‘People are like: you’re a crackpot’: how Sam Campbell became the oddball comedy star | TV comedy

THe thinks about Make That Movie, Australian comedian Sam Campbell’s Channel 4 extravaganza, it’s not easy to explain. A show-within-a-show, it stars its creator as Sam Campbell: not his true independent self, he’s an arrogant director whose well has run dry. So he invites people to share their (non-conventional) ideas for movies, which he and his non-working team then turn into real movies. All of this takes place within the framework of a shonky reality; Each episode ends with the first showing of the film. Think Changing Rooms, but instead of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Handy Andy redecorating someone’s living room, Campbell brings to life a man named Mick who imagines a family that may not be snakes at one time, but one of them always is.

In other words, Campbell himself is the one who has been given carte blanche to change his views which are always wrong. He says the company that produced the show was very inconsistent – perhaps because they were too busy with Ricky Gervais’s cat animation “so we were left with our own equipment”. It helped that Channel 4’s head of comedy, Charlie Perkins – a long-time hero and collaborator of Campbell’s – was also “a big believer. I don’t know if he had (the idea) when we first started talking about it. When we made it, I think he understood it a little bit.

Even his friends didn’t understand. Comedian Lara Ricote, who plays Campbell’s public-spirited assistant Jess, when she first read the script, was a little disappointed. However, he also had faith. As a big fan he became a close friend of his creators, Ricote felt he “didn’t need to understand” Make the Movie. “With Sam I believe in my heart that it will be funny.”

Many comedy fans feel it’s time for Campbell to have his own television show. Since arriving in the UK from his native Australia in the early 2020s, the 34-year-old has established himself as Britain’s most irreverent voice. His stand-up – delivered in a way that oscillates between over-the-top hammy and childish brawling – forces the show’s drama through an absurdist filter (the antagonist takes everything from hand sanitizer and dragonflies to Ferrero Rocher and Bratz dolls). In 2022, this shtick won him an Edinburgh comedy award; His desire to mess things up in the neighborhood led to his return the following year for a triumphant, single 10-minute match called Bulletproof Ten.

The victory of Taskmaster followed, and soon Campbell was plying his trade as the odd man out on the set of the show: Can I lie to you?, Cats 8 Out of 10 Cats Count, QI (a scene that makes him change his casual clothes for a tweed suit and a big split, asking Sandi to give him back. whale sperm). Then came his biggest gig to date: this year’s list of Last One Laughing UK. Up against the likes of Alan Carr, David Mitchell and Bob Mortimer, he was firmly on the left: doing the unethical ducking; saying he ate next to “people of color” during Eat Out to Help Out; playing the vicar’s pet bird which must have been one of the most amazing things ever. It also proved that Campbell’s death was more than a mask; It quickly became clear that there was no chance of anyone taking him down (something that led the producers to change the rules – Campbell lost David Mitchell for underestimating other contestants).

In real life, Campbell is still good-looking, although that doesn’t mean the mysterious persona means it. Today he’s calling from his parents’ home in Tasmania, where he’s resting after filming a series with the Australian team (he admits he’s “zonked” and worried about coming across as “silly” as a result). Yet even though he’s willing to share his reading ideas – he’s currently enjoying himself with Ben Lerner. New book Transcription – he is far from an open book alone. When I ask what made him switch from Australia to the UK, he says he “can’t remember why I moved to England or how it happened”. (Though he admits he was a longtime fan of British comedy, he mentions Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place and The Mighty Boosh as creative influences.)

And don’t bother looking for clues in the Campbell he plays in Make That Movie, either; The idea of ​​giving a character his own name was “inspired” by the producers, he says. “I think at one point he wanted to call himself Coin,” confirms the show’s director, Joe Pelling, who describes the protagonist of Make That Movie as “probably Sam’s version if he was very thick and very arrogant”. What these two have in common is the tendency to go with their guts. For the fake Campbell, this means scrappy writings and raw pride; for the real one means not to think twice (or to revise the process in the interview). “Sam doesn’t seem like a very analytical person,” says Pelling. “He’s just naturally driven by what’s funny.”

