Equal-opportunity insults
Equal-opportunity fans will be pleased to hear that ABC's new sketch comedy show, Black Comedy, makes fun of the stereotypes of black people as much as white people.
The edgy show, two years in the making, features a predominantly indigenous cast engaging in race-related comedy, with no subject off limits.
With recurring characters such as the Tiddas, two flamboyantly gay blackfellas from Townsville repeatedly trying to outdo each other, and Lillian, the young woman who can't have a conversation without being offended by a racial slur, Black Comedy constantly addresses long-held Australian taboos.
Starring alongside regulars Jon Bell, Aaron Fa'aoso, Nakkiah Lui, Bjorn Stewart and Elizabeth Wymarra is Steven Oliver, a north Queenslander who kicked off his career as a writer/performer in WA in the 1990s through the Aboriginal Music Theatre Training Program, followed by a stint at WAAPA. Oliver then took his musical production Black Queen Black King and time- travelling comedy Proper Solid to the stage.
In addition to being one-half of the Tiddas, Oliver also appears in Blackest of the Black, a 70s blaxploitation cop spoof about "the blackest, sexiest and most fashionable cop to ever take down a bad guy with a boomerang".
"That idea just came from years ago, I joked around with a friend of mine and I called him the blackest of the black; me and my friend coined the phrase and we had a little theme song and everything where we would sing it to each other," Oliver recalls.
"I thought it would be a really good character and what could I do with him and then the whole 70s thing came to mind and I thought that would be really cool that I could do a whole 70s Aboriginal justice/ Shaft thing."
He also appears as part of the crew of the Starship Hentaprise as they face the horrors of a big black hole in the retro-indigenous sci-fi classic Starblaks, a Star Trek spoof.
Guests including Brendan Cowell, Deborah Mailman and Matt Day pop up on each of the six episodes but few top Brooke Satchwell's turn as Tiffany, a new girlfriend who takes her interest in indigenous culture too far.
Oliver says: "My ex was Irish and he had an Irish accent but he picked up so many of the things from the way we would talk, so we thought that would be a fun thing to do."
"I met up with Brooke and we just sat around and went through the phrases and it's the slang of how we talk in north Queensland, the accent up there, I just took her through that."
Black Comedy is the first indigenous comedy show to air in Australia since Basically Black in 1973 and Babakiueria (Barbeque Area) in 1982, and Oliver says that the time is right for the show, with Aboriginal cinema recently capturing the world's imagination. "I think attitudes are changing now where people do want to see Aboriginal stories," he says, mentioning films like The Sapphires and Bran Nue Dae.
"Hopefully this does open the door and gets people thinking as well.
"That's the good thing about comedy - that you can use it with some serious undertones but using the humour to get your message across."
'I joked around with a friend of mine and I called him the blackest of the black; me and my friend coined the phrase and we had a little theme song and everything.'
