John “Mr Dark Room” Robertson

John Robertson, known to the group as **Mr Dark Room,** is a comedian who runs the popular The Dark Room comedy shows.

## History

Mr Dark Room’s origins are unknown but assumed to be from the darkest depths of Australia.

Showman, dandy, comedian; John Robertson is a professional insult-comic, and full time stand-up comedian. His career began - as all good things do - because he was trying to impress a girl. He first came to public attention in 2003 during a performance on Australian Idol during which he met his wife.

He enjoyed a short but fruitful wrestling career as the Demon Comedian under New Horizon Pro Wrestling. He was defeated in his first match against Heritor, he later won a match against Samoan Warrior. He has also written for Cleo magazine, Huffington Post and was featured in Variety Magazine, Bizarre and WIRED.

In 2012, he created The Dark Room, an interactive YouTube game that immediately became a viral hit and was turned into a live comedy show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 - with its own cult following (with fans known as '*Darrens*').

Travelling the world with his slick brand of comedy, John brings great mirth to anyone with even the slightest sense of humour and great confusion to those without.

With COVID-19 looming, John took his craft to Twitch.tv, an online videogame streaming service where he developed and plays a wide variety of characters (including but not limited to The Guardian, of The Dark Room fame; Divorced Aussie Dad; Super-Genki Neko Kevin-chan; and Laurence Gold - goth PE teacher).

John spends a great deal of time with his users, playing videogames, Q&A (*Sex/Death/Nerdshit*), riffing, performing challenges, musical performance, live improvisation and the vivisection of copyright-free 1950's media.

* John Robertson's official website: Comedy Through Fear

* A schedule of John's upcoming shows
* John Robertson's official Twitter
* John Robertson's official Instagram
* John Robertson's official YouTube channel

## Media:

### Videogame Nation (2014-2016)

Between 30th March 2014 and 11th June 2016 John was originally a guest but became a host on the UK TV show Videogame Nation which had 4 series and a total of 107 episodes.

The show was produced by both Sky TV and Ginx TV. It was originally broadcast on the channel Sky Games but later moved to Challenge.

### The Dark Room TV Show

On 19th June 2018 the website comedy.co.uk reported that The Dark Room was to be developed into a TV show. The show was to be developed by the new production company Hare and Tortoise with backing from FreemantleMediaUK. John has talked on his twitch stream how the show has been in development limbo with no clear sign of it coming to fruition but is still holding out hope that it will happen at some point in the future.

### As featured in Senet Magazine Issue 7

Writing an article for Senet Magazines Spring 2022 Issue (Issue 7) about his "Shelf of Shame".

Senet Magazine's Tweet can be found here

Available here - Senet Magazine featuring John Robertson

## Wrestling (2012-2013)

For a short period of time John wrestled for New Horizon Pro Wrestling(NHPW) in Perth Western Australia . According to the promotions website John was involved in 3 matches during 2012 and 2013.

Here is the match results:

 Won
 Lost

## Trivia:

* John is known to play the ukelele (owning two: Tropicana, *given by his twitch moderation team*and Bambino, *who has accompanied him at live performances for many years*) and banjo and seems to be a natural touch with stringed instruments.
* John has been concussed three times on stage!
* John has had to crowd-surf to enter his own venue!
* John affectionately names his two favourite scars Coral (upon his left knee) and Door (upon his forehead).
* The glass that John drinks out of on stream is actually a wine glass. John is just a giant and makes it look like a small sherry glass. There is no proof of this in the real world.
* Tales & Trivia
* John's nickname for fisting is punching Mr Tumnus
* When younger, John's family lived in a mortuary. When trying to keep warm one night a fire broke out and his older brother Kane didn't escape. He later died from his burns and smoke inhalation. His ashes were put into a gold coloured flamboyant potato urn.
* John is officially better than White Noise *(and provides the best ASMR)* John is officially better than White Noise

*P.S. Terry's a bum sausage clap clap clap*

Onwards!

## The Little Town of Marrowville

### Blurb:

*In a town surrounded by deadly mist, and filled with oddities, two young siblings become orphans.*

*And that's the best thing that's happened to them all day.*

*Howard Howard was a Wrecker (a brute and bully by profession) who was brutal and bullish to his children - Aubrey and Aubrey's Sister. Howard Howard deserved to be turned into mince, and thanks to a mysterious duo called The Grinders, that's exactly what happened to Howard Howard.*

*Hunted by the police and their father's gang of Wreckers, the siblings find some new friends to help keep them safe: a talented burglar named Charlie (who has no bones, but a great moustache) and a sword-wielding assassin named Calo (who has a sword, duh.)*

*In a town already revelling in its own chaos and with new dangers around every corner, Aubrey's Sister and Aubrey stumble into a world of secrets, myths and monsters.*

A wonderful children's book, even as an adult you should be reading this. Go read it. Right now!

* Get it here
* Audiobook sample

## Dial-A-Roast

For the small fee of £5, you can be roasted beyond recognition by the man himself.

