Bring Your Dream To The Surface: From Underground Comedy to Global Podcast Guru

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Watching the same film every week for a year; it sounds like a relatively simple proposition. But how about when you select the worst rated films to come out of tinseltown? Such a concept is what prompted the most downloaded podcast in New Zealand, well worthy of its title: The Worst Idea of All Time.

Tim Batt is one half of TWIOAT alongside fellow funny man Guy Montgomery. In its third season - they've already begrudgingly sat through Adam Sandler flop Grown Ups 2 and Sex and The City 2 a total of 52 times each - the pair are now treating themselves to Zac Efron EDM-romance, We Are Your Friends.

When not tortured by cinematic garbage, Batt is a stand-up comedian with a keen eye for observational humour. Between starring as the bespectacled protagonist in a Six60 music video and winning the 48Hour Film Festival with a short film about jumping children, he has been a Billy T Award nominee and took out Best Newcomer at the 2013 NZ International Comedy Fest.

A shining example of someone bringing their dream to the surface, we decided to take at look at Tim's creative process and how he takes a rough idea to create outstanding original content.

BEFORE TAKING THE STAGE

In the lead up to taking the stage, Tim suggests that newcomers write out the entire show to "see where the holes are that jokes could go into". "For a show, try and get it written early enough so that you can test it in front of mates who are comedians and get feedback from them and have enough time to make changes."

"I road test most material at The Classic on Queen St, usually on a Wednesday night as that's a show specifically for new material. There are other gigs around the place that are good for road testing weird ideas too but I find personally, I will come up with the idea, write it in my phone, flesh it out on my computer, then try it on stage. If I had my way, I'd perform exclusively to complete strangers for the entirety of my stand-up career."

ON CREATING STAND-UP

As part of this year's International Comedy Festival, Tim decided "against better advice" to perform the fairly conceptual show VOTE BATT where he took on the role of a politician trying to win votes each night, complete with finicky technical video elements.

"This was the first year there was a strong theme attempting to guide the writing process. I'm still very much learning how to do the 'process' bit properly. I'm trying to free write a bit more these days and just giving my brain enough room to go in different directions. I'm already thinking about what next year's festival show will be and trying to write jokes to that brief."

In addition to his own performance schedule, Tim also ran a pop-up comedy venue focussing on freaky, left-of-centre shows with Jesse Griffin, Guy Montgomery and Brendon Green. "It was our second year doing Montecristo Comedy and boy is it a lot of work but also super rewarding to get to programme your own venue."

NO PLANNING IS GREAT PLANNING

You'd think that similar level of organisation would fall into place when planning a podcast that had been downloaded upwards of 4 million times. However, Tim reveals that TWIOAT instead follows the free-wheeling ethos, "NO PLANNING WHENEVER POSSIBLE".

"We have tried to keep the nature of rash decisions a key theme of the podcast. To the point where the third season movie choice was not decided until we were on stage in NYC at the live record of the final episode, when one of us said "We Are Your Friends" out loud. We had a short list but had never decided which film it would be. And now, here we are, watching Zac Efron every week."

BRINGING NO PLANNING TO FRUITION

With no clear-cut plan, the right tools are crucial for Tim and Guy to create a good listener experience with TWIOAT. The entirety of the podcast is produced on a Microsoft Surface Pro, with which Tim states he "can do everything".

"Wherever I end up. Whether I'm in Melbourne doing the Comedy Festival or LA or New York going over special live events for the podcast, I can edit and publish the podcast from literally anywhere with an internet connection. I've managed to get episodes up sitting in fast food places, I frequently answer messages from listeners in cafes and bars. The Surface is small enough to chuck in my bag with some headphones and know that I can get any project completed, anywhere I am.

"I've used mine to create the podcast, make the website, build and interact with the Facebook page (11k+ likes, thanks for asking!) and Photoshop any images up for social media as well. As the original podcast is spinning off a network of shows, there's been a Surface associated with every step of that process."

THINGS TO COME

There's no question that Tim is a busy man. In the year to come he has some ideas for television/web shows big and small and is lending his expertise to a web series created by some friends off a 48Hours concept. The biggest thing on his list is to create a proper podcast network right here in New Zealand.

"I am in the process of creating a bunch of different podcasts (most of which I produce but don't host). I am really excited about the idea of getting great Kiwi talent who may not particularly tech-savvy into the studio to produce some interesting and funny shows. I want to get different voices in the podcast space to create some top notch shows. We keeping proving ourselves in music and film but I want to show the world that Kiwis punch way above their weight in comedy and creativity in podcasts to."

There's a creative fire raging inside you but the daily grind yearns to stamp it out. Want to bring your own dream to the surface? Microsoft wants to give one person the tools, the time, and the salary* to make their project a reality - whether it be writing poems on grains of rice, creating jewellery out of knives and forks, animating cartoon characters, designing moving desserts or making sculptures out of used car parts.

*Monetary prize of NZD $60,000