My interview with Mirth defect
If you’ve not heard of Mirth Defect, this is a comedy that doesn’t follow the normal stereotypes, has innovative drama and an original music radio show, which is released once a month.
What is the origin of Mirth Defect?
I wanted to do a show. I knew that for sure. I’d been mulling over lots of different ideas both factual and fictional for about 6 months. I love producing drama and writing dialogue and it didn’t take me long to settle on the fact I wanted to make something that contained fully produced scenes with multiple cast members.
I am quite privileged to live in London and have creative people around me and the space to record. I also find it quite hard to get into audio drama that’s just a narrator, or a narrator pretending to be a journalist. I always want to make fully produced scenes using actors where possible.
At the same time as that I wanted the freedom to experiment and do something new if I so wished, and I’ve been writing sketches for a long time. Really the format for MD was born out of a desire to have as much freedom as possible to experiment.
One of the things I love about making the show is creating new soundscapes every month. In the most recent episode it was a factory full of monkeys typing as two guys walk through and enter an office. Next month we are doing a space ship crashing and an operating theatre.
The origin in a simple sentence is my desire to experiment and create incidents on a regular basis.
Why did you start Mirth Defect?
Also a big factor in the stuff I write is to expand the field of what sort of drama is out there. On Mirth Defect we have killed children on christmas eve. The Rich Parents Poor Kids segment is basically two parents twisting their children up. I wanted to make something that sounds amazing but is different to anything out there. The sketch shows I hear tend to be a little flat, so making something that is involving was really important.
As the season has gone on the stuff I’ve written, which just sort of comes out in dreams, or quick moments, has seemed to tie in with whats going on in the world. The last sketch of the pilot was real dream, my girlfriend had about her being in a limo and Donald Trump, that was written in June 2016. Since then world events have sort of filtered in in an abstract way.
Having said that there isn’t really a message. The things going on worldwide have an impact somewhere, we’ve touched on misogyny as well as brexit and materialism, but i couldn’t tell you what my point is, that’s up to the listener I think.
How did you create the team for Mirth Defect?
In terms of the team, I write about 99% of the scripts and produce and edit everything myself. I have a pool of around 5 actors that are available and up for being weird once a month and resonance fm let us us a studio to record which is invaluable.
A friend of mine Gareth Marsh has produced hundreds of pieces of bass music that he lets me sift through too, so you will never hear the same piece twice throughout the season.
A great musician called Alabastar De Plume also gives us music which adds a little light and breaks the show up nicely.
Be sure to follow her at http://www.horror-writers.com/