The Chaser Report - 'Pay What You Feel' Tickets | Matt Harvey

Episode Date: April 3, 2024

Charles and Dom are joined by comedian and writer for The Shot, and (more impressively) The Shovel, Matt Harvey! Matt is performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and he's trialling a unique model of payment that means his audience only pay what they feel is right for tickets. How does it work? Listen and find out.More details about Matts show "Wage Against The Machine" can be found here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. Hello, Charles. Now, look, the Melbourne National Comedy Festival is underway. You're doing a show. I know, I don't want to hear about that. What I want to hear about is someone who's taking on the system.

Oh, dear. Someone who is sticking up their middle finger to the man, to the rich people. Oh. To probably to boomers, I'd guess. The landlord class. The billionaires, someone who tells it like it is. It's Matt Harvey. His show is called Wage Against the Machine.

And Matt, you've come up with an interesting business model for performing comedy in the challenging environment of 2024. Welcome. Morning. Thanks for having me. Yes. I don't know how many billionaires turn up to our comedy festival. They'll definitely come because they love a bargain. I've heard there's about people like Frank Lowy.

Yeah, well, if I know anything about the billionaire class, they will take. like Bezos was collecting what was it was a payment for people earning under a hundred thousand dollars during I think it was during the pandemic and you know I feel like those guys and the people who really need it will be the first ones to grab a bargain and it's all the middle class who all think they're too good for a bargain yep they're like no I don't need it I'm too good I don't need your discount tickets I can pay full price it's fine if the extremely rich were to come to my show they would take the discount ticket they'd pay as low as they as little as they could. So this is the thing, right? Explain to us how it works. Okay. So, uh, you guys are

probably aware. Fringe festival runs in, the Free Fringe runs alongside the Edinburgh fringe in Edinburgh. Yeah. And so I think part of the reason that the Edinburgh fringes is as big as it is. It's because there's four or five, uh, fringe, like fringe fringes that run on this very same model where you show up to a show, you see the show, you decide how much you want to pay for the show. And so the free fringe, just the tonic, monkey barrel, they all sort of run on this same model. Is anyone can show up to the show and you just decide what you want to pay at the end of the show. And I'll say, I've had, I've had people walk it out because they didn't like the show and that's fine because they've felt no obligation to see the rest of the show,

which means that I didn't have to look at their face as being like, well, this isn't for me the entire hour. It's the most brutal form of review of overhead. Hey, can we just get paid for a Just a moment. All right, there you go. Play it an ad. So this is amazing because I've got to say I've rarely paid for comedy shows, particularly in Melbourne. I tend to get comps and I only go to the things that are free.

So I'm one of those jerks who are. You're the billionaire class. I'm the problem. I'm the comedy billionaire class. Even then there are shows that I've been like, I wish I could walk out of this. This is too much. It's free.

It's not worth the hour of my time. So have you done it before? Like, is this the first year that you've done? I've done this. This is the first time I've done it in Melbourne. Yeah, right. But I've done two Edinburghs on the free fringe. And does it work?

Do you make... People are more willing to take a chance. Like, they... So if you happen to do the free fringe, there is a booklet that has every single free fringe show in it. You hand that out as long as you, as well as your flyers. And people know that every one of those shows, you can just show up, take a chance. Even if you just want to chuck a couple of pencil, a pound in the bucket at the end. But, Matt, aren't you the only person in Melbourne doing this model?

Right now. I'm the only person buying it. So there's no booklet. It's just Matt Harvey is free. Everyone else pays. It's just me trying the thing, hoping that it will work here. Banking on the horribleness of our economy to draw people in to be like, well, at least this one, I could take a chance. You know what I would do?

Because I think that the actual key to the economy. at the moment is everyone's into shoplifting. Oh. Like, it's all about, you know, the self-checkouts. Yeah, you need cameras. That's what you need. Surveillance cameras, what people are paying. What you need to do is price yourself high.

