Religion meets rap in ABC’s CrossBread

For all the attention audio documentaries receive, and the growing appetite for filmic podcast dramas, scripted comedy is harder to nail.

CrossBread isn’t actually a send-up of religion

For all the attention that audio documentaries receive, and the growing appetite for filmic podcast dramas, scripted comedy in audio is clearly harder to nail.

Excellent chatty podcasts hosted by comedians abound, but there are few examples of great scripted series that make an audience laugh.

Perhaps it’s the lack of visual cues and reactions, or body language to sell the jokes, but the result is that often things just lack energy.

All of this makes the ABC’s hilarious new show, CrossBread, doubly impressive. The series is presented as a mockumentary of sorts, telling the story of a fictional Christian hip-hop band that has viral hits on “Godtube” and becomes an overnight success in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

CrossBread gets a lot of mileage out of transplanting evangelical tropes into a suburban setting.

At one point “MC Cross” raps about asking a familiar-looking Jesus “Do you work in the Timezone near the Barbecues Galore?”

There’s also a lot of clever wordplay mixed in as with singer Dr Bread’s disastrous turn as a community health bus actor: “One morning, Safety Sue the Kangaroo did the something Safety Sue shouldn’t do … and Safety Sue the Kangaroo got sent to the Centrelink queue.”

The writing’s sharp and punchy, bursting with punchlines, and delivered by an impressive cast that includes musician Megan Washington, Chris Ryan, John Waters, Aaron Chen and Sami Shah.

CrossBread’s executive producer, Tom Wright, chalks the season’s success up to an enormous amount of work in the writing room, led by ABC TV’s Declan Fay who co-wrote the script with Washington and Ryan.

All three attended Christian youth groups, lending the series a sense of realism as they pick just the right notes of absurdity to accentuate.

In truth, the series isn’t actually a send-up of religion at all. Instead the main targets are Australia’s entertainment industry and the constructed nature of fame.

Neither MC Cross nor Dr Bread is the religious type. They just see an opportunity to launch musical careers, and play to the crowd.

Listen to CrossBread at www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/crossbread/