The Chaser Report - Dan Ilic on his new satire slush fund

Episode Date: December 1, 2021

Billboard connoisseur and "A Rational Fear" host Dan Ilic joins Gabbi and Dom to talk podcast awards in this Afternoon Edition. Dan trash talks our podcast for a while, and shares how esteemed the podcast awards are from the perspective of an award-winning podcaster. Plus an update on his JokeKeeper program and some hints at plans for future billboards! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Welcome to another afternoon edition of The Chaser Report. Dom Knight here, Gabby Belt and I going to catch up with friend of the show and friend away from the show, Dan Illich of the Irrational Fear podcast. Who, Gabi, is up against us for... Best Comedy Podcast at the Best prestigious Awards Night in Australia, the podcast Awards. Oh, and I got to say, we've been having all the other... nominees on except for Harrison, Andy. But Andy Lee went on Dan's show.

We're going to ask him about that. First up, right after this. None of the medical advice contained in the Chaser report should legally be considered medical advice. The Chaser Report. Dan Illich, welcome back. It's good to be with you. It's good to be with you. Sorry, I'm just, um, that sound is, that is the sound of me shaving with my Australian podcast

World Best Comedy Podcast 20. I'm just shaving my face with it. He's a humble king. Yeah. It looks, it does look a bit like it's kind of a big Perspex wedge. Did they put any thought into this? Perspex, how dare you, Dom? Listen to this.

That's glass, my friend. Oh, that's a good glass tap. This is up there with Best Hairdresser Award at the Hills District Shire Small Business Awards. That's what, this is the quality of trophy you're going to get. I mean, I've got to be honest with you, Dan. As much as I'd like to win it, it does look like something that is a weapon seized after a glassing. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, you can, you can definitely. see shards of it. If you want an award like this, all you've got to do is just go to any local pub and pick up the bits of glass at the bottom where the bouncer has laid someone to rest out the front. You'll be fine. I mean, it looks like it could do some damage,

but definitely not as much damage as an aria award could do. I feel like that thing can impale you. It's definitely not, definitely not as poignant as an aria. That is the stabbiest of all awards. So, I mean, we've been milking content from this notional, mentioned behind the awards, Dan, but what's it going to be like? I realise this isn't really give a shit about this, and it's all very inside baseball. But I do love that we're trying to build up the award so that it means something if we win.

How has it been being the laureate of the best comedy podcast for the past 12 months? It's been a great year. All I've done is talk about comedy podcasting for all year. I've been a wonderful advocate for comedy podcasting, you know, doing a lot of conferences, talking about being a podcaster. You know, I even spoke about being a podcaster on CNN. to Jake Tapper a few weeks back. So, you know, look, there's a lot of a burden.

There's a bit of a burden if you win, Don. So if you do win, you and Gabby will be doing the talk show circuit, doing other people's podcasts. Oh, no. You'll be jumping on sunrise to talk about your win. Oh, man, there's so many things you have to do. I think I'd refuse out of moral justice. I don't think I could keep sustaining talk shows.

I'd be like, oh, this is nice, but I don't want to do this. No, no, no. Look, to be honest, there's, there's, There's no burden whatsoever, Gabi. There is absolutely no burden to winning this award. What do you mean? It's the biggest award in Australia. I mean, you get a little recognition from your peers, and that's what life is all about.

Getting a little recognition from your peers is absolutely delightful. I mean, you'll be glad to know, Dan, that when we had Tony Martin on the show last week, he said that they hadn't even entered this year because they lost to you last time, and they just thought it'd be. They won two back to back, and they're like, no, no, we're done. I see, that's a complete shame. That's a complete shame. because Tony Martin actually has the best comedy podcast in Australia.

And so he really should have entered. I mean, Matt Dower and him put such an enormous amount of effort into that show. And it's such a great listen. I think there's a bunch of really hot contenders, not notably the Housewarming podcast. They're very funny. As featured in yesterday's afternoon edition, by the way, if you want to make the Housewarming team.

