to embark on a live show tour with Jon LaJoie. What have you got in store for us?

A bit of a pantomime actually. We were originally thinking of making a funny'ish key-notey style of thing presentation, and then we thought...nah...lets do an audio visual/multi media extravaganza...and then we thought...nah, lets make a PLAY! Which...as a concept could work, as the characters are VERY simple, their needs are very distinct, and the story needn't be too ornate. So, a pantomimey thing it was!

As Beached Az has always been animation based ­ are you nervous at all about how it will translate live?

Oh yea...fo sho! We have very little idea what we are doing. We had no idea what were doing when we made the first cartoon, we had no idea when we turned it into a series, we had no idea when we started selling shirts, and I barely know what to have for breakfast...so the same is true for the play...we have NO idea what we are doing. We have worked hard on it however, we've built a set, we've got wireless mics that the backstreet boys use, we have wardrobe changes, and we have worked very hard on a semi-decent story...we have tried to really honor the fact that people are actually paying their hard-earned money to come and see us...so we have not taken that responsibility lightly. BUT...all wonderful intentions aside...we just hope we don't suck HARD :).

How did Jon LaJoie get involved?

We're supporting Jon. We were asked by some Australian promoters to support him on his Australian tour. Which suited us juuuust fine. We thought we COULD do a live show but didn't have the berries necessarily to get out there and do it solo. This tour will be a great starting point for us to see if it could actually work, and if it's something that we can replicate, build on, and do in the future.

Can you tell us more about what it is the Handsomity Institute does?

We make silly things and put them up on YouTube for now! We have done a few little animations, a few online characters that have done pretty well, and we're now developing a some things that are a little bigger. We're basically 3 buddies that think one another are funny'ish sometimes, who want to live a creative life and make people smile.

That paragraph is probably the most detailed business model we have done for the business to date.

What other projects have you been working on?

Lots at the moment. We have been making short films, new online series, developing film...working on creating some original, new content with brand dollars, and just generally capitalising on the content revolution. It's an amazing state of play right now...anyone, with any artistic or creative inclination, can have a voice. Idea is king nowadays. I doubt that a cartoon like Beached Az would have flown 10 years ago to be honest...i can imagine us trying to pitch the idea to get it on TV "it's about a Whale..that's Beached. Yea. Oh...but he doesn't eat chips. Nah...he only eats plankton. Did I say that the whale was from New Zealand? Yea...and then a Seagull enters...who's also from New Zealand" etc etc etc. Only a vessel like youtube could have forwarded something as poeky and odd as Beached Az me thinks.

And finally, what album is taking precedence on your iPod at the moment?

Oh! Passenger from the UK. A. May. Zing. And... Shyte, should I say this? Umm..i was driving down to Canberra last week and I listened to the Grease soundtrack twice. Can I say that? Can I also say that having NOT listened to it for 15+ years how enamored I am with the production and songs. In it's context...it's a brilliant piece of work. Umm...Mos Def's new offering is getting a listening to [does that give me a bit more cred post the whole Grease thing?]. Listening to a kiwi crew dub called International Observer. That's about it. My iPOD is, however, at Tiger Airways terminal in Sydney at the moment after a recent return Melbourne flight where I thought it would be a good idea to leave it in the seat pocket. Yay.