Enter the dungeon. Kill the monsters. Take their stuff.
Dungeon Crawl is an improvised comedy adventure in the style of Dungeons & Dragons! In each performance, Dungeon Master Ben McKenzie and man-of-many-monsters Richard McKenzie lead a guest cast of comedians, improvisers and actors on a quest for glory, riches and nonsense. The players have no idea what will happen. The Dungeon Master has almost no idea what will happen. But using audience suggestions and the roll of twenty-sided dice, and despite Richard’s monsters trying to thwart them at every turn, our adventurers always make it to some kind of ridiculous conclusion…
Dungeon Crawl grew out of Ben and Richard’s original D&D comedy show +1 Sword, becoming a cult hit at festivals and running regularly at Melbourne’s beloved Bella Union bar from 2011 to 2014. While mostly embracing the tropes and foibles of traditional fantasy adventure, it’s also run with themes as diverse as Lovecraftian cosmic horror, superheroes, Star Wars, videogames, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, wizard schools and The Golden Girls (yes, really).
Over the years guests have included Lawrence Leung (Choose Your Own Adventure, Offspring), Jordan Raskopoulos (The Axis of Awesome, Insert Coin), Scott Edgar (Tripod), Celia Pacquola (Utopia, Rosehaven), Danny McGinlay (Bannerman), Stephanie “Hex” Bendixsen (Good Game, ScreenPlay), Brianna Williams (The Big Hoo-Haa, The Bachelor Unpacked) and a long list of Melbourne’s top comedians, improvisers and actors, including Rama Nicholas, Adam McKenzie, Patti Stiles, Lisa-Skye and the musical stylings of PickUp.
These days you’ll mostly find us popping up at special events, like the PAX Aus games expo.