Traditions of the Uni Revue

Come for a walk down memory lane…

Over the years the Old Nick Uni Revue has pushed boundaries, drunk beer, acted like silly buggers, drank more beer, and in between shows, they drank a lot of beer. Wretched uni students the lot of them! The following is a (probably incomplete) list of the “traditions” of the show — a show we should add is entering its eighth decade of existence. You may notice there are quite a lot of drinking games included amongst this list, and yes, drinking used to be an enormous part of the culture. Nothing here is mandatory, much of what is here has gone out of style, some is a little offensive, but it is presented as a warts and all history so you understand what has come before.

“Olayo”

or

the Theatre Warm Up Song

Before every show, our company typically gets a cast or production team member to sing “Olayo”. This involves foot stomping, echoing lines, and ad libbed lines relating to the success of the show. It was first introduced in 2008 and is mostly comprised of nonsense words.

The lyrics are roughly as follows:

Oolayo
A ricki ticki tumba
A masa masa masa
Ooh alay, parawa parawei
Ooh Revue
A ricki ticki tumba
A masa masa masa
Ad Lib (eg. “Ooh we’ll slay opening night today”)

This history of the warm up song from 2008 Uni Revue director Hugh Miller

“Well the slightly embarrassing story goes that the year I was directing I wanted to bring some more energy into warm ups. Half the time we were all deathly hungover and everyone was shitty at each other for sleeping with each other. So I wanted a big fun unifying belter that we did before a show to just get us in the mood, And I knew this from, here's the embarrassing bit, Hutchins school sports, it was one of my house's 'war cries' as we called them. I always kinda semi ironically liked it. It seemed so ridiculous but fun to belt out. I think the first time i did it I kinda performed it as a half joke because I was self conscious about it and then it got requested again the next night by probably a friend taking the piss out of me and it suddenly became routine and less of a joke each night. But I had no idea it carried on past 2008”

Hugs

Every night after singing Olayo, someone will call out the number of shows performed; starting from 1 on opening night. Everyone must hug at least as many other people equal to the number of shows including the show about to be performed. In recent years, a “limit” rule has been added where once you reach the requisite number of cuddles you cross your arms across your chest and do not allow any more hugs. There is no obligation to hug anybody, or to stop hugging people when you have reached the number called. The introduction of the hugs is unknown, but it is likely from the early 2000s and transferred from other musical theatre shows through cast involvement.

Don’t Stop Believing (Opening Night Warm Up)

The song “Don’t Stop Believing” was requested by long time cast member and Uni Revue choreographer Kristy Baker as a warm up during her final year. Some time in the late 2010’s this was adopted as an opening night warm up tradition, where the cast sing along to the song while they walk up and down the rows of seats in the theatre.

Traditional Close

The “Traditional Close” as it is known today, or “So Now We’ve Come To The End Of Our Show” as it was known in the fifties and sixties, is an end-of-show song that used to run at the ending of many Uni Revues. In the early years different songs were written, but at some point, like the original overture, the Traditional Close fell into place as a hallmark of Uni Revue. As the show aged and modernised, the position and style of the traditional close began to feel a bit like a deflation, and so the words to the song began to be performed in other styles as part of the closing, often before a “true” closing number that was a bit more rock ‘n’ roll.

The traditional close originally had no references to Launceston as the show did not tour, so the song was updated to remove the reference to Hobart and the Mercury.

Lyrics:

So now we've come to the end of our show
And it's time to say goodnight
It's all been fun, and there's no harm done
It's been topical, spicey and bright.

You've had glamorous dolls and ridiculous guys.
Ever since the show began
It's been a racy revue
It's been red hot and blue
And nobody gives a damm.

(Original)
When things go amiss in old Hobart Town
When troubles build up and life gets you down.
When the Mercury fails and the TV too,
You can always rely on the Uni Revue.

(Modern)
When things go amiss in Tasmania
When troubles build up and life gets to ya
When the newspaper fails and the TV too,
You can always rely on the Uni Revue

So now we've come to the end of our show
And it's time to say goodnight,
You've seen the Uni Revue au revoir to you|
So goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

Fingers in the Middle

A well known (if maybe not well loved) Revue drinking song whose origins are currently unknown, but was likely introduced in the 2000s. It begins with a call to arms with actions, followed by a group chant with a beat of two thigh slaps and a hand clap, followed by a rapid naming game. The first person to stumble over the name has to drink. It has fallen out of favour over the years as drinking culture has subsided. The lyrics are fairly vulgar, and the opening line is crass and reasonably offensive.

