Aunty Donna

Aunty Donna
Aunty Donna (top–bottom: Ruane, Bonanno, Kelly) at The Alexandra, Birmingham on the Magical Dead Cat Tour in 2023
Medium
  • Internet
  • theatre
  • television
Years active2011–present
Genres
Members
  • Mark Bonanno
  • Broden Kelly
  • Zachary Ruane
  • Max Miller
  • Thomas Zahariou
  • Sam Lingham
Former members
  • Adrian Dean
  • Joe Kosky
Websiteauntydonna.com
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–present
Subscribers616,000[1]
Total views163 million[1]
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2016
Last updated: 1 October 2024

Aunty Donna is an Australian surrealist comedy group formed in Melbourne in 2011. The group consists of performers and writers Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, alongside writer and director Sam Lingham, director Max Miller and composer Thomas Zahariou (formerly Armstrong). Their work spans numerous live shows, a YouTube channel, a podcast, a studio album, the Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun, the ABC Australia series Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and the picture book Always Room for Christmas Pud. They have frequently collaborated with other comedians, including Michelle Brasier and Demi Lardner.

Influences

Members of the group have cited comedians Monty Python, Shaun Micallef, The Mighty Boosh, Nathan Fielder, and Tim & Eric as influences, as well as television series such as Mr. Show with Bob and David and Stella, and programming block Adult Swim.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

History

2011–2014: Formation and live shows

Aunty Donna was formed in 2011 after its five original members (Mark Bonanno, Broden Kelly, Joe Kosky, Sam Lingham, and Zachary Ruane) met at University of Ballarat's Arts Academy.[8][9] Trained as actors, the group saw a lack of demand for independent theatre and decided to attempt comedy instead,[10] beginning as live performers.[11] Their first live show, Aunty Donna in Pantsuits, debuted in 2012 at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) and was nominated for a Golden Gibbo Award, which pushed the group to continue making comedy.[12][13] Kelly also recruited his high school friend, composer Thomas Zahariou soon after its founding.[14] To perform at the festival, MICF required the group to film a selection of comedy sketches, for which they recruited director Max Miller, who Kelly and Zahariou knew from high school.[4][14] They created sketches for C31 Melbourne, and began their YouTube channel in 2011 to upload the sketches from C31 and their MICF online.[4]

Joe Kosky and later Adrian Dean departed Aunty Donna to pursue other ventures. Their second live show, Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop, debuted at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2012,[15] and won its People’s Choice Award.[16]

The group perform outside at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014

2014 saw their third live show, World's Greatest Showbag, at the MICF, as well as a Best Of live show that debuted the group internationally at both the SF Sketchfest and Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[17][18]

2015–2019: Television pilots, YouTube sketches and The Album

In 2015, the group created a self-titled half-hour television pilot for the ABC and Screen Australia as part of the inaugural Fresh Blood Pilot Season comedy initiative, but the series was not picked up.[19][20] According to Kelly, the pilot was about the experience of Dean leaving the group.[21] They released the sketch "Bikie Wars" on YouTube, featuring John Wood of Blue Heelers fame, which became their most popular video.[8] The Sydney Morning Herald credited the group with successfully converting its online fanbase into "bums on seats" for their live shows.[21]

In 2016, the group released the web series 1999, based on the Y2K panic and funded by Screen Australia as part of their $100,000 Skip Ahead talent development initiative.[22][23] They were also selected by Comedy Central for its Australian platform and were the first to be launched on the site.[24] The group began the weekly Aunty Donna Podcast.[25]

In 2017, the group released a second half-hour comedy pilot, Chaperones, which was not continued into a full series.[19] In April, they starred in the music video for hip-hop duo Horrorshow's "Eat The Cake".[26]

In 2018 the group released a full-length studio comedy album, The Album,[27] which was followed by a national tour in November and October.[28] The Album debuted at number 30 on the Australian charts and received an ARIA nomination for Best Comedy Release.[29] They also released a version of a past live show, New Show, on YouTube, filmed at the Enmore Theatre.[30] The group also released the sketch "Always Room for Christmas Pud", which the Australian Financial Review later said had become "something of a Millennial cultural touchstone in Australia".[31] The sketch would become a running gag for the group, later receiving a family friendly re-release in 2022.[32]

