Robot Chicken guys proud to be nerdy

LAWRENCE SMITH/Sunday Star-Times

GEEK TRIO: Seth Green, Tom Root and Matt Senreich are at the Armageddon gaming expo this weekend.

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The creators of cult TV cartoon show Robot Chicken are in Auckland to press the flesh with other nerds. They talk to Esther Harward.

Five years ago, Seth Green - co-creator of satirical US animation Robot Chicken but  perhaps best known in New Zealand as the voice of Chris on TV  show Family Guy, or Dr Evil's son  Scott in Austin Powers - realised  that "attractive girls were into foolish things".

For the self-confessed  geek, it was an epiphany.It happened when cult nerd film Napoleon Dynamite came out. Green, now 35, says it has changed his love life.

"Whereas I'd never been able to get a date based on my Borat impersonation when I was a teenager, now it's pretty surefire," he says.

Green's Robot Chicken colleagues - co-creator Matthew Senreich and co-head writer/producer Tom Root - are in Auckland this weekend to promote their deviant cartoon at the Armageddon gaming expo.

The show's nerdy humour - which subverts pop culture conventions using stop-motion animation of toys, action figures, dolls and claymation - has developed beyond the show itself.

Their Twitter account "cyborgturkey" has 25,000 followers. Robot Chicken currently screens in New Zealand on Sky's Comedy Central Channel.

Its creators said they were looking forward to getting in among the computer games, comics and fantasy costumes of the annual Armageddon Expo, an exhibition of pop culture with a geeky slant that celebrates TV, film and computer game culture, and includes signings, exhibits, wrestling, live music and, um, a roller derby.

"We're geeks too," says Senreich, "so we'll probably get to the show early and run around and buy things".

Green says he likes nerdy people. "And they're all comfortable in their own skin at that kind of gathering."

The three men say they feel more fashionable in their 30s than they did in their teens.

"Things that I would have considered really nerdy are now becoming quite vogue," says Green. He cites the popularity of Batman film The Dark Knight.

"All of these comic book characters which were originally thought to be quite silly in spandex are being given the gravity that they were given in the comic books, [when] the stories were written very seriously."

He says Robot Chicken's audience is much larger than the 18-34 age group the show is marketed at.

"Kids that are under 12 come up to us and quote sketches and sing the theme song or have parents who say 'I just don't know what to do with them, where did he learn that?' ... and we're like, 'You're welcome'."

The three will answer the public's questions about Robot Chicken at a panel discussion today at the Armageddon Expo at the ASB Showgrounds in Greenlane.

What are they usually asked at these things?

"What are our favourite sketches?" "How do you break into voiceover acting?" "Can I give you my idea for a Robot Chicken sketch?" And perhaps unsurprisingly: "Can I have a hug?" It is their golden age.

"It's going to be a shame when the bottom falls out," says Root.

* The Armageddon Expo, ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, runs until tomorrow.

- © Fairfax NZ News