Oh, excellent. I'll dip back in. And the Bodgy Creek footy podcast is funny. The Candy Man narrative drama is also very off the wall. And then there's the battle of the satirical comedy giants, The Chaser and Irrational Fear. And then a couple of blokes called Hamish and Andy. Yeah.

About that. About that. Because the other day, right, you rang me and I was on Irrational Fear, very happy to be there. But I was the undercard to a guy called Andy Lee who said no to us. We reached out to all of the other podcasts and said, if you come on our show for a chat, and they're like, oh, too busy filming.

Yeah. What have you got for Andy Lee that we don't have, aside from way more money? And we're probably an actual rapport as well. You probably actually know him. Well, Andy was very kind enough just to, I've asked him a couple of weeks in a row to come on to talk about it. And then he texted me halfway through the show saying,

he's now okay. So I was like, oh, we'll give him a call right away. Oh, it's the thrill of the chase. Andy Lee just made this great point. He said, you know, the Australian podcast awards, who are they made by? Like, who runs them? Like, who has gone about setting themselves as the authority for all of podcasting? And that really, it really took the wind out of my sales as someone within trophy.

I was like, he's right. Andy Lee is absolutely correct. Am I right in saying they're not the only one either? There are other awards. And, I mean, they've called them the Australian as though they're somehow official. They don't even have the, I didn't think there'd be anything less legitimate than the TV week Logie Awards. But, um, this doesn't even. Less cocaine in the bathroom, too.

I'm really mad about it. I mean, this doesn't even have the lack of quality that TV Week's brand implies. Yeah, that's right. Isn't it astounding that the TV industry rests its awards around the TV Week magazine, which must have a readership of tens and 15s? I'm pretty sure more people listen to our podcasts than actually buy TV week. And, I mean, for those who haven't read TV Week, and there's not, you know, I've only found it once or twice, But the premise of TV week is you write up the plot points of soapies as though

that were new stories happening to real people. Which is kind of a brilliant idea. Maybe we should have a segment that does that before. I was going to say, I feel like that's pretty much what we do at the Chaser report. No, that's what I do in a rational fear. Look, all content is, it's basically a... The plot points of the sopies. And by that, I mean, Ospole.

We're just information refineries. All we are doing is refining a whole stack of information down to memes. That's all we do. And look, what is Morag doing? at Summer Bay anyway. I don't know who's on the way anymore. Don't worry, you got it. There's going to be a Maureen at Summer Bay.

There always is. Here's the thing. Here's the thing about these awards. The awards themselves, you know, particularly if you lose, they don't mean anything. If you win, they're absolutely delightful. But the best part about these awards

is that we all get to go and sit in a room and give COVID to each other. And that is the most important part of that. Being together. Yeah. Sharing droplets rather than doing this over Zoom. which is what we do, how we record the show normally. Yay.

I can't wait. This is going to be a thrill. Particularly these awards, which is happening in a couple of nights' time, this is going to be a super spreader event. And, you know, we always want to go viral. You know, we always want more people to enjoy our work. So to be part of this is going to be great publicity for all the podcasts involved. I've actually answered Andy's question.

I just was researching it. There's just a guy called Dave. You're kidding. I'm absolutely serious. There's a guy called Dave Gertler, who I'm sure is lovely, but I haven't ever heard of. The Sydney-based independent podcaster realized that there should be an award ceremony. Right. And he's gone about in credit.

Well, this is it. This is, if you show leadership, you can own the space, which is why I'm here to announce that I will be running the Australian blockchain awards for 2020. That's fantastic. excited. What of what? Well, we could start the, um, the better podcast awards or something. Or the, well, the Australian defamation awards.

Or the more Australian podcast awards. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. We have our own one. The Australianer podcast award. Isn't that what News Limited did with journalism? They basically started their own awards night. Yeah, with the Kennedy Awards.

Yeah. Classic. And Peter Kred think, I mean, they got, I mean, there's the Walkleys and there's the Kennedys and then, you know, there's other things. We could, yeah, I think it's possible. I think it's possible. We could start. an award ceremony, an award ceremony for podcasts where we just rule out people who are with

Southern Cross Austerio. Because, you know, who needs producers? Who needs, who needs a giant corporation running your podcast? Not me. Yeah, look, any podcast that's not a total commercial failure, can't, it'll be like the artist, the artisanal podcasting awards. The gourmet podcast awards. Yeah, it'd be like, uh, the Michelin star.