Here are a few of said roastings:

* Cyclists. All of them, apparently.
* Arix2.
* Coronavirus. The dullest apocalypse.

## Charity Fundraisers

John has performed a number of Charity streams!

### 48 hour stream Fundraiser

Most notably a 48-hour long stream in support of the UK National Health Service for COVID, MIND, a UK Mental Health support service and Women's Trust - who provide free counselling and support for victims of domestic abuse. Video's from this event can be found Here

The stream was a whopping success, raising:

* 108% of the £12,500 target (£13,550) for the NHS
* 105% of the £7,500 target (£7,875) for MIND

### May 2020 Women's Trust

Over 24 hours, over multiple streams, John raised 162% of the £500 target (£814) for Women's Trust

### June 2nd 2020 BLM & BMM

Following black out Tuesday John spent the following 24 hours, over multiple streams, raising donations for Black Lives Matter and Black Minds Matter.

### 06/06/2020 The Darkroom Fundraiser for Black Mind's Matter and LGBTQIA+ Therapy Fund

Again John spent his time and energy to raise money in support of these great charities.

### 10/06/2020 The Darkroom fundraiser for Women's Trust

For 24 hours all income to Twitch Channel Robbotron was donated to Women's Trust (that includes Subscriptions to the Channel, Gift Subscriptions and Bits). This was a Twitch UK Front Page event.

### June 2020 Baby-Shower Fundraiser

On the 28th of June 2020, user lola\_kitsune92 announced they were in labour with the child of user AdonisNimbus and immediately John began collecting the bits and donations generated via Twitch specifically to give the two a baby shower for their baby boy, Dante. Dante escaped The Dark Womb a few days later.

### July 17 2020 Kevin-Chan For Woman's Trust

A viewer foolishly offered to pay £3 a minute (up to an hour) to a charity of **John's** choosing, for him to remain in the Kevin Chan character. Other viewers quickly offered to contribute and the stream rapidly became an impromptu charity stream. No target amount was set but a total of £813 (before gift aid).

### 15/08/2020 Charity Clusterfucktackular Raising money for End The Virus of Racism

Supporting End The Virus of Racism A Darkroom Special took place over on Twitch Channel Robbotron in response to a 300% spike in racial violence against Asian and East Asian people in the UK. Find the original tweet from John Here along with the Promo Video (give it a watch).

With an impressive list of guests that included LaurieBlackInc, TristaBytes, ZafarCakes and Mike McShane this three hour special event was in John's own words "Too many guests! Too important not to do! Two seconds of planning!"

Fund's raised were added to the ongoing fundraising Here with their total currently sitting at £59,000+

### 08/10/2020-09/10/2020 Twelve Tasks of Robbotron Charity Marathon for Centrepoint Homelessness Charity

According to John's tweet this event would be "12 hours of hilarious suffering!" see more about that Here along with the promo video (go give it a watch). The event raised £8,692 (139% of goal). More information on that can be found Here.

> *Hi, folks!*
>
>

> *Homelessness is dangerous and exhausting for the people involved - every single night and day lacks the simple comfort and security other people take for granted.*
>
>

> *And while I can't do the dangerous part, I can exhaust myself by doing 12 hours of comedy challenges I genuinely DO NOT WANT TO DO! So tune in for 12 hours of mayhem as I complete the 12 Tasks of Robbotron.*
>
>

> *There's an hour of eating Hot Sauce, there's Sexy Bible Reading, it'll be like 12 hours of a deranged Japanese game show -  it'll be silly, exhausting and weird - and still not a patch on the actual horror of sleeping rough.*
>
>

Videos of the event can be found Here, Here and Here.

Notably members of the community including Div\_loi and WitchAngelNekora were also involved, doing their own challenges, and sharing the videos on Youtube. WitchAngelNekora 12 Tasks and Div\_Loi 12 Tasks

### 21/10/2020 Darkroom Stand Up to Cancer Special

Raising £2,840 (104% of the goal) further information can be found Here

### 19/12/2020 We Roast 2020 Samaritans Special

The goal set for this fundraiser was to raise enough money for three hours of Samaritans suicide prevention phone lines - the goal being £7,710. The event was featured in Chortle Here and the video can be found Here. The actual amount raised was £8,915 115% of the target. More details can be found Here

### **2020 Charity Fundraising**

**Over the course of 2020 John and the Twitch Chat raised £49,000+ across 7 different charities.**

### 28/02/2021 Raising Money for Special Effect through Gameblast's Campaign

As part of Gameblast's Campaign to raise funds for the Charity Special Effect, The Dark Room Show was hosted on Twitch Front Page. As John put it "Let's behave badly for a good cause!" Raising £2782.00 for Special Effect. Further information can be found Here. This contributed to a total raised by Gameblast of over £220,000 which Special Effect put towards improving the lives of disabled gamers. More information about this event can be found Here

> **About SpecialEffect**
>
>

> We put fun and inclusion into the lives of people with physical disabilities by helping them to play video games.
>
>

> By adapting technology from modified joypads to eye-control, we find a way for people to play to the best of their abilities, bringing families and friends together & having a profoundly positive impact on confidence, rehabilitation and quality of life
>
>

### The Dark Room for Women's Trust

12/03/2021 The Dark Room Show on twitch raised £3,492 for Women's Trust achieving 139% of the original goal of £2,500.  Darkroom Women's Trust Fundraiser March 2021 Woman's Trust supports women affected by domestic abuse by providing counselling and support groups. Domestic abuse affects 1 in 4 women in the UK, it is the biggest single cause of female depression and mental health problems. During the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic domestic violence incidents increased and it was considerably harder for people to escape the abuse than prior to the pandemic. A situation in Clapham highlighted this issue bringing it to national attention.