Like, I can't make it 50 bucks a ticket, but make it possible for people to shoplift your tickets. And then people would love it. Yeah, yeah, that's the, that's the way. Well, here's the, see, this is where I'm at. People are putting tickets at regular prices, because venues are very expensive. sure you're aware, venues are very expensive, which drives up ticket prices, which means people are less likely to pay for a ticket, which means comedians then put tickets for free on Promotix.

The people who collect tickets at Promotix pay $6 to get those promo ticks. Just give that $6 to me. Don't I worry about promotions? That's good. But wait a minute. Don't you have to pay your venue? My venue is very cheap. My venue is the cheapest venue.

Did you steal your venue? I'll give you an example. Can you do pay what I feel to the venue? Can you push the business model up the chain? That'd be good. I've been trying. I've been trying. I would love to build this up and I would love to have it more frequent in Melbourne Comedy Festival, maybe next year or the year before, if more comedians are interested in this sort of thing. But we need a venue who's willing to play ball. Because in Edinburgh, those venues are free. You get a free venue. You put your show on for free. And then people will make donations. And so nobody's losing any money. The venue gets bar sales and everybody sort of benefits from it because more comedy happens, more performances happen, more people can chant to do a thing. Is it a virtuous circle or is it that austerity Britain is so terrible that that's the only way to get any traction is by making everything free.

No doubt that the free fringe is a direct result of Margaret Thatcher. And that's the one thing that we can thank her for. And if she was there, if she came to the show, she would not only give you no money, but she'd give you a lecture after the show about how you're wasting your life in the arts. I hope that happens as well. That's it. Pay what you feel.

Say what you feel. We'll resurrect the ghost of Thatcher every night. So your show is called Wage Against the Machine. It's all about, you know, poor people and being unemployed and not having enough money, right? Don't you think you should have, don't you think you should have come up with a topic that hits a sort of slightly richer audience if you're going to do the pay what to fill? I'm just thinking, I think you've made some mistakes. Yeah. I don't want to give you a hard time.

I'll tell you this. I'll tell you this. I had someone come in the other night for the first pay what you feel show. And they paid me 50 bucks. And that's more than I would have charged them. I would have charged them 20. Oh, actually no This is

You're giving people the chance To be ostentatiously generous That's brilliant Here you go, sir You need this more than me Based on what I've just enjoyed So was that a pity-based Fee?

If it was, I'll take it I'll take all the pit-based fees that I can get I got to say my thought was And I don't want to stereotype Melbourne I love Melbourne But if you'd called it Like an artisanal handcrafted show if you'd mention

exclusive maybe that you'd come up with this kombucha-based yeah you'd come up with the whole idea while on a retreat in the Himalayas or something I don't know single origin definitely a single origin show

you could have charged more A lot of white comedians could call themselves a single origin show That's right There you go So that's good So the billionaires come They won't give you any money

But middle class people Will want to flash their wealth Yeah they'll feel like They want to show off how much money they have because they have a job that isn't in the up. You're like the Tesla of the Comedy Festival. Yes, exactly. And in actual fact, you should go after that Tesla bro-style audience because they're idiots, right? But they'll spend their money.

Run the whole show off batteries. Yes, that's what you want to do. That's the batteries that explode at random intervals. They'll be very exciting. And full self-driving Matt Harvey that sort of constantly veers off to the left. It would be very exciting. How often I just hit someone in the audience. Because you'd smash into the wall with particular intervals.

I wouldn't know when that was going to happen. Well, at least you'd kill. Hey. There we go. The Chaser Report. Now with extra whispers. No, but look, customer service is one of the things you're talking about. Have you had to be in the customer service industry?

If so, my God, I'm going to pay all the tiny amount of money that's in my bank account because that sucks. Yeah, so that's most of the jobs that I've done. So the quick pitch. The log line, I guess, is it's all about my old dodgy jobs, my $20,000 rover debt and the time I broke a hundred-year-old roller coaster. So that's the simple set. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. We better not.