Yeah, it's the Salw. a dough making of podcasts. Yeah. The podcast. And you're not allowed, if your podcast is ineligible, if you publish more than weekly. Oh, shit. We're fucked. Yeah, you can only do it if you publish like once a month or longer, like once a year.

I think it's got to be like a podcast that should not exist except for the absolutely dogged refusal by the people who make it to recognize that no one wants it. That's the sort of podcast I want to give awards to. Dog, that's our podcast. I know. I'm worried, well, you know, you guys are brute force with your podcasting now. You're, like, putting out six a day, and no one, no one needs that many podcasts. But here's the thing. Like, if you go for this slow podcast movement, you'll start getting award bait podcasts.

You'll be getting a whole bunch of podcasts that are crafted to win these awards year after a week year. It'll be like 12 years of slave every year. Well, Dan, you've kind of done that with Julia Zimiro. You've got her doing one a month. with, like, quite big names on your feed. Maybe we should try and lure a celebrity to just, like, do a monthly podcast in our feed just to give us a break. Who would be willing to do that for us?

What about Hamish? You could get Chris Taylor. Actually, that would be great. We get Chris to edit himself with, like, sticky tape and magnetic reels. No, I kind of like the idea of going for Hamish, considering Andy didn't return out of all. Andy's on rational fear. And Hamish, anytime, mate, you're very welcome. Oh, it works. Divorced parents. Pick your favourite.

Well, you know, Gabby's performed on a rational fear with Hamish. About that, actually. I was going to say, so if you happen to win again, Dan, what would we have to give you, we've been asking all of the nominees this, what would we have to give you in order to plug our podcast in your acceptance speech? We need listenership. You know what? I'll probably just do it anyway, because I will be thanking, all of the other people who were nominated. Wow.

Not even a bargaining tool. Well, what's the point? You know, who cares? What have you got? You guys got nothing. That's true. You can't offer me anything. But you know, the really embarrassing thing about this, Dan, is that due to the timing

of the entries and all that kind of stuff, our nomination clip had a fair bit of Danilich in it. Oh! Because it was that during the two weeks? Dom, Dom and Gabby, can I say this? My nomination clip also had a sizable chunk of Gabby Bolt in it. So there you go. In fact, I suggested for a moment of the year, Gabby Bolt performing at our 100th show. You're kidding!

Because that was a really special moment where Gabby Bolt, fresh off the boat from Bathurst, fresh off the tractor. Had never performed in Sydney before and was on stage with Hamish Blake and Yumi Steins and Chris Taylor, and Hamish Blake did a monologue, and then Gabby Bolt wiped the floor with everyone and just like demolish the room. So that is, we nominated that as our moment of the year. So hopefully, you know, Gabby, you might actually win on behalf of rational fear. There you go. Actually, you know what?

Then I reverse my proposal. If you win, do I get bragging rights in the office that technically, technically, I did win with podcast of the year? It just wasn't technically mine. Of course you did. I mean, I claim you first and, you know, whatever. So, yeah, you're a podcast divorce. It's two Christmases. You know, Dom, you know, in like FM radio station.

battle over talent, you know, like they give ugly fill a million dollars to move channels. We're going to be doing that. If we win, we'll be buying Gabby Bolt back. Very, very good. Well, I went on a rational fear at least once in the nomination period, so I'm going to claim it too. The Chaser Report.

More news. Less often. Dan, I want to ask you about how the project's going, Jokekeeper, in the campaign and the billboards. Well, it's great. I'm moving to the next phase now in terms of giving away money to satirical comedians. So there's a small fund set aside about $30,000 where we're giving away small amounts of money between $500 and $3,000 to make content for irrational fear. So if you

are a satire person and you love satirical comedy or you think you're funny and you can create stuff, just jump in my DMs and I'll send you the form to fill out. And if we like your idea, we'll commission it for a rational fear. And we're rolling out some more billboards around the country as well. So we've got a researched space on the Princess Highway in Engadine Dom, and it is quite cheap. So we've got three billboards we're trying to cook up at the moment. They're just going through approvals to see if they're illegally allowed to go up. But currently, it's an ad for Hawaii.

