Axis of Awesome hard to pin down

BRIDGET JONES

Australian musical comedy group The Axis of Awesome explain how they started and what they think about their success.

Axis of Awesome is branching out. Apparently fans of the YouTube sensations can expect lectures on farming, architecture and a bloody hunt to the death at their upcoming comedy festival shows, rather than tongue-in-cheek musical comedy they are known for.

"We end the show every night with a hunt - you could be the hunted or the hunted. So bring a truck, bring a trailer you might go home with an elk," says Jordan Raskopoulos.

The Australian trio are joking. Probably. But it's hard to pin them down on a firm answer on anything; such is the way of comedians.

And these three - Raskopoulos, Lee Naimo and Benny Davis - are funny. Their story starts at university in 2006, where Davis was studying music, Raskopoulos was working on his improv and Naimo was well, travelling the country as a jack of all trades. Again, probably.

"I was painting fences, baking, fixing fences, if there was a rooster in the hen house, I'd be the one that would have to get it out."

Whatever the real story, the trio have gone on to tour the world and release three albums of their take on the musical comedy genre. Among the songs about Harry Potter and the rubbish state of modern love ballads, it was the very clever track Four Chords - a medley of 47 songs that all use the same four chords - that shone the spotlight on the group.

While the band all have different versions of where the idea came from (Raskopoulos and Naimo say it came from some special bath-time role playing of the movies Ghost and Gladiator, while Davis is adamant he thought up the idea while in a cover band), the six-minute song has gone on to have more than 20 million hits on YouTube.

"And the great thing about YouTube is that for every one of those hits we get absolutely nothing, so that's a lot of zeros," says Raskopoulos.

While the money might not be rolling in off every watch, the song has given the band a huge launch pad to take their always funny, sometimes cynical songs to the world.

And of course, since they are in the native territory of one of the world's best known musical comedy acts, the question has to be asked - is there going to be a face off between funny song-singing groups?

"I think one of the things Flight of the Conchords really did, especially in the US and around the world, is they opened people's ears and eyes to musical comedy and I think it's really great that there are so many artists in that genre of comedy," says Raskopoulos.

Naimo says while they both sing clever songs, there are some key differences between to two groups.

"We're very different acts thought - they sit down to play, we stand up; there's two of them and three of us; they are very laid back in their approach, and I think you'll find we are very energetic." Lee.

"They don't have a hunt either," adds Raskopoulos.

It's a bloody fair point.

Axis of Awesome

April 28 to May 5 - Comedy Chamber, Auckland Town Hall

Tickets $35 from the Comedy Festival website.

- © Fairfax NZ News