Once the opening chant has been performed the instigator of the game leads the naming game section. They must say their own name followed by fuck twice to the beat, and then immediately follow with “how about a (name) fuck” naming another member of the company to carry on next. The next person must likewise name themselves and then another person. If someone falls out of time with the beat, stumbles over their words, or fails to name somebody, they “lose” and have to drink (originally finish their drink) as the group chants “down down down down”. The continues until someone loses, regularly speeding up the longer it goes on.

The lyrics are as follows:

(Call to action)
Fingers in the middle! (All put both hands into the circle and wiggle their fingers)
Fiddle with your diddle (All bring hands back and wiggle their fingers over their crotch)
Wooooooaaaaaaaaah (All slowly raise their hands into the air and drop for the thigh slap)

(Chant)
(Beat maintained with two slaps to the thighs and a clap of the hands on each line)
Fuck me
you fat bitch
What’s the name of this
fucking game?
I say what the
fuck, here we go now

(Name Game)

eg. Justin fuck Justin fuck how about a Sarah fuck
Sarah fuck Sarah fuck how about a Jamie fuck
Jamie fuck Jamie fuck how about a…uh… (loses the beat)

(Upon end of game)
(All) Woooooaaaaaah!
Down down down down
Down down down down
Down down down down

Presents

Presents, previously just known as gifts or closing night gifts, is a tradition that likely extends back as far as the very first Uni Revue and introduced by Keith Jarvis (based on info from Peter Reardon and some others). On the closing night of the show, the director would give all the cast members presents which were intended to be witty or silly and based on the experience of the show (for example, if someone changed a word from the script they might get given a thesaurus). Unfortunately, some time in the late nineties/early 2000s the spirit of it became warped, and it became a generally mean spirited event where some gifts were unnecessarily cruel or targeted personal information. As a result, by 2015 the concept of “presents” was abandoned. Production teams now sometimes make attempts to revive presents in a more wholesome iteration closer to the original intent, but it is no longer as embedded as it once was.

Harvey Wallbanger

The Harvey Wallbanger party is a party with no other theme than “Harvey Wallbanger is consumed”. Harvey Wallbanger is a cocktail made of vodka, Galliano and orange juice. At later iterations of the party, this was mixed in a large plastic tub or garbage bin wherein the members of the company would bring their own cups and scoop it out. As binge drinking culture began to fall out of favour amongst youths and the company began discouraging it, the Harvey Wallbanger party was abandoned.

The origin of Harvey Walbanger is not known, but it is known it dates back to the early seventies at least. Craig Wellington said at the time of his first show how landlord said he had done Revue many years earlier, and made the mistake of hosting Harvey Wallbanger. He fancied himself a writer, and during the party people kept going into his study and adding sentences and paragraphs to the page in his typewriter.

Blood of Christ

Blood of Christ is a party held over the Easter long weekend. Originally it began sometime around 1988-89 because Richard Causby lived near the Uni and Easter long weekend was the last time to party before things got too busy. One enterprising fellow randomly decided to show up dressed as Jesus and a new tradition was born. Whilst the party became a regular at Richie’s and then other cast member’s houses, the party was not called Blood of Christ until some years later.

Blood of Christ is fairly simple. It is always held over the Easter long weekend. Someone comes dressed as Jesus and usually this is not pre-arranged. Everyone is asked to “drink something red”. Alcohol and participation in the theme is not mandatory.

The Break Up Party

In the words of Uni Revue alum and past President of Old Nick in an email sent to the cast of the 2010 Uni Revue:

In 2008, 3 young, handsome lads said to themselves

"Golly gosh there's a big gap between the Blood Of Christ party and the Opening Night Party. Let us invent another party which we shall hold in the interim to reward our hard work and satisfy our need for group bonding, morale and stress relief."

"Yes let's." Said the other two.

And they did.

In 2009 the practice was repeated and uni revue 2010 continues the tradition of 'The Break Up Party'. It's name signifies the breaking up of the gap between Blood Of Christ and Opening Night - it's also about the time that people realise "hang on, this cast is pretty fun and my boy/girlfriend is actually a bit of a dick. I'm going to 'break up' with them and hang out with these guys instead!"

