“Jaw-achingly funny … Nemeses covers miles of cultural and comedic ground: professional competitiveness, identity politics, the comedy industry, online culture, cancel culture, the pandemic. It manages to do this with razor-sharp incisiveness and a lightness of touch that is constantly surprising.” – Emilie Collyer, Witness
nemeses is Australia’s most toxic duo since the third Veronica Triplet died and they rebranded as twins.
The duo is an innovative comedy collaboration between Alistair Baldwin and Vidya Rajan, previous collaborators on the sold-out immersive comedy experience The Lizard Is Present: A Gala In Honour Of Marina Abramolizardvic at the 2019 Melbourne Fringe. The gala was the centrepiece of a broader superfiction which included site-responsive performances and in-world reviews published in real-world art journals.
Slated to premiere their debut live show at the 2020 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the viral spread of a novel coronavirus ground their plans to a halt.
In response, the pair developed an experimental bicoastal livestream sitcom for The Wheeler Centre that contained real fake ads, audience interaction and a critical panel discussion. The sitcom tackled the pandemic, productivity and the capitalist demand to pivot – even amidst global cataclysm. An archive of the event can be seen here.
Nemeses were also commissioned to devise, write and host Melbourne Fringe’s 2020 program launch. Naturally, they set fire to all the Nemeses lore they’d outlined in their Wheeler stream and created a completely new (yet similarly unhinged) narrative experience within the comforting constraints of a Melbourne arts institution.
An archived copy of the Melbourne Fringe Program Launch can be viewed here.
Nemeses most recent collaboration was with Running Dog for their LIVE STREAM NOW issue. Through Twitch, Nemeses livestreamed a speedrun through the National Gallery of Victoria’s virtual exhibitions.
You can find a recording of their stream here.
Most recently, Nemeses were commissioned by The Other Film Festival to create a satirical video piece for multi-artform series Two Degrees – an exploration of the intersections between disability and climate change.
Alistair Baldwin 