From the team who brought you the comedy podcast with currently over 70 million downloads, comes their live show.
My Dad Wrote a Porno is a free online podcast with British hosts Jamie Morton, James Cooper, and Alice Levine. Each week, Jamie reads a chapter from a series of erotic fiction novels entitled Belinda Blinked, while Alice and James react and add in commentary. Belinda Blinked is written by Morton’s Northern Irish father who goes by the pen name Rocky Flintstone. The books centre around Belinda Blumenthal, a sales member of Steeles Pots and Pans. The show has featured episodes with celebrity guests who are fans of the character’s antics within the books. The podcast has just finished the third book in the series.
The live show has just finished its New Zealand and Australia tour but has previously toured around the UK and Ireland and will soon travel to LA and New York. The Sydney Opera House had 2 sold out nights in the Concert Hall.
The entire building was awash with a lively, upbeat crowd of all ages – a true testament to the scope of the podcast’s audience. Prior to the show, a playlist of pop songs surrounding sexual themes played while everyone sang and danced along. From Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ to Salt-N-Pepa’s ‘Let’s Talk About Sex.’
The lights dim to loud audience cheers, as a short video of famous historic events played, ending with snippets from the My Dad Wrote a Porno podcast. As the trio appear on stage, Jamie explains that the episode being read aloud tonight is a deleted chapter that is “so bad, not even Rocky could add it to the books.” The three hosts suggest the audience to participate in a drinking game when certain things occur in the chapter (such as Belinda blinking.) The rapport built by Jamie, Alice, and James has established the strong following.
There is plenty of audience participation throughout. Some people dress up as characters, scenes, or ridiculous objects mentioned in the show. One audience member reads as one of the characters in a Welsh accent while two other audience members re-enact a scene to prove how impossible and ridiculous Rocky’s descriptions, and by extension his writing is!
My favourite part of the night occurs in the second half of the show, where Alice jumps up to announce how ludicrous it is that Rocky does not know basic female anatomy – something she regularly points out in the podcast. Donning a white lab coat, Alice pulls up a powerpoint presentation in which she gets the audience to help label parts of the female genitalia.
The show is exactly like the podcast, hilariously fun with the addition of a large group to enjoy the show along with.
Although their Australian tour has ended, you can download the podcast My Dad Wrote A Porno for free from iTunes in the podcast store or from SoundCloud. The first book in the series has been published in hard copy with annotated commentary from the trio.