Where Does the Dramaturgy Go? Zach & Viggo @ Edfringe 2018

Zach & Viggo + Thumpasaurus: Where Does The Love Go?

Underbelly Cowgate – Belly Button

9:20pm

August 2^nd – 26^th

(not 8^th or 13^th 

I am bit out of it when it comes to music: can you help me with a quick description of where the band's music fits into music history: what is punk-funk, where does it come from and where is it going?

Thumpasaurus draws its influence from a species of shamanic dinosaur that existed in pre-historic times. Similar to the band Funkadelic, they create a universe full of homemade characters that reflect all sides of their different musical personalities. They specialize in making people dance, sweat and have a great time, creating a space for festival goers to release themselves from the intensity of the fringe. 

How on earth did an underground LA punk-funk band and Norwegian-American comedy duo end up working together?

Zach and Lucas (the lead singer of Thump) met in LA a few years ago while dating two girls that were best friends. The two boys fell madly in love with their girlfriends and started hanging out loads - eating at taco trucks and ramen spots all over town. A few months into the friendship they both got dumped and were completely heartbroken. The two boys met up at a diner really late at night, Lucas showed Zach an opera he was working on, and they decided to give it a go. 

And what made you go for opera? Can you even have a funky opera at all?

When you say opera people think of a lot specific elements but really an opera is just a narrative piece expressed entirely by music. Thump is a funk band so when they wrote an opera, of course it was funky.  But funk is as much a mentality as it is a sound. There’s a New Yorker piece on George Clinton that really captures the essence of funk

- If you surrender yourself to their music, there would always be a place for you on the Holy Mothership. If you just stood there, with your arms folded, you were probably down with Sir Nose ‘DVoidoffunk, a killjoy who promises he will ‘never dance’.

And what experience do you think the audience will have?

Of course we want everyone to be blown away and leave with a newfound love for life - but above all we just want everyone to have a good time. Most people think of chaos and idiocy when they think of us but there’s still a strong theatrical element to what we create. We’re hoping to go further in that direction this year and see where it goes. 

I am vaguely better on the idea of love (although people will disagree if they know me), so I feel better qualified to ask about this part of the show. You are exploring many kinds of love - can you make a statement about any conclusions that you might be drawing in the production, and any handy advice for a love-struck critic who might be trying to deal with it round about now?

Everyone is perfect, everything is beautiful.  

I am also terrible on comedy.... can you explain to me about your comedy tradition, what kind of humour I might expect and how that fits in the opera and punk-funk context?

So Zach, Viggo and Jonny (director of Zach & Viggo) all met at a clown school in France called Ècole Philippe Gaulier. While we were there we studied Melodrama and some saw some of the funniest things we’ve ever seen on stage. You can’t write better jokes than clowns seriously trying to do dramatic scenes. So the shows not funny but we’re funny so it might be funny.

https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/zach-viggo-and-thumpasaurus-where-does-the-love-go