Campbell threw his group into the picture mainly from his relationship. Along with the sweet, energetic Jess, who was a regular at Ricote (although Campbell describes her friend as “doorless in real life”), we have fellow Australian comedian Aaron Chen as Sebastian, whose presence is allowed because his parents support the whole business. A delightful stand-up Helen Bauer plays against Pat’s sound engineer version, while 86-year-old actor David Hargreaves, who has been working steadily on British TV since the 1960s, completes the cast as cinematographer Winnie. Dressed in matching purple jumpsuits, the gang’s aesthetic is part Ghostbusters, part Scooby-Doo. Pelling – best known for co-creating a group of horror comedy bands Don’t Hug Me I’m Afraid – he wanted to develop “real life animation so that (the show) doesn’t feel sad and unusual”.

Also a fictional film group, Make This Movie stars a rotating cast of fictional characters, many of whom are hired to star in fictional films as a money-saving project by Campbell (fictional). This is played by the cream of British comedy: Amy Gledill, Lenny Rush, Mark Silcox, John Kearns, Freddie Meredith and many others. At the moment, the movies – which are very bad but not boring – have several styles: from British comedy to sci-fi to children’s cartoons about feet. Make That Movie is an anthology show; 00s DIY programs may have served as a template, but so did Michael Palin’s 1970s series Ripping Yarns.

Another big inspiration was the scary shooting of the movies. Both Pelling and Campbell refer to the book Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr Moreau, about the turmoil of the 1996 Val Kilmer film. A comedy about serious filmmaking, especially when it comes to tragedy (“people arguing with prosthetics”) is at the heart of Make That Movie, says Pelling. Campbell recalls playing in Australia as a child about chess player Garry Kasparov, where “a friend played (supercomputer) Deep Blue; we painted him blue and took him seriously”. Approaching “dumb” ideas casually is something Campbell finds “very funny”.

Just like Campbell’s stand-up – which subverts and follows a series of visual jokes – underneath Make That Movie is a solid comedy. “Sam is good at knowing that sometimes you need to develop a character or a structure that makes the audience feel more comfortable, so it’s not just crazy stuff,” says Pelling. There’s a lot of crazy stuff, though. In one episode, we met Sebastian’s AI companion, Super-Breast, a digital representation of a naked, hairless woman weighed down by one giant monster. The image is now burned onto my retinas, but Campbell insists he’s not in the business of trying to confuse people. “I don’t want anyone else to feel bad, but it’s good if people enjoy Super-Breast.” He thinks of another way. “Maybe it’s more good than bad. I hope he doesn’t find people who like him.”

Have any of Campbell’s movie ideas been rejected for being too weird? “There was one spaceship with a thousand children and it stopped on the planets and 100 children got out. Meanwhile, the other children were being taught by the computer.” Those who were placed on the last planet “ruled the whole universe because they had a lot of education. It didn’t make sense.” Then we had another one about a boy who every time someone touches him physically, he goes back to his childhood with the knowledge he had accumulated. Lots of baby stuff, then? “Yeah, there’s nothing left because people are like: it’s so hard to draw with babies – you’re a mess.”

Even without babies getting hurt in the air, Make a Movie is a sweet find – and that’s the point. For those of a certain sensibility, this type of TV is a staple of the era when the absurdist comedy was on our screens. As an old-school indie icon, Campbell’s appeal lies in his rejection of the anodyne and crowd-pleasing humor, says Ricote. “It’s great when you feel like your taste is good – when you enjoy what you like – and that’s what happened to me with Sam,” she explains. “I’m going: Thank goodness, I’m one of those people who can laugh like this.”

And what does Campbell expect from his latest creation? “I want people to find entertainment,” he says – although he seems to have very little hope for audience engagement. “I think people are just watching things on their phones while they’re being attacked now.” I don’t of course I know what he’s saying, but this line makes me laugh: as many have already observed, you don’t have to understand Sam Campbell to appreciate him.

Make The Movie premieres in the UK on Channel 4, 28 May10 pm; and in Australia, it’s on HBO Max from 29 May