Television is Furniture

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Bert Misery is a MiseryGuts

Bert Misery is a solo comedy country and blues musician.
He sings and plays guitar, piano and banjo.
Bert’s world is darkened by years of cynicism and bitterness that gain a wryness and self-deprecating humour from contrasting despair and hope to produce toe tapping blues and country music.
Bert sings original songs that poke fun at contemporary society and satirise modern life. (In the style of Tom Lehrer, Alex Horne and the Horne Section, Sammy J and Tim Minchin.)
The Bert Misery sound is a mix of country and blues with a folk rocky accent and a punk attitude. (Imagine Johnny Cash, Slim Dusty, Billy Bragg and Tom Waites… but funny.)

Bert used to be part of a comedy music duo, Bert Misery and the Miseryphones, in the outer suburbs of Melbourne, last century.
Bert retired from performing in 2001. He is a former teacher and freelance writer.
Bert is returning to music comedy as a gigging performer after twenty-five years because, shockingly, it is a more promising industry than tertiary education right now.
In the post-apocalyptic, post AI environment of our contemporary information economy, Bert is on a mission to spread simple undergraduate education disguised as jokes and songs.

Bert Misery’s songs and dialogue contain adult content.
Trigger warnings for: swearing, suicidal ideation, drug and alcohol use, addiction, mental health issues
Bert’s set has been designed to suit multiple configurations.
The material can be presented as five-, ten-, fifteen-, twenty-, thirty-and fifty-minute blocks. (Fifty-five minutes is the length of the full theatre/festival show.)
The songs can be played acoustically or amplified depending on the venue.
If there is a piano available, please let us know, otherwise Bert will perform with guitar.

Bert Misery and the Miseryphones, final concert

Bert Misery is a character written and performed by Dr Robert Reid, PhD.
Dr Rob is a Ballarat based theatre maker, musician, playwright and theatre critic. They have been making theatre and live performance in Melbourne and around the country for more than thirty years.
Dr Rob was the Artistic Director of independent theatre company, theatre in decay in 2000 and the immersive theatre company Pop Up Playground in 2011. Their plays, The Joy of Text and On the Production of Monsters were presented by the Melbourne Theatre Company in 2011 and 2012. They have a PhD in Australian theatre history and co-founded WitnessPerformance.com with Alison Croggon.
From 2009 to 2020 they were a lecturer and course coordinator at Monash, VCA and Deakin universities until these courses were closed by funding cuts and the pandemic.
Dr Rob is developing Bert Misery as a new character for performance in stand up comedy and theatre spaces. The character's first full length show, MiseryGuts, is in development right now and will be presented in a festival context as soon as possible.
To see more of their work search this site.

The Bert Misery audience is a little older and considers itself educated - the last Generation X and Millennials to go to uni. They are probably left leaning, but the content is broadly focused to appeal to a wider centrist consumer.
They are old enough to remember cultural markers of a by-gone Australia (such as Derryn Hinch or Kerri-Anne Kennerley) but also still be aware of global trends (AI, MAGA or the rise of conspiracy theories).
More likely to listen to Nick Cave than Sombr
More likely to have adult children and be spending newly disposable income on nostalgic activities like clubbing and festivals.
Teachers and other knowledge workers, artists and anarchists.

Bert Misery is a MiseryGuts