Turn right at the next joke! - Is SatNav the new place for content and brands to collide? Free comedy downloads from ‘230 Miles Of Love‘ might be the breakthrough to get the show on the road …

Doc Rogers talks with Andrew Shanahan, the driving force behind the project (sorry) …

Doc: What were the technical problems getting the show onto SatNav?

Andrew: In all honesty there were remarkably few problems. Even though I’m a big fan of all things tech and GPS I’m not really a coder, so I was lucky that the people at www.geovative.com had basically done all the hard work for me. All I had to do was twist their website’s intention (it’s basically for people to make their own GPS tours) for my own ends, write the sketches, record the show, edit it and pinpoint exactly where on the motorway the sketches needed to go. A trained pigeon could have done the same.

Doc: I know it’s early days but are you getting any feedback from your audience yet?

Andrew: Yeah lots. We had a nice review of sorts in The Guardian, the Wolverhampton Express and Star said it was “quite risqué” and we’ve had a fair few emails from people saying it made them laugh, so that’s great. I think because it’s a new kind of thing, it takes people a while to understand what it is and why it has any relevance to their lives.

Doc: What kind of inspiration did you have for ‘230′ … who are you comedy heroes.

Andrew: The show grew out of a certain amount of frustration that I’d experienced writing comedy for conventional channels (TV, radio, etc). Basically, I’d learned that on the whole it’s a pretty arduous and not entirely enjoyable process. You do a lot of work over a laughably long period of time, watch your ideas getting diluted to the point of banality and that’s wayyyy before it’s actually commissioned and anyone thinks about paying you. I should stress that it’s not always like that and it could be way more fun for other people but that’s how I’d found it on the whole. There was no flux capacitor moment but I guess I just drank enough one day that I decided it was time to look for new ways of getting low-grade nob gags out to the masses. Comedy heroes are too many to mention but a top six would include Woody Allen, Leslie Nielsen, Dave Gorman, Caroline Aherne, Stephen Fry and Paul Merton.

Doc: Do you have any plans for future episodes and i have to ask … would you let brands get involved?

Andrew: There are lots of plans for future episodes and indeed future projects (some are detailed at www.movingaudio.co.uk). 230 Miles of Love is the first episode in a series of six locative media comedies that are all broadly about transport and places, which are being delivered in a variety of different ways. So, the final show is a comedy about our species’ place within the universe and is going to be broadcast into space. Shows 2 to 5 are all secret but you should start hearing stuff about the second show before the end of June, if all goes well. If it doesn’t go well then you’ll probably never hear about it and I’ll almost certainly be in jail.

One interesting thing is that all of these six shows are either using entirely new forms of media or existing forms in a decidedly odd way. As a result there’s no conventional sources of funding such as commissions from production companies. I funded 230 Miles of Love myself by making my wife and son go without nice things which is a pretty awful thing to do but I’m exceedingly lucky that she’s really, truly lovely and he can’t talk to complain yet. I’d love to work with brands who can get involved with what I’m doing - some criteria for that is that they should be secretive, interested in publicity and enjoy some hardcore oddness in their lives. Every show in this series is also attached to a charity so I guess they’d also need to be ok with sharing the limelight. Alternatively, I’m happy to come and tell anyone who’s interested in how locative media is the future in a can and how it can make your world at least 9% shinier.

Doc: You’re going to get a lot of this … i write comedy sketches with a friend of mine, could we submit something to you for SatCom?

Andrew: Of course. Email me at 230milesoflove@gmail.com or have a look at www.230milesoflove.com, there’s information about how to make your own satcom and suggestions for how you might like to help with this one. It would be great if other people made satcoms, it’s not a hard thing to do, it’s pretty much free, there’s a quick turnaround time and you get the chance to make people laugh. Plus, if you do it quick you’ll have the honour of creating the second satcom in the world which will look great on your CV.

Doc: my stock question … favourite bookmarks or websites you like please.

Andrew: I spend far too much of my life lurking on a variety of Stoke City messageboards such as here: http://oatcakefanzine.proboards27.com/. I can understand if that’s a bit niche for most readers so how about stopping by the comedic wonderment that is www.somethingawful.com?

Doc: Thanks a lot Andrew, good luck with ‘230 Miles of love’

Andrew: Pleasure.

a-motorway-meditation.mp3

Tags: Comedy, download, interview, SatNav, technology