Making use of their production company, the group released the 16-part Glennridge Secondary College web series in 2019, which followed a fictional Australian secondary school.[33][29] It was nominated for an AACTA Award for the best online drama or comedy.[29]

2020-present: Big Ol' House of Fun, The Magical Dead Cat Tour, and Coffee Cafe

In November 2020, Aunty Donna released their Netflix series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun.[19] To promote the show, the group erected a replica of the Utah monolith in Melbourne with help from YouTubers I Did a Thing and Aleksa Vulović.[34] Neil Patrick Harris and RuPaul both praised the show.[29]

In March 2021, Aunty Donna hosted the Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow at the MICF.[35] They made a cameo appearance on season 1 of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under in June.[36]

2022 saw The Magical Dead Cat Tour, the group's first live tour in three years after it was delayed by COVID-19 lockdowns, covering Australia and New Zealand.[37] Later in the year, the group released Always Room for Christmas Pud, a picture book based on their popular YouTube video of the same name.[38] They hosted the musical comedy gala at Sydney's Just for Laughs comedy festival in December.[39] For Christmas, the group released a real "$30 Bottle Of Wine", in reference to their 2016 sketch of the same name.[40]

In August 2022, the group announced that they had been signed by ABC to create a new sitcom TV series depicting them running a café in the Melbourne laneways.[41] The show was later named Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe and was released on the 12 April 2023.[42] Alongside the main members of the group, the series starred Gaby Seow, Sally-Anne Upton, Michelle Brasier, Vidya Rajan, and Mish Wittrup.[43]

In 2023, the trio provided voices for characters in the Australian version of the 2023 film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.[44] After returning from the tour, the group began to release a three-hour Dungeons & Dragons campaign via Patreon in November, hosted by Bonanno and titled The McMuffin MacGuffin. However, the hard drive holding the footage was destroyed, leading to the release of only one episode and the filming of a second campaign featuring writer Sam Lingham.[45]

They provided voices for the animated sci-fi comedy feature film Lesbian Space Princess, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024.[46]

Haven't You Done Well Productions

Haven't You Done Well Productions is a production company established by the members of Aunty Donna in 2018, with the aim of assisting and educating online creatives,[47] who would usually struggle to find a platform due to being too "weird",[25] to develop and produce comedy projects and to ensure they retain ownership of their own works. The company is mentored by Andy Lee. In 2019, it received funding from Screen Australia, sharing a pool of $1.2 million for sector and talent development.[47] The company produced Aunty Donna's webseries Glennridge Secondary College[48] and co-produced Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun and Aunty Donna's Coffee Cafe.[48]

Grouse House

Grouse House is a YouTube channel operated by Haven't You Done Well Productions. It has produced several comedy webseries which are hosted on the YouTube channel Grouse House, including Hug The Sun (2021) featuring Ben Russell and Xavier Michelides,[49] Hot Department: Dark Web (2022) featuring comedy duo Hot Department,[48] and Finding Yeezus (2022), a six-part documentary web series that revealed the identity of the creator of the 2013 video game Kanye Quest 3030 starring Cameron James and Alexei Toliopoulos and directed by Max Miller.[50][51][52] The five-part comedy Descent (2024), set on a submarine and featuring comedians Millie Holten, Madi Savage, and Ella Lawry, was also released on the channel.[53]

Other ventures

In 2022 Screen Australia funded its production of science fiction romantic comedy The Alien Abduction of Emily Hill,[54] and in 2023 Crime Casters, a comedy about a true crime podcaster.[55] In 2023, they produced Fairbairn Films' Fairbairn in the City, again financed by Screen Australia's Skip Ahead funding.[56]

In June 2024, the company announced a commercial division, having already filmed ads for Samsung, PlayStation, Heineken, Coles and a campaign for a collaboration between Lego and Sega.[57]

