Built by monks in the ninth Century as a bulwark against Viking attacks, the Fake McCoys are one of the finest extant examples of...no, wait, I'm thinking of something else.

Since emerging from the campus circuit in 1996, fearless comedy guerillas The Fake McCoys (Patrick Stokes and Christian Price) have carved out a unique place for themselves on the Melbourne comedy scene. They combine elements of sketch, stand-up, music and video into a unique, high-energy style. Over the past ten years they've won audience support and critical acclaim and proven themselves in just about every medium imaginable. The McCoys pride themselves on smart, edgy comedy that doesn't hold back and doesn't dumb it down.

Above: Barely-Legal McCoys kicking it 1995-style at their high school Student Revue.

Price and Stokes met at secondary school in 1994, where a mutual love of comedy, pathetic desire for attention and complete inability to get noticed by girls drove them to start writing and performing together. After a brief period as a trio (with a Uni friend of Christian's who then quite literally ran away to join the circus), the McCoys hit upon the style of flannel-clad, guitar-driven whimsy that defined the act for much of the 90s.

Premiering the moving ballad "Macauley Culkin Must Die!" at their 1995 High School Student Revue later that year (left), they brought the house down and, the screams of appreciative 16 year old Sacre Coeur College girls still ringing in their ears, embarked upon the high seas of the Melbourne live comedy scene.

Above: Patrick Stokes, without doubt the finest comedic mind of this, or any, generation.

In 1997 the McCoys presented their first Melbourne International Comedy Festival outing, the imaginatively-titled grab-bag The Fake McCoys. They followed that up the following year with Bonfire of the Flannies, a show that finally answered the question first posed by the Pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea: "What if Rage Against the Machine, like, put out a kids album?" It was that sort of thinking that won them the 1998 CAV Campus Comedy Competition.

1999's Citizen McCoy (MICF and Fringe) ("Thought-provoking, hilarious and sometimes dark"- Buzzcuts) saw the act take a darker, more political turn. The flannies were replaced by black suits, the subject matter became angrier and more political, the guitar became more accoustic (ok, it wasn't the same guitar).

In 2000, the McCoys and long-time collaborator Ian D. Seymour teamed up with comic whirlwind Duff and the incredibly talented Terri Psiakis to present McCoy TV (Fringe), a 'pirate broadcast' that took aim at the inanity of modern television. Naturally, this show was so successful in that aim that TV is now all great again.

In 2002, TFM and Emma Sachsse presented True Cross in MICF ("Price and Stokes are excellent...the hidden gem of this Comedy Festival, brilliantly funny and superbly executed"- Stage Left). Charting the thirty-year rise and fall of Christian Rock legends 'True Cross', (and introducing TFM favorites including "God Can See You Do That" and "Summer of Abstinence"), the show drew both critical applause and criticism from those who saw it as making fun of religion. Somehow, their career managed to recover from a bagging in the Anglican Media, proving that any religion that stops short of issuing a full-on fatwa just doesn't have the grapes, quite frankly.

In 2006 the McCoys began writing for Comedy Inc-The Late Shift, bringing their comedy to a national TV audience. In 2004, they produced a series of news satire pieces for C31's flagship news program, C News (winner, ACBA Best Program, 2004). Other TV credits include C31's 'Champagne Comedy', thecomedychannel's "Headliners" and Channel V's "Maynard's Morning Show"; they also wrote and performed for ABC-TV's pilot "It's Out There."

Above: Christian Price, without doubt the finest comedic mind of this, or any, generation.

Their radio credits include hosting their own show on Laugh Radio FM, the weekly news satire 'Let's News' on Triple R's "Summer Pinch", as well as performing on Triple J's "Super Request" and appearing on ABC local radio.

In 2002, TFM wrote and performed (with Emma Sachsse, Tim Nicholson and Brendan Donohoo) the radio play Will Yellowlegs: Pirate Cop in Laura Milke's Whodunnit? Live Radio Plays series (winner, Fringe Director's Choice Award 2002). The TV version of Will Yellowlegs was subsequently chosen as a finalist in the 2004 Next Laugh competition, where it was performed for some very confused film and television executives. Whodunnit? Series Two (winner, ACBA Most Innovative Program, 2003) again saw TFM (with Tim Harris, Emma and Brendan) presenting an original radio play, Septimus Griffin and the Salad of Fear.

From stage to screen to radio, the Fake McCoys have been a major presence in the Melbourne comedy scene for many years, and will be for many more. McCoydom marches on in all its sick and twisted glory.

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