It says, hide in Hawaii for when it gets too hard at home. And the little breakout sale says, bushfire sale now on. And then we've got the Morrison Gaslighting Company. If the light's on, we'll tell you it's off. If the lights off, we'll tell you it's on. And then there's one for outside Engadine McDonald's. It says, welcome to Engadine, the last place the Prime Minister did anything. The great thing is, the great thing about that is Scott Morrison's already committed to saying he thinks it's hilarious.

So if it goes up, he'll be after going to go and laugh along in front of it. It's great. I won't be done for defamation like the publishers of the Chaser podcaster. Oh. Awkward. Awkward. But that's, I mean, also, like, if you need help with that funding, let me know. I've got some junkie for funding.

I could help with your legal bills. You've got a slush fund, Dan. It's a very good thing to see. And yours isn't blind. No, I've got a list of people who paid for it. But I won't be sharing that with anyone. No, look, but Dan, that said, I mean, amazing stuff with the Times Square billboards and stuff actually in Glasgow.

But I have to point out the elephant in the room here, which is that climate change is still happening. You didn't manage to save Australia. Yeah. I've updated my modelling, folks, and I just need six more billboards to solve climate change. So that's the thrill. That is the absolute thrill. No, of course climate change is still happening.

This whole thing is about trying to get the people who are funded by fossil fuels out of Parliament. So hopefully with every billboard I put up, I can repeat that message that, you know, this time round, by May 22, folks should be voting for people who aren't funded by fossil fuels. Dan, you had a particular billboard that we discussed in Kuyong, Josh Frydenberg's seat, where it was a bit ambiguous, but then someone came along and graffiti desks, didn't they? Yeah, well, it was kind of designed that way. So there are some billboard sites in Australia that you actually can't put so-called political messaging on because they're either owned by a government building or a corporation that doesn't want political messaging on it.

So I wanted to put up a billboard in Josh Frydenberg's seat, but I couldn't do anything political in this site. So I created one that was just selling standing desks. It had a picture of a man under a standing desk, and I said, hey, with a big space next to it, it's time to buy a standing desk because you're about to lose your seat. And I put it up there with the intent that someone would go and spray paint Josh next to hay.

Now, lo and behold, two days after I put it up, I got an email from a couple of senior citizens who said, we tried to take a ladder to your site, but we got a bit nervous, but we spray painted it anyway. And the thing is,

they spray painted it Frydenberg at the bottom. So, like, it still makes sense, but it's like not exactly where I'd hoped. But, you know, it's great. Interactive art. That's what I like. about it. I think it's great because I've said this to you before, Dan. I think it just makes the message all the more threatening. Hey, you better buy a standing desk because you're about

to lose your seat, Frydenberg. What I like most about that is it's as though you're the Banksy of Australian politics. If Banksy never did any of the work himself, if he just basically crowded some sites and went, go nuts. I'm not going to break any laws. What do you talk? Oh, yeah, that's true. That's true. You know, I do have to push Photoshop pixels around. I do have to go to I stock photo and download a picture. You know, so I've got to do some work. Oh, yeah, you do a lot of work. You just don't do the illegal bit.

That's the genius of it. No, that's right. Like the non-illegal banksy. I've outsourced the criminal aspect of it to the friends of irrational fear, to the fear moments of a rational fear. We do that to it all the time as well, yeah. So what's the plan for next year, Dan? You got, reaching the end of the year.

Is rational fear kicking on in 2022, scaling things up? What's the plan? Oh, yeah, we are. We are. We've got our 10-year anniversary show. at the Sydney Opera House. And it's very exciting, January 29. And we've got some pretty cool people on the line-up,

including Lewis Hobart. I don't know if you heard of him. Gabby Bolt is also doing the show. Oh, yeah. But also we've got Dylan Bain, who you would know from Newsfighters. And also Amy Ramikis is joining us as well on stage. Oh, from the Guardian Live blog.

