The Listies & Critical Stages Production
MAKE SOME NOISE!
Written & Performed by Matthew Kelly & Richard Higgins as The Listies!
Music and Lyrics: The Listies and Ryan Ritchie
Lighting Designers: Emma Lockhart Wilson
Video Graphics: Emma Valente
Sound Design: Iva Lottagas
AN INSANE MIXTAPE OF SILLY SONGS, STUPID SKETCHES + CRAZY CLOWNING.
For over a decade the award winning Listies have toured the world doing shows for literally gazillions of kidults (that’s kids and their adults). Now it’s your turn.
Make Some Noise! is a comedy concert for humans aged 4-400. Join the maestros of mirth Rich and Matt, as they belt out a bunch of songs with the LOLs turned up to 11.
Will they be in tune? Almost.
In time? Not quite.
In order? Definitely
Can Rich dance? Let’s find out.
It’s a party for your ears and both of them are invited! Hilarious, fabulous fun for the whole family!
The Listies’ Teleportaloo book series, published by Penguin, is available in all bad bookshops, and you can find these and their musical owl bums at thelisties.com.
Touring
2023 – 2024
Artform
Theatre for Children & Families / Comedy
Suitability
Ages 4 – 400 million (dinosaurs allowed)
Warnings
Some sudden loud noises. Lasers and Smoke effects and Dad’s dancing.
Duration
60 minutes, no interval (TBA)
Suits
Theatre (Proscenium Arch), Black Box, Thrust, Studio
Previous Seasons
This brand-new show from The Listies will enjoy its premiere season at the Sydney Opera House in January 2023. With previous productions this duo have played in venues right around Australia – far too numerous to list here! Check out their website for more.
What people are saying
★★★★½ “The result is an hour of rambunctious fun so clever, and so perfectly attuned to its audience, it wouldn’t surprise me if The Listies became the first children’s comedy act to win top gong at the Comedy Festival.” The Age, 2019
★★★★★ “Forget about the night-time stand-up comedy and just go see The Listies doing ‘kidult’ comedy in their riotous and ridiculous new show… Just buy a family pass…. It’s bloody worth it!” Kate Herbert (reviewer for The Herald Sun, 2021)
“No-one else does comedy for kids this brilliantly, and what’s more the adults have just as much fun!” Sydney Morning Herald
“The only downside of seeing The Listies is that kids may be disappointed the next time they go to the theatre because it isn’t always this awesomely excellent.” Sometimes Melbourne
“Right from ushering us expertly into our seats, Matt and Rich keep us utterly entertained and the laughter is infectious… This is an hour of total belly laughter-inducing fun, and is just the tonic we all need after the past few years”. Edinburgh Festival For Kids
“If the Wiggles are the Eagles then the Listies are the Sex Pistols.” — Dave O’Neil ,The Age.
“Australian duo the Listies have conquered children’s comedy through deep respect for their audience, with a focus on the subversion of the adult desire for control — with hilarious results.” — Sue Giles, The Australian.
Key Audiences & Marketing Notes
AUDIENCES
The Listies have become renowned for their ability to engage young people and families in their work, and are one of the leading producers of work for the Kidult market (kids with adults).
This exciting new show will appeal to families with children aged 5+ who are looking for ways to introduce theatre, and theatrical experiences, into their child’s entertainment sphere.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
- The Listies have a strong social media presence & are happy to work with venues to create extra shareable content made for your community.
- Existing 5000+ Australia-wide mailing list.
- A podcast with nearly 80,0000 downloads: www.thelisties.libsyn.com
- Matt & Rich are available for interviews, Q and A’s, VIP events and appearances.
- Previously, venues have used dress up boxes, themed events and pyjama parties to embrace the fun and play that a kid’s show can bring.
- Social media takeovers, voice overs for commercials, and longer-format marketing ideas are welcome. Please chat to us about the availability and potential cost of using The Listies for these activities.
Press & Awards
AWARDS
2019 Won Edinburgh Fringe ‘Primary Times Choice Award’
2016 Nominated Best Children’s Show Sydney Critics Award
2016 Won The HarperCollins Best Designed Children’s Fiction Book
2015 Nominated Best Ensemble Green Room Awards
2013 Won Best Production for Children, Sydney Theatre Awards
2010 Nominated Best Show, “The Barry” Melbourne Comedy Festival
2010 Nominated Best Emerging Comedians Adelaide Fringe
2009 Won Golden Gibbo Award, Melbourne International Comedy Festival
PRESS
- Review – The Age
- Interview – The Age/Sydney Morning Herald
- Interview – Herald Sun
- Feature – When I Was Little
Who are The Listies?
The Listies are Richard Higgins and Matthew Kelly, a comedy double act who are serious about being silly. They formed during the latest Ice Age (2008) to perform absurdist comedy to elderly people (i.e. 18+) but switched to full time kids comedy in 2011, and finding it to be a wondrous and rewarding sphere full of joy, never looked back (plus the hours are heaps better).
To date, they have claimed to have written nine-ish award-winning & critically acclaimed live shows, collaborated with most major theatre companies and festivals in Australia, toured 3 continents, recorded three albums, and published two books with Penguin – and they have 4
books on the way. Though we only have their word for it.
On Australian television you can see them on ABC with their shows The Listies Work For Peanuts and Art Blast, their music video ‘Wash Your Hands’ (with Zoe Coombs Marr and muso Ryan Ritchie) and occasionally in the background of outside weather broadcasts.
In 2019 they performed over 120 shows to tens of thousands of people all over Australia. Nearly all of them stayed awake and only some of them vomited. Recently, in what may have been an administrative error, they won the Edinburgh Festival’s ‘Primary Times award for Best
Production for Children’.
In the past they have received a Sydney Theatre Award, ‘The HarperCollins Best Designed Children’s Fiction Book’, and the Best Independent show (Golden Gibbo Award) at Melbourne Comedy Festival,. They are still the only kids’ act to have been nommed for the Comedy
Festival’s ‘Best Show’ award.
www.thelisties.com
Other Shows by The Listies
ROFL (Roll On The Floor Laughing)
ROFL sees The Listies tackle the most terrifyingly tortuous family situation of all: BED TIME. Rich, the exhausted parental proxy, is trying to get an early night while his hapless, hopeless housemate, Matt, deploys every trick in the book to stay up late. Featuring toilet paper cannons, a real life Cowasaurus, lullabies of doom, detachable legs, a panoply of puns, and possibly too many Aldi gags.
A very cheeky, very clever, utterly irreverent riff on Hamlet – made especially for children. The Listies, maestros of children’s entertainment, have pulled apart Shakespeare’s classic and glued it back together with hilarious costumes, loads of silliness and plenty of interactivity.
ICKYPEDIA
A seriously silly show that answers all of life’s unimportant questions, like: how do you take a smellfie? What does pooetry sound like? How does one avoid a fartquake? Anarchic, spontaneous and funny, Ickypedia is for kids of all ages.
AND MORE!