### 12PMs Show raising money for Charity DeafKidz

Suggested by LartyMcParty John raised £250 for DeafKidz International during a normal lunch time show. Find Details Here and Here

### 50 HR Charity Marathon Stream

Supporting NHS Charities Together, Centrepoint Charity and Refuge this 50 HR Marathon Stream raised a staggering £37,195.50 in total. Video's from the event can be found Here With a huge number of guest's including Button, Knightenator, Sooz Kempner, Lomadia, HeyLauraBlake, JoJo Bellini, Marjolein Robertson, Clonekorp and many many others. There were also donations from the Discord Community of art in several formats including Crocheted Flamboyant Potatosaurus, Kevin Chan Cat Ears, and Digital Art. A full list of people involved can be found in John's thank you twitter thread Here

### Supporting Gamespot raising money for AbleGamers 22/06/2021

The Dark Room show was streamed on twitch.tv/gamespot raising money for AbleGamers who help support disabled people to be able to take part in gaming thanks to adaptions. Money raised during the show contributed to the overall total raised by GameSpot of around £82,000.

### Charity Sunday Lunch with Your D.A.D. 25/07/2021

##### Robbotron x Samaritans Night Shift as part of Tristabytes Streamathon Nightshift 21-22

A very special episode of Sunday Lunch with your Divorced Aussie Dad took place to raise money for the Samaritans. And was continued afterwards with John getting his Ukulele out and singing us all some lovely songs, he carried on singing for as long as chat carried on donating making for an extra long Sunday Show. John raised £856.00 (The Goal was £500) and this contributed to an overall total of £8,504.11 raised by everyone involved (The original goal had been £1000 so an incredible result of 850% of goal altogether). See Here for further information and links to the fundraiser pages etc.

### The Hot Sauce Charity Burnathon 09/08/2021

##### Raising funds for Mermaids as part of Lomadia's LGBTQIA+ Support Month

John had a lot of food challenges mostly chilli based and parma violet gin based although there were also a few more pleasant options that members of the chat suggested. As he put it "I'll be eating things I hate to help a cause I love!" During the show over £2000 was raised, double the original goal Lomadia had set for the entire month. The first £1000 was raised in the very first hour of the show. Guest's included Sooz Kempner and Marjolein Robertson. For further information look Here and Here and to enjoy the grand finale all over again check on the Video here 10/08/2021 Robbotron Charity Chilli Challenge Finale

### The Dark Room Supporting Twitch LDN 23/10/2021

##### Raising Money for Safe in our World

John kindly donated his time, and Subs and Bit's from his stream to help Twitch LDN raise money for the Charity Safe in our World. The money they are raising is to go towards training moderators on Twitch Streams to be properly equipped to deal with mental health issues so that when someone enters a stream and is struggling with their mental health they can be given proper support. Twitch LDN ran a 12 hour Charity Stream with support from guest streamers. They originally aimed to raise £1000, during The Dark Room they broke £1,500 and had to extend the goal to £2,000.

Super Genki Neko Kevin-Chan Donated Too - Clever Darrens

### The Dark Room Halloween Bonus Level 31/10/2021

##### Live and streamed on twitch.tv/robbotron from the Bill Murray Pub, Islington raising money for Women's Trust

John ran a live Dark Room special with thanks to Angel Comedy and the Bill Murray Pub Islington on Halloween Night 2021 which was also streamed to the twitch channel. You can see the original tweet and advert here. The goal was to raise £500 for Women's Trust who provide mental health support to victims of domestic abuse. Before the show even began people had kindly raised more than half the goal. Ten minutes into the show the goal had already been met. John donated his time, sales from his book "The Little Town of Marrowville" and his share of the box office sales, as well as all the bits and subscriptions bought by people on twitch during the show, adding that to the grand total raised both online via the link and in person at the show. The final total was £1,769 (354% of the original goal) raised for Women's Trust. You can check this here. You can see the announcement post here.

## TEDx talk: "Question Everything"

In 2017, John gave a talk at TEDxPerth about the nature of formats and the assumptions of expectations within formats, deconstructing the format of a TEDx, and what establishes or destroys a format to begin with - going into the nature of human interaction and the purpose and place of audience within media.

## References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videogame\_Nation\_(TV\_programme)
2. https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/news/3191/the\_dark\_room\_tv\_show/

## Trivia

* He took his pants off after Kiera gave him £20