Wanna be a TV funny guy? Here's your chance!

7 September, 2009

Media Release

Wanna be a TV funny guy? Here's your chance!

Ever laboured through a half hour of sitcom or skit comedy and thought that you could do better? Well, here's your chance to put your funny where your mouth is. It's called Mash Pit Comedy and it launches today.

Mash Pit Comedy is an exciting new venture from the Gibson Group and Prime TV, with funding from NZ On Air, where New Zealanders can show off their prodigious, prolific and even puke-inducing talent – just the way we like it in Godzone: raw, real and righteously funny.

And if it's not funny enough, or you think you can do better than others, you get the chance to remix, mash up and muck with the comedic efforts to make it funnier, better or just way more twisted.

Gibson Group producer Bevin Linkhorn says New Zealand's first comedy mash-up site is more than just a lark. "Mash Pit Comedy will be New Zealand comedy at its most raw and that's where the laughs are," says Linkhorn.

"It’s a good opportunity for any kiwi, and grassroots comedians and actors in particular, to show us their stuff and mash up the work of others too."

Mash Pit Comedy is a video-sharing site www.mashpitcomedy.com where you can upload original comedy. You can also download any video on the site and mash it up with your own footage on your computer’s editing software and re-upload that new video. All the guidance you need to be a comedy star is at your fingertips on the website.

The best and most popular comedy clips on the Mash Pit Comedy website will be selected to appear on the Mash Pit Comedy TV show on Prime. There will be 4 half-hour episodes in the first series.

The best clips on the TV show will be in the running for “Best Of” prizes but of course it isn't about the prizes: it's about the fame, glory and adulation you'll get when your fantastic comedic creations are broadcast to a national audience.

But the really cool thing about Mash Pit Comedy is that it gives you the tools to set free your talents. You can use your bog-standard programmes for both Mac and PC (like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker) and upload your own content or mash up existing video and music from the website. And if you're stuck, there are tutorial videos to guide you through the editing process. Easy peasy.

Check out the website today at www.mashpitcomedy.com and see just how easy it is. A tutorial mash-up is there, plus some examples of what you can achieve on Mash Pit Comedy.

Mash Pit Comedy has been created through funding from NZ On Air’s digital content partnership fund and produced by Wellington production company Gibson Group for Prime TV.

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