Second-year Will Murphy (@willmurphycomedy) has “always been into theatre”, which makes it no surprise that when he enrolled in Otago he chose to major in Theatre Studies. With a “soft spot” for comedians, he grew up watching the likes of Rowan Atkinson (better known as his character Mr. Bean), and was influenced from a young age to become the class (or in this case, the University) clown.
He first started his comedy Instagram account after he got his Christmas money last year, finally upgrading from an iPhone 8. “I started doing lots of Christmas related skits, and there were mixed reviews for those,” he admits. He took a break from comedy for a while after that – “everyone’s being too mean to me.” But then, Will had a bright idea: he’d start making characters to do skits instead. “That way, they’re not being mean to me, they’re being mean to the character,” he explained. That’s when he came up with Craig Daniels – a fictional and hilariously earnest Campus Watch overachiever. He pitched Craig as an idea to last year’s Capping Show, where he first debuted in a skit. “He sort’ve just happened,” Will admitted. Now, Craig’s Instagram account (@craigdaniels_campuswatch) has gained over 4000 followers.
Speaking to the inspiration behind Craig, Will recalls that he takes from his grandfather a lot when he does those sorts of characters. “He asks me all the time – ‘Is this me, Will?’ And I say ‘no, don’t worry. No, it’s not you.’ But it is.” His family are incredibly supportive of Will’s comedic endeavors – often giving him advice on what they think Craig would say, prompting him to “write things down”. Craig’s pretty much become part of the family at this point.
Once last year's Capping Show cast took their final bows, Will made the account for Craig, initially envisioning that it would end up as a podcast. He made a few episodes before pivoting to making videos on TikTok and Instagram – the very first of which amassed 100k views. Will (and Craig) kept going, soon beginning to collaborate with the likes of JMango (which has over 200k views), Baseline Festival and Southern Events. Critic Te Ārohi is proud to say that we were Will’s first ever collab, doing a campus tour back in February. “I get requests from all sorts [...] I’ve never asked anyone to collaborate,” Will revealed. In terms of any up and coming collabs, he said that he’s very keen to get in touch with Aunty Ling from Formosa Delight. Please, hit Will up if anyone’s got a contact for her – it’ll be the crossover of the century.
Given Craig’s success, Will has become a bit of a microcelebrity around campus. The first time he was recognised, he was in Pak’n’Save with his mum, and some person came up to him and asked if he was the “Campus Watch guy”. “I was flattered,” he said, describing that he “loves it” when people come up and say hi.
While many might not think that the comedy scene in Dunedin is massive, Will reckons it's just a game of knowing where to look. “Once you find it, it’s quite big,” he says. He’s a part of the Dunedin Comedy Group, which performs over at Inch Bar doing standup comedy on Wednesdays. He also starred again in this year's Capping Show, though Craig only made a brief appearance.
In terms of what’s next for his comedic endeavours, Will’s pretty keen to branch his comedic arsenal beyond Craig and introduce some new characters to the big wide world of our campus – so keep an eye on his various comedy accounts. We also heard the exclusive scoop that Will might be getting involved with more Critic stuff next semester – but our lips are sealed (for now). You’ll have to stay turned on, just like Craig. In his words: “if you’re not turned on, things go wrong.” Kia ora.