Yeah, yeah. From the Guardian Live blog. And we've also got two other people, which I don't know if I could announce yet. We're just trying to pencil them in. but they are very prominent, funny people in politics in Australia. So it's very exciting to have them. So that's our 10-year anniversary show at the Sydney Opera House.

I can't believe George Christensen was available. And I personally can't wait to perform with him. Yeah, yeah. He rearranged some flights from Manila to get here on time. That's amazing. 10 years. Yeah, 10 years. I started at Rational Fear in 2012 at the FBI Social.

because back then there wasn't a satirical comedy show on television. And, you know, now there is, now there's like 300 satirical comedy television shows on television. There's no space for rational fear on TVs. But we're still doing the podcast and it's just been, I think we've had the best two years of the podcast over the last couple of years. So I think the podcast is the future. Well, we also did an event at the, at FBI social. We also wanted to start something. He started a thing called The Empty Vessel, which was.

I remember it, yeah. kind of a talk fest where we tried to get a little bit more serious. And we went way too far and half of us became serious radio presenters for a bit. And then it didn't kick on at all. So it was a very bad idea. Yeah, I remember that. I think I went to the one with Jennifer Robinson. Oh, that was great.

When I was looking after Julian Assange. Yeah, no. Look, it was a good idea in the time, but you actually kept yours going. Only out of sheer boredom. To the present date. How many episodes have you? We are about up to 100. 140, 140 episodes.

So, you know, you guys would probably put out a few more than that because you go daily, or twice daily. Well, you're six times daily now. So you do 140 in a week. So, you know, we're very lazy compared to you. Yeah. I'm now more podcasts than person, I think. All right, Dan, well, look, always great to catch up, except if you win, you ban from the show

for a few months. If you win and you mention our podcast, we'll get you a billboard. Like, you don't have any of those. Okay, great. It's a perfect gift. If you win and you mention a rational fear, we'll send you a ham. Lovely. For the office.

We'll love that. I love that I should that actually mentioning either podcast on stage is going to, it's not terrified. Can we be really clear? They're not even making a podcast at the podcast award. Wait. Well, if you, hang on a second. If you win and you sledge a rational fear in a really harsh way, I'll send you two hams.

Oh, okay. That's easy. Well, actually, Gabby, I think we might be presenting an award. Well, it's not like a serious one, is it? Because we could, we can pretty much guarantee. Well, my plan was to say that I'm Charles Firth and sledge him because he's not there. All right, Dan. Maybe I'll say I'm Daniel.

May the funniest podcast win, but Tizzletown isn't even nominated. Yeah, I know. What a shame. It's good to be with you and keep up the good work. I love the Chaser podcast. I dip in and out of it. every week. Thank you, Dan. We look on at your podcast with professional envy, but also enjoy listening to it. Thanks, folks. Bye. The Chaser Report, news you know you can't trust. Hey, Gabby, that was so sweet when you see

it actually nominated your song for a moment of the year. That's the sort of sincere, lovely behaviour you just don't expect in the comedy industry. It actually is really nice, because I do actually think very fondly about that particular gig. It was genuinely, he wasn't kidding, first comedy gig ever and I was on stage with like all of these comedy legends and you know it's really funny about it I forgot my words halfway through that song oh wow you can go and listen to that there's a live I listened to it too back first time I ever heard you do anything yeah it's the irrational fear 100th episode but I'm I'm doubly glad because now I have double chances of winning best one comedy podcast that is very cool yeah it's in their feed um don't forget you can also

subscribe um to their podcast as well give them some money for the great work that they do and contribute to joke keeper, should you be inclined? But of course, our podcast, well, look, whatever they say, whatever the judges might say, Gabby, there's a lot more of our podcast than there is of theirs. Oh, look, I think I'm happy to just bring my own participatory award. It's nice just to be in the industry, admittedly an industry that anyone can join just by uploading shit on the internet. Gear is from Road Microphones.

By the way, they sell gear you can use to do exactly that. Should you be so inclined? Nice. And we are part of the Acast, Creator Network. Catch up. See you tomorrow morning.