It was a very interesting week, an opportunity came up to interview comedian Arj Barker for Scenestr magazine in the lead up to his new show We Need To Talk at the Adelaide Fringe. I was lucky enough to get that gig and prepared for it. I’ve been watching Arj Barker for years on Australian television with panel shows and telecasts from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Along with Heath Franklin and Randy Feltface here was someone whom I could mention to my friends and they would know who I was talking about. By the end of the week I had spoken to Arj Barker, Michael Che and DeAnne Smith. It was a lot of work, a bit scary and a lot of fun and it all started with Arj.
It’s very surreal to get to interview these people after years of being a fan, Arj answered all my questions and reflected on a few things that will feature in his show. It was a thrill to do the interview which you can read here http://scenestr.com.au/comedy/arj-barker-needs-to-talk-with-us-in-his-new-show
Produced by Eyeball Media Enterprises Scenestr. is an online national magazine with local offices around Australia. Celebrating 25 years in 2018 of publishing history they’ve excelled at moving into the digital realm but they remain at heart from the streets. They still publish magazines in print for Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane every month. This interview was published in print in the February South Australian edition of Scenestr which is always a thrill for a GenX guy like myself. A digital version of the print edition can be found here http://scenestr.com.au/read/SA/2018/36-SA/scenestr-SA-36.html#p=75 with the interview on page 74. If you’re into music they’re a great read but they do cover all of the arts including festivals, stand-up comics, fashion, theatre and film. I feel very fortunate to get to write for them.
-Lloyd Marken
Back to the Drawing Board Productions 
I hadn’t ever heard of him. But I enjoyed the article, and watched the clip. He seems to be an accomplished stand-up, that’s for sure. Nice work, Lloyd.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thanks Pete, I’m glad you liked it. He’s mostly big in Australia and America.
How come they do not have a Melbourne presence?
The way I understand it is there have been forays into that market before. Online of course our reach is global so we interview people who have shows coming up in Melbourne and list those dates but for the moment we don’t do a print edition in Melbourne. Scenestr are currently the largest street press magazine in Australia with a circulation bigger than others. We’re still doing print while other publications have moved online fully. I’m sure they’ll have another crack at Melbourne but in such a volatile market for print media we’re definitely doing very well.