Airdate: Story Club

Next week ABC2 premieres a new comedy show, of sorts, in which some well-known faces will orate before a live audience.

Story Club, created by Zoë Norton Lodge and Ben Jenkins (both friends of The Chaser), kicks off with Norton Lodge and Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson sharing personal stories.

Dickson recalls his Australian Idol judging days while Norton Lodge reminisces about her grandparents.

This one is a bit of an acquired taste, and as television, feels better suited to the Live experience (or possibly radio). I suspect it will also depend on the guests -coming up are Jonathan Holmes and

Story Club is a comedy show with a difference. Think stand-up, but sitting down. Then add a narrative.

Sophisticated and hilarious, Story Club brings together Australia’s finest raconteurs – including politicians, stand-up comics, novelists, journalists, commentators, poets and musicians – to create an event that is both funny and unexpected.

Hand-picked from the live event of the same name, each episode of Story Club features two stories that are sometimes alarming and ultimately revealing – but are always entertaining and always true.

Created by Zoë Norton Lodge and Ben Jenkins and held at the Giant Dwarf Theatre, the live event is a themed storytelling night where some of Australia’s best storytellers gather in front of an audience to reveal their funniest stories, darkest moments and their shameful secrets, all while sitting in a stupidly ornate chair and reading from an awkwardly large book.

During series one, the storytellers will share stories about coming out, staging one’s own death, mistaken identity and accidental assault, cousin love, what it means to be Australia’s favourite bastard and what happens when you revisit your travel diaries from 50 years ago.

As well as stories about drunken Santas and fraudulent Jamie Olivers, there are tales of sexy mishaps with cleaners, terrifyingly experimental coppers, grandmas with axes to grind and geriatrics arm wrestling for beer.

The stories are vulnerable, they’re confronting and they’re damn funny.

Wednesday, January 7 at 10.00pm on ABC2.