100 Shots

or

Hugh and Cambo’s Gala Ball featuring Ben Paine as Disappointed Sailor #3

In 2005 Ben Paine, a bright eyed young first time cast member, suggested a “centurion” be adopted theme for a cast party. After being passed over, it was shortly after presented to the cast as “Hugh and Cambo’s Gala Ball”. After some protest from Ben Paine, it became “Hugh and Cambo’s Gala Ball featuring Ben Paine as Disappointed Sailor #3”. It then remained as a regular part of the Revue company party schedule. It has been diminishing in popularity as binge drinking culture is discouraged at the company. Participation is always voluntary, and over the years there has been much relaxing of rules as participants drink cider, non alcoholic beer, and other drinks both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

100 Shots or “The Centurion” rules:
The contest is to drink 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes.
A video file is provided with a timer and alerts every minute.
You cannot nurse more than three shots, as drinking flat beer is less of a challenge.
Minutes are taken by sober observers.
The final ten shots are usually done shirtless by willing participants.
If you miss three in a row or vomit, you are out.

The Spirits Challenge

The Spirits Challenge is one of the most well loved of Uni Revue’s storied culture of cast parties. It predates at least the late eighties. In 1987 it was always a male/female pair, who had to finish a bottle of spirits between them in two hours, and over that time period the team had to swap clothes. Unfortunately, often clothing items would go missing and somewhere around 88-89, some enterprising cast decided to get their outfit from the op shop instead to entirely remove the risk of losing good outfits. By the next year the entire cast had adopted the op shop plan and the clothes swapping began to expand beyond partners. It is unknown when the rules were expanded to include swapping clothes with a minimum of three other people. Spirits Challenge is often the most popular and fondly remembered of the Revue parties. As drinking culture has changed over the years, effort has been made to reduce the impact of the Spirits Challenge, including dropping any gender requirements and instead pairing people based on “drinking ability”. In recent years trios have been allowed, and further changes will be implemented to try to keep the “spirit” of the party whilst further minimising binge drinking.

The Spirits Challenge

  • Participation is not, and never has been, mandatory.

  • You may participate in the costume swapping without participating in the drinking or the challenge.

  • During interval of the show the night before the challenge participant names are drawn from a hat. In modern times, these names are grouped by heavy drinkers, average drinkers, and light drinkers, and pairings are made in an effort to reduce the instances of significant drunkeness.

  • The pair must decide on a spirit to drink together, typically 700mL and minimum 37%ACV (though this rule continues to be relaxed as time goes on)

  • The pair must get themselves op shop costumes. They may co-ordinate, or just pick stuff individually. This is typically a fun bonding exercise for cast.

  • The challenge takes place after a show, typically Thursday night in Launceston (this is likely to change, again to reduce problems).

  • Before the starting time, all teams get together with their drinks, mixers and vessels, and photos of the group are taken

  • At the starting time, all participants have two hours to finish their bottle of spirits

  • During the two hours you must swap your costume with at least three other people.

  • If you vomit, your team is out.

  • If you fail to finish the bottle in the two hours, your team is out

  • If you fail to present yourself at breakfast the next morning, your team is out

Beer Relay

or

Boat Races

The beer relays or “boat races” are a tradition that goes back to at least the late eighties, but likely earlier. It is a skøling game where teams participate to see who drinks beer the fastest. In the late eighties, the rules pitted teams of men against teams of women from the cast and crew, but this rule was abandoned when directors Graeme Paine and Craig Wellington intervened in 1992 to rein in the increasingly rowdy and tribalistic behaviour from the males in the cast and teams were arranged based on “time trial” performance. Boat races was typically done on closing night of the season, usually after Presents. It was considered even in the late eighties to be an unpleasant end to the season for some in the company, and by 2015 it was on the way out without requiring any company intervention. Today the “boat races” are a mere memory and have not been held in many years.

Boat Races

  • It begins with time trials. Teams are organised based on overall time to try to evenly match each side.

  • The contest is to skøl a cup of beer as quickly as possible.

  • Sometimes starting positions were used. In later years, a command of “face the water” was issued, with all contestants starting with their chin on the table in front of their cup

  • When the race started, the first person would drink their beer as fast as possible

  • Whilst it varied, as a competitor finished they would place their beer up upside down on the table, or place the empty cup on top of their head

  • The next player started drinking as soon as the previous one had fulfilled their action to indicate they were done

  • The first team to finish won the race

We Remember

Coming soon

Cast Bastard

Coming soon