Damn, I want to hear how all those stories go on the podcast, but it seems unfair to get it off you for free. Yeah. And we should be paying what we feel. Which roller co? Or are we allowed to ask what roller coaster? Is that too secret? I think through the process of the show, you can figure out which roller coaster it is. There are only so many 100-year-old roller coasters.

It's clearly in the world. Clearly, Luna Park. I'm not from Melbourne. I know which Roller Coaster, it is. But I try not to say too specifically, I mean, my old workplace, I do pay them out, a fair bit in the show, and I'm just trying to avoid. What is it like to work at Lunar Park, just apropos of nothing? Apropos of nothing? All right.

So, it depends on what time of my nine and a half year career you caught me. Oh, gosh. Yeah, yeah. You went deep. It was a lot of fun. and in the middle it was pretty good because they would bring in new stuff we'd do like air attractions and it was fun to do the scare attractions you just sort of hide in there jump out at people boo and children would dress up as peter dutton yeah yeah that's it'd be the camber

experience you just walk through parliament house you just be in the prayer room we got like don't go in there um for the most part it was it was like as terribly as the pay was several as the pay was and as terrible as a retail experience can be because you know, what, during the summer, you get, you know, a few thousand people a day coming through there. So inevitably, someone's going to yell at you for something you didn't do. They threaten to go to Lindsay Fox. And I'd be like, oh, great.

I would love to hear what Lindsay Fox has to think about this low-level employee at a thing that he doesn't even really care about. He's invested in, but he doesn't come by. Does Lizzie Fox own Leder Park? How interesting. This is the billionaire. Yeah, he's an owner. That can come to your show and not give you any money.

Why not? Lindsay, get along. Or at least the family. Linda Fox. Like his children were pretty nice. His grandchildren, they had attitude. They would always come in and be like, my grandfather owns this place. And if you knew who he was, would be like, how do you know who he is?

And he's pretty famous. Like, people will know who your grandfather is. And does they wear T-shirts saying you were passing another Fox just in case you missed it? Just a case. No, not on that day. But there was an event that day. So I'm sure that they were dressed up.

I feel like Lunar Parks, one of those parks where if you paid what you. you want at the end they would instantly go broke it's like one of those things where you pay because it's like 90 bucks to get in nowadays it's so expensive because you used to be able to just walk in and then if you wanted to ride rides yeah the Sydney one works but then they realized that people were just walking in them walking out being underwhelms they come in use the bathroom yeah but it's sort of one of those things where as the day goes on your willingness to pay would just decrease like they're getting you at the optimal period of time which is before you've actually seen learn to pay you say that but i i've so i used to do like 12 hour shifts so you would

see someone come in at the start of the day very excited and it's usually children of course but you'd see someone come in at the start of day super excited and then you'd be there at the end of your shift deflated defeated ready to throw it all in 11 o'clock at night shutting that gate and then children would run up to you and they'd be like Why do we have to go? Because I want to go home, kid. Like, I'm done. You might not be done, but I'm over it.

I have to come back tomorrow morning. I'm down. I'm out. You have to leave. So those kids, not that their parents would pay, but those are the ones. Fairy floss. I think that's a fairy floss fuel. Imagine the lows in the car on the way home.

Wow, so 12-hour shifts. I mean, how did you survive? How do you survive 12 hours at Lina Park? I can't think of anything worse. Like screaming children, I love children, particularly my children. But I think, I reckon the cap's got to be five or six hours. hours before literally you start being violent. Oh, it's exhausting.

How did you keep the rage? There's a lot of internal violence. You just learn not to take anything that anybody says beyond six hours too serious. Is that when you started loosening the bolts on the roller coaster about seven hours in a shit? You've got to get home somehow, right? You need the day to end. Was it one of those things where you noticed that where you lived was on a trajectory

where if the roller coaster took off at the right point, you could just fly home. Is that how it worked? Well, we know through him showing up a lot that Dave Hughes lives in the area. Oh. And we think, yeah, we think we've worked out roughly where he is. We probably could have hit his apartment if it took off on the wrong ankle. I was surprised he didn't try and buy it.

Isn't that what he does? He'd just turn up to things and try and buy them? Yeah. He's he? He might. He might. At least, he'll climb in a bin out the front of it. tell people to go around him.

I believe that's the only other cultural reference I have. He did that one thing with the block that was incredibly crass. And that's the one. He seems like a lovely man, otherwise. But that's the only thing I could think of that. No, hasn't he turned into a sort of anti-vex? Has he? Yeah, he's got a bit.

He did go out of, I don't know if he's still like that. He went a bit nuts on Twitter during the pandemic. But the question is whether he still thinks that stuff now. Because I think basically everyone's two years of tweets, particularly in Melbourne. We all said some regrettable things. We all watched tight. King. Yes.

Oh, remember that. I mean, what about Dave Milner's writing for the shot during that period and all the pathos and sympathy

because I know you run for the shot as well. The one person who probably peaked in empathy was Dave Milford. Yeah, all the tears I shed for him as the sort of voice of Melbourne.

I now completely regret being manipulated because Sydney's lockdown was better. I mean, we know that, right? It might have been shorter.

Better weather. Much more enjoy. More beaches. Well, yeah, it was as much easier to get out and about. It was fun. Yeah, all those pictures are everyone on the beach. I'm sure that went down very very well. Right, so look, I hope this works.

Because otherwise, you've got to go back to Lunar Park, is that right? Oh, never. I don't think that even taken me at this point, given the way my time there ended. I remember going off to New Zealand to do the festival show, having told them that I was going. And then they tried to call me to ask why I hadn't shown up to a ship. And this was, like, just before the pandemic. And I came back from New Zealand. I got called into a meeting.

And the only reason that meeting didn't happen was because lockdown was just about to happen. I realized I was on the edge of being let go. That is very lucky. The lockdown actually saved me. Yeah. A little bit extreme to actually bring the pathogen into the country just to get out of an awkward meeting with Lundy Fox. But, look, we all paid the price. Right.

Well, look, I'm, if the bonus is to peak our interest, I'm very keen to see this show. This sounds fantastic. Charles, on the scale that we pay our guests between zero and zero, what should we pay, Matt, for this appearance on the podcast? I feel like we give you the billionaires rate. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

That's good, because then one day I'll run the company. Go see Matt Harvey's wage against the machine. It is on at Kaz Rytops dirty secrets. Is that how you say it? Did I screw up that I mean of any heads? Oh, I know. That's on Smith Street. It sounds cool.

Yeah, in Collingwood, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. Sounds so Melbourne. That is very cool. It is. Is that the one that's painted black? Is that building painted black? Yes, yes, it is.

You know, you're Melbourne Charles. I'm impressed. Yeah, no, it's a very trendy bar. We should also say that the pay, what you feel, is only Tuesday to Thursday, regular prices on Friday through to Sunday because the man's got to eat. Yeah, you've got to eat. Yeah, it's got to eat. Exactly.

Very, very, very good. Get on that. Are you doing it anywhere else? I will be bringing it to Sydney, but unfortunately, I didn't get to control the pay model in in Sydney, so there's fairly regular prices there. I'll be at the Sydney Comedy Festival on May 4th and 5th. So pay what Matt's bookers feel you should pay for that one. Yeah, that's all right.

Yeah, pay what Century sets. Great to see you. And we'll catch your writing on the shot website as well. It says here that you work for the shovel. I can't believe Charles we've got someone from the shovel. I feel really honored. Yeah, this is very funny website. It's really good.

All right, all the best for the rest of the run, Matt. Thanks for being on. No, thank you. Our gear is from Roeb. We are part of the Iconiclass Network.