22 years ago, a group of young people with no experience in journalism got together to produce a newspaper so comical, so completely made up, and so unashamedly biased that it would change the face of Australian media as we know it. But down the road from the Daily Telegraph headquarters The Chaser were also founding a newspaper, that would go on to much less impressive things.
Now, after an illustrious media career that has seen us produce over 10 award losing shows, we’re opening the doors to a new generation of troublemakers who aren’t quite talented enough to be hired by Working Dog.
We’re looking to hire up to 5 new stunt performers to join the Chaser Interns team, who will help produce stunts, pranks, and sketches for our podcast, social media, live tours, and future TV projects.
Entries close Friday 16th April, but we’ll be reviewing videos on a first come, first served basis so get in early for the best chance of success.
What we’re looking for:
- Smart, funny ideas (remember a stunt doesn’t have to be APEC level. You can prank a talkback radio station, do vox-pops on the street, do a Daily Show style prank interview, crash a press conference, go door to door, drop a speaker outside a shop and have a spruik, crash a zoom meeting, or even just offer people cracked pepper.)
- We’re looking for people who can judge a good stunt. There’s a fine line between ‘taking a risk’ and ‘doing something stupid’. A good rule of thumb is that if it makes you feel more awkward than it does the ‘victim’ you’re probably on the right track, but please just exercise some common sense and don’t be a jerk.
- We’re equal opportunity employing, which means you’re in with a chance regardless of race, gender, sexuality etc. That said we already have a LOT of white guys, so a bit more diversity wouldn’t go astray for optimal pranking opportunities
Important rules:
- Make sure your pranks don’t cause harm or lasting distress to the subjects
- Don’t do anything illegal
- Don’t film on private property without permission. Shops and public spaces are normally okay, though you might be asked to stop by security.
- In Australia, you can’t secretly record someone. This means for video your recording device must be out in open air (i.e. not concealed), microphones can’t be hidden, and if you’re recording someone over a phone call you’ll need to get their permission to record them. You can get creative about this (e.g. filming on a phone outside a Maccas glass wall is probably okay) but if someone asks you to stop, that means it’s time to go.
- If police or security ask you to leave, you need to comply, though that doesn’t mean it can’t take you a few seconds to comply, or that you can’t keep filming as you make your exit (unless they ask you to stop filming)
- As much as we admire guts, for this competition don’t do anything that would get you arrested or thrown in jail.
- You’re fine to submit only one, but more stunts mean a greater chance of success
- No impersonating police or government officials
Selected participants will initially be hired on a paid part time basis of up to 20 hours a week by Chaser Digital, our online and social media branch. To submit your application email a link to a video to the address [email protected] with the subject ‘Prankster application’. You can include a short bio if you want, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t.
Selected participants will hear back by the 24th.
Good luck, and happy pranking