Works

Stage shows

Year Show title Tours
2012 Aunty Donna in Pantsuits Melbourne International Comedy Festival[12]
2012 Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop (A Murder Mystery) Melbourne Fringe Festival[15]
2013 Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2013 Aunty Donna (Best Of) Sydney (Factory Theatre)
2014 Aunty Donna's World's Greatest Showbag Melbourne International Comedy Festival
2014 Aunty Donna (Best Of) Edinburgh Festival Fringe,[18] SF Sketchfest[17]
2015 Aunty Donna (Self Titled) Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London (Soho Theatre), regional UK tour
2016 Aunty Donna: New Show Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival, Perth Fringe, New Zealand International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London (Soho Theatre), North America
2017 Aunty Donna: Big Boys Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Canberra Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, Brisbane Comedy Festival,[5] Perth Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, New Zealand International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, London (Leicester Square Theatre), North America
2018 Aunty Donna: Glennridge Secondary College Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Canberra Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival, New Zealand International Comedy Festival
2018 Aunty Donna: The Album Tour Australian tour
2019 Aunty Donna: Glennridge Graduation Party Australian tour
2022–2023 Aunty Donna: The Magical Dead Cat Tour Australian/New Zealand tour followed by world tour of Australia, UK, Ireland, USA and Canada
2025-

2026

Aunty Donna: DREM World Tour of Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, USA, Canada

YouTube

In December 2012, Aunty Donna created Aunty Donna's Rumpus Room, a seven-part web series which originally aired as segments on C31 Melbourne and its YouTube channel.[5] Much of its YouTube content is based on content adapted from its live shows, and vice versa.

The majority of Aunty Donna's YouTube content is organized by the group into different series. These series include:

  • Rumpus Room (2012)[58]
  • Fortnightly Fap Off (2013)
  • Fapé in the Cafe (2013)
  • Haven't You Done Well (2013–2020)
  • Fresh Blood (2014)
  • 1999 (2015/2016)[23]
  • Trendy (2016)
  • Ripper Aussie Summer (2017)[5]
  • BEST CONTENT EVER!!1! (2017)
  • Aunty Donna: The Album (2018)
  • Camp Bush Camp (2018)
  • Glennridge Secondary College (2019)
  • The Rove Tapes (2020)
  • The House Series (2022)

Podcast

The group began a self-titled podcast in 2016, releasing weekly episodes.[25] It usually involves improvised character comedy with satirical premises,[59] and has been described by Wonderland as "hugely popular".[60]

Music

In 2018, Aunty Donna announced they would be releasing their debut album The Album on 6 April 2018. On 9 February 2018, Aunty Donna released the first single from the album, "Chuffed (Dad Song)", and accompanying video. The album debuted at No. 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart.[61]

Discography

Studio albums

Title Details Peak positions
AUS[61]
The Album
  • Release date: April 2018
  • Label: etcetc (ETCETCD064)
  • Formats: CD, LP, digital
 30
Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun (Music from the Netflix Comedy Series)
  • Release date: January 2021
  • Label: etcetc
  • Formats: digital
Aunty Donna's Coffee Café
  • Release date: 19 May 2023
  • Label: ABC
  • Formats: digital

Awards and nominations

Award nominations for Aunty Donna
Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2012 Melbourne International Comedy Festival Golden Gibbo Award Aunty Donna in Pantsuits Nominated [8]
Melbourne Fringe Festival People's Choice Award Aunty Donna and the Fax Machine Shop Nominated [8]
2013 Melbourne WebFest Melbourne's Best Prize Aunty Donna's Rumpus Room Won [62]
2014 9th AACTA Awards Best Online Drama or Comedy Glennridge Secondary College Nominated [63]
2016 Melbourne WebFest Best Ensemble 1999 Won [62]
Sydney Comedy Festival Director's Choice Aunty Donna Won [64]
2017 Helpmann Awards Best Comedy Performer Big Boys Nominated [65]
2018 ARIA Music Awards Best Comedy Release Aunty Donna: The Album Nominated [66]
2019 Melbourne WebFest Best Australian Comedy Glennridge Secondary College Won [62]
2021 11th AACTA Awards Best Narrative Comedy Series Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun Nominated [67]
Best Comedy Performer Mark Bonanno Nominated [67]
Broden Kelly Nominated [67]
Best Original Score in Television Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House Of Fun - Episode 1: Housemates Nominated [68]

References

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