Jazz Emu pilots musical comedy series
- A pilot featuring Archie Henderson as his musical character Jazz Emu has been released online
- The 7-minute short co-stars Ellen Robertson, Janine Harouni, Rob Carter, Phil Wang and Charly Clive
- Producers Blink Industries say: "We hope people enjoy it, share it, shout about it, so that we get to make more"
A new pilot focused around online star Archie Henderson as his musical character Jazz Emu has just been published online.
Henderson has developed the 7 minute short with Blink Industries, the production company behind online formats such as The Paddock and Blind Love On First Date Island and forthcoming Channel 4 series Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.
The pilot, which can be watched below, is described as follows: "The story follows the life of Jazz Emu, who works for a failing music label and dreams of becoming the world's greatest junktronica musician. When his idol accidentally walks into the wrong studio, Jazz decides to take his destiny into his own hands..."
Henderson has been making musical online videos and albums as Jazz Emu since 2018, building up millions of streams on YouTube and Spotify and airtime on Radio 1. The comedian has also been touring his Jazz Emu live show, including dates in America, and is set to head to the Edinburgh Festival this August as the character too.
The hope is the pilot will lead to a series commission, with Blink Industries confirming "the dream is to make more".
The full synopsis of the pilot is as follows: "Jazz Emu is a hapless foley artist, who dreams of hitting the big time on the junktronica scene. When it's revealed his musical hero Crimpsy Dimpson is visiting the studio, Jazz's mind is blown. Doubly so, when Crimpsy accidentally arrives in his studio rather than the label next door. But when Jazz's clumsiness leads to a concussed Crimpsy Dimpson, and to his boss Pastrischa and best friend Ulla confusing Jazz for Crimpsy himself, he is faced with a dilemma: to admit the truth and return to his mundane life recording foley, or to dive deeper into a web of lies, and get everything he ever wanted."
The pilot was directed by Hunter Allen, and Henderson is joined on screen by Ellen Robertson plays Ulla, with Janine Harouni as Pastrischa, Rob Carter as Douglas, Phil Wang guest starring as Crimpsy Dimpson and Charly Clive playing Horror Woman.
Jazz Emu says: "It is such an honour to collaborate with Blink Industries in the telling of my life story, and in doing so, to bless the world with the greatest gift of all: my oeuvre."
Producer Alex Cartlidge comments: "Blink Industries are very excited and proud of what we've made with Archie. We have a long history of making visually inventive music videos and surreal comedy, so Jazz Emu is the perfect combination of the two. As with Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, we hope people enjoy it, share it, shout about it online, so that we get to make more."
Below is the pilot: