Drew Bensley, Alex White and Jamie Kirk are Sydney-based comedians who's new podcast sets out to prove that every hometown has a story. At its best, Community Noticeboard is an audio-roadtrip across Australia, dropping in on small towns you quickly become enthralled with. With a new guest and hometown each week, early episodes having travelled much of Australia's east coast, with memorable detours to Norfolk Island, Bileola and Wagga Wagga.
Talking about the origins of the podcast, Drew describes community facebook groups and the weird drama they brew.
"They've sort of cleaned them up now, but you'd have these people who are in every comment thread, no matter what, just going at each other. And 90% of the posts are just "did anyone hear that noise”, or someone driving too loud, and the shit-fight just kicks off from there."
Community Noticeboard loves the characters who flock to these forums. Alex's relationship with a sketchy Newcastle DJ ruthlessly establishes the show's tone in the first episode. For Drew, these stories are one of the best bits of the show, especially in a small town which is more likely to have "one of those people everyone knows, and either avoids, makes fun of, or just loves. It doesn’t always have to be so mean.”
The show rides on a sense of adventure and discovery, which each guest eager to share the good, bad and weird of where they grew up. Their passion is evident, and the uniqueness of the opportunity to talk at length about something so personal is not lost on the hosts. As Drew explains, there's not many outlets to talk about the culture of small Australian communities.
"There’s barely any funding for local production – and whatever does get funding, 90% of it tends to be dogshit – and then the culture is so americanised. So I guess the podcast is a non-traditional way to tell these stories. Hopefully people get a sense of the place and the person. We don’t want to sit there shitting on the town 100% of the time, or go down the opposite track praising it for no reason. We want to capture it warts and all, and hopefully that shines through in every episode.”
In recent episodes – with Dane Simpson describing the difficulty of catching a rural taxi or Sam Taunton outlining Nowra's stoner hotspots – you can feel this warts-and-all portrait being achieved. As Drew goes on to describe the dream guests they'd like to book (“old NRL players from 80s”) and the variety of generations they want to chat with, its exciting to consider the podcast digging deeper and deeper into small Australian communities across time.
As we’re wrapping up our interview, I ask if there’s anything Drew wants listeners to understand about his own hometown, Queanbeyan. After a considered pause, he tells me: “2620 til I die. Queanbo rocks.”
You can find and subscribe to Community Noticeboard on your preferred platform here.