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Aunty Donna

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Aunty Donna
Aunty Donna performing at the 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe; left to right: Bonanno, Ruane, and Kelly
Medium
  • Internet
  • theatre
  • television
Years active2011–present
Genres
Members
  • Mark Bonanno
  • Broden Kelly
  • Zachary Ruane
  • Max Miller
  • Tom Armstrong
  • Sam Lingham
Former members
  • Adrian Dean
  • Joe Kosky
Websiteauntydonna.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–present
Subscribers477,000[1]
(October 2021)
Total views90 million views[1]
(October 2021)

Aunty Donna are an Australian absurdist comedy group formed in Melbourne in 2011. The group consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane; writer and director Sam Lingham; director Max Miller; and composer Tom Armstrong.[2] They have performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and Melbourne Fringe Festival. Their work includes a podcast, YouTube videos, the studio album Aunty Donna: The Album, and the Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun.

Origins

Aunty Donna was originally formed in 2011 after its five original members (Mark 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 focus on theatre and live shows only, and they never envisioned aspects of their career such as the YouTube channel and podcast. Their first live show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits, debuted in 2012.

Composer Tom Armstrong and 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 six members. Bonanno, Kelly, and Ruane refer to themselves as writers and performers while Armstrong, Lingham, and Miller work mostly behind the scenes.

Stage shows

Aunty Donna has taken live shows seriously throughout their career. They stated on their podcast that their live shows are "deep down, what [they] are most passionate about".[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
2022 Aunty Donna: The Magical Dead Cat Tour Australian/New Zealand 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 reached a total of 78 million views and 441,000 subscribers (as of April 2021). Much of its YouTube content is based on content adapted from its live shows, and many of the group's original YouTube videos become adapted for their live shows.

Aunty Donna's 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)[5]
  • Trendy (2016)
  • Ripper Aussie Summer (2017)
  • BEST CONTENT EVER!!1! (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 of these 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 prop cocaine. 1999 was originally developed as a 10-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 ABC and Screen Australia as part of the inaugural Fresh Blood Pilot Season comedy initiative, but the series was not picked up by 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, they teamed up with I Did a Thing and Aleksa Vulovic to recreate the Utah monolith in Australia.[6][7] The show was received positively.

Podcast

The group began a self-titled podcast in mid-2016, releasing weekly episodes. The podcast involves random riffing and improvised segments, and occasionally includes special guests such as comedians Ben Russell, Tim Minchin, Bob Saget, Demi Lardner, Michelle Brasier, 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

In 2018, Aunty Donna announced they would be releasing their debut album 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 No. 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[8]

Discography

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, their second show, Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop,[10] debuted at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and won the People's Choice Award.[3]

2014 saw their third live show, World's Greatest Showbag,[11] debut at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, as well as a Best Of live show that debuted the group internationally at both the SF Sketchfest[12] and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[13]

The Album was nominated for Best Comedy Release at the 2018 ARIA Awards.[14]

In 2019, Glenridge Secondary College series was nominated for Best Online Drama or Comedy at the 9th AACTA Awards.[15]

References

  1. ^ 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. ^ 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.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  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.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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