“FOOTSCRAY, Australia – it has its good sides, and its bad, but it’s mine.” And so we are introduced to Swampy, the fictitious, homeless star of a four-part internet TV series filmed in and around Footscray.
Launching this Friday, Swampy’s World was created and produced by West Footscray comic and actor Ross Daniels and musician and videographer Leo Dale.
Dale says Old Swampy, a homeless man of wit and wisdom, can get away with things not everyone could.
“As a homeless man he has a licence to observe what is going on and to say things how they are.”
Swampy has a lifelong, almost manic love for the Western Bulldogs.
Decades of premiership drought and memories of better days occasionally take their toll until fate steps in.
Dale first discovered Swampy as a character in a stage show by Daniels and saw the potential for the character to grow.
“Ross had a number of characters, but Swampy is the one that really resonated with me, the one who has the ability to really get through to you,” he says.
“In history there is this character of the wise tramp — we saw it with Charlie Chaplin — who happens to have insight and a perception of life.”
Dale enjoyed working with Daniels on the series and is pleased with the result. But rather than seeing it as the end of a project, he suspects it may be just a beginning.
“This is the genesis of Swampy.”
Visit Swampy’s World at swampy.tv
