This piece was published before the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.
Born from a love of video games, pop culture and storytelling, 'Game Boys Cinematic Universe' brings 8-bit fun to life at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
Utilising interactive screen graphics, live video feeds, immersive sound design and literally hundreds of audio/visual cues, 'Game Boys Cinematic Universe' seamlessly blends technology with live performance in ways both innovative and surprising.
The show is split up into several tour 'stops' that all look at different aspects of the film industry. One scene is a foley stage where an audience member provides the sound effects to a mimed scene, another where the audience are film executives and have to decide which similarly-themed films made the highest box office.
There’s also a 'Blue Heelers' Stunt Show, an episode of 'Entertainment Tonight' with a dance routine, and an audience member-filled audition. The show culminates in 'Jurassic Park Adventure: The Ride The Stage Show'.
Game Boys is comprised of brothers Eden and Josh Porter in collaboration with Kinetic Screen. Over the past five years, Game Boys have honed their own form of comedy that combines razor-sharp writing and improvisation with the audience and audio/visual cues.
Each year has brought a brand-new show, the most recent being 'Game Boys Cinematic Universe', which premiered at the 2019 Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) with a sold-out, extended season and a Golden Gibbo nomination. The show was restaged for the 2019 Melbourne Fringe Festival, where it received the Sound and Technical Excellence Award, and the Regional Arts Victoria Tour Ready Award, and was nominated for Best Comedy.
