“Fuccbois: Live in Concert” is a comedy that satirizes boy bands and that culture, but featuring women and non-binary actors in the lead roles. The premise is the band’s final concert and has the audience actively singing along. The music is authentic pop. The show is currently being performed at the Adelaide Fringe and heading to Melbourne shortly after. We spoke to writer and performer Bridie Connell about the evolution of the show.
Hi Bridie, I see that you got into comedy through TV shows such as “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” – how did that shape your writing?
I love improv, and I’m very passionate about it. “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”, was something of a boot camp for improv. Then the year after, I was on “Tonightly” with Tom Ballard, and that was my first real taste of satire. I was using a lot of the improv and sketch comedy training that I already had, but I hadn’t really been in the world of satire or commentary in that way before. What I loved about that show, and what has definitely carried through to this project now, is that we would often deal with quite serious topics, but using this lens of humour or satire was such a fun and non-preachy way to say something important. I think about it like rather than smacking somebody over the head with an important message, doing it through satire or any kind of humour, it’s almost like sneaking the vegetables in.
To me, the best humour is one that has a little underlying message that you maybe don’t get but is pretty important.
That’s it. There’s so many things that are worth talking about and really important messages, of course, and sometimes humour is not the right answer, and we need to be serious. I think we can also feel really overwhelmed, bombarded by how much is going on at all times. So, to have a slightly lighter way to say something can be really disarming. In the best possible way to get you thinking, and examine your own views, but in a very inclusive way where we all just get to laugh.
The concept of the world’s biggest boy band, The Fuccbois – how did that come about?
Well, I knew that I wanted to write about f*ck boys first, and the boy band container, if you like, didn’t come along for quite a while. I had a few drafted projects before I decided that they were a pop group. Fuck boys is just a very modern word for a player or a rake, someone who isn’t super respectful and is more about the chase. I had just had a few interesting experiences, and so had my friends, and we were swapping all these stories about strange, questionable behaviours we’d encountered on the dating scene.
I knew I wanted to write about that. I tried a few different things; a more traditional, dramatic approach, and then a more textbook, structured musical. It didn’t feel quite right. Then I was at a party, and I saw this man multiple times throughout the night repeat almost word for word, the same routine to try and pick up different women. I thought to myself, “Oh my gosh, it’s like a routine”. And that’s where the boy band idea came from.
I have to admit, the last thing I want to do is watch a show about boy bands, but suddenly I clicked that its girls doing the boy bands thing. That just puts a whole different spin on it. It’d be interesting to turn it and put it back on its head.
The beautiful thing about satire is that it gives you this freedom and permission to go a little bit darker, because you’re using humour as the vehicle. Because The Fuccbois, the boy band characters are played by women and non-binary actors, it gives us a bit of that freedom to go to a darker place than we could if it was a male cast. It’s more to do with the behaviours, and the boy band itself is like the container for it, but I will say it’s also just a very silly boy band show.
Is there a certain level of understanding and knowledge needed? Like, do you like boy bands?
Oh, big time. I’m a big music head anyway. I don’t believe in Guilty Pleasures when it comes to music. So, I’m very loud and proud about my love of boy bands in amongst all sorts of different genres. But yeah, I do think that when you’re satirising something or parodying anything, to do it well, you must have a really good understanding of that form.
I understand fuck boys very well, and I understand boy bands very well, and it is quite even, even though it can be quite biting at times. It’s very affectionate in a way. And we’ve also worked really hard to make the music sound as believable as possible in the world of a boy band. I’ve worked with a brilliant pop producer called Dave Muratori, and we’ve really worked hard to make it sound like their back catalogue. You can see the different phases that they’ve been in. So, the band has grown. I think it is quite a faithful interpretation of the style.
I think Australians really have satire down pat, like Kath and Kim and we and we embrace it. We make fun of our idols but still love them totally.
We did a version of the show a few years ago as part of the Festival of New Works the Old Fitz, which was amazing. It allowed me to really try out the script, and it’s changed a fair bit since then. But something that was really nice was that when we did that version of the show, there were lots of people who came from all different ages. Like a couple of my uncles in their 60s and 70s, going, “Oh, I recognise that guy – I might have been that guy”. Everybody could sort of laugh at themselves, because it is quite affectionate. It’s not a preachy show, saying this is wrong and don’t do this. It’s sort of more cathartic. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
It’s very nostalgic, when you look back on your life and see photos from when you were 20, and you’re like, “oh my god, did I really have that hair?”.
It is a funny thing, isn’t it? Because you can recognise yourself in the characters and the behaviours or through the style or through the music. There are so many different nostalgic pieces of this puzzle in this world that we’re creating. Something that was really nice when we did the show the first time around, is that the demographic was different to what I was expecting. I’d written it first with the idea of fuck boys, more than the boy band. I thought it was going to be late 20s and 30s, women who may be implanted by a few fuck boys. But we had a lot of people who had grown up with different boy bands from different decades who were there for that nostalgia piece. It quickly became apparent that even if they didn’t use the word fuck boys, every generation knows what they are and has encountered them by any other name. There was that recognition factor for different generations that I wasn’t expecting.
You mentioned that Dave Muratori did the music. Is it brand new songs, or are you using songs that already existed?
I composed the music and then worked with Dave, who’s a pop producer, to make it feel like a really believable pop sound. So, they’re all original songs, but he’s just done such a fab job of making them feel really legitimate. He actually was the music producer for Fangirls and creator Yve Blake introduced us. She said, “Oh, I’ve got just the person for this project”. It’s funny, because in that world, he was also dealing with a fictional boy band, so he’s carved out quite a niche there.
What sort of reactions do you get from people about the show?
Maybe something that has been really fun is that the whole show unfolds in real time as a concert, so that the whole one act show is our last ever concert. We really endow the audience in the characters of the super fans, the VIP section, right up close. Something that’s been amazing is how much audiences are really willing to take on that character. It’s just been so cool, people getting into it and cheering. Even the first production at the Old Fitz, we had quite a lot of audience interaction. On the final few shows, people had come and drawn their own posters – that sort of thing has been incredible. People really enjoying the permission to be a screaming teenager.
I think back on those days – people knew it was fake, but they would just still go along with it. It’s an escapism thing that just lets you go to this place of screaming fandom and then go home to your drudgery of your normal life.
It’s cathartic, to laugh and scream and cheer with other people. I was thrilled at how much people are willing to jump into that. That’s been really delightful.
The fact that it’s their last show, I think that’s a stroke of genius as well. Because how many band’s last shows have we seen?
Before they come back to it, and then the reunion tour after that.
Is this show or is it a party? “It’s a high energy exhale for anyone who’s ever encounter a boy in the wild”. What should audiences expect?
It’s rowdy, it’s hilarious. You get to let your hair down with us. I think exhale is a really good word, it’s a joyful exhale. It’s very affectionate. I think some people were like, “Oh, is it making serious points about toxic dating”? No, not at all. It’s just a really fun love letter to some of the mistakes we may have made in our dating lives and some of the best music ever.
Fuccbois: Live in Concert plays at Gluttony – Rymill Park – The Kingfisher
The Adelaide Fringe season runs until 22nd Mar – for session times and tickets check the Adelaide Fringe Website
Header photo credit Leanne Ansell
