Not bad for a show that started out as an assignment at Victoria University, where co-creators Liam Kelly and Sam Tippet were studying for a Master of Fine Arts in creative practice.
Winning two trophies was a fine achievement but it was perhaps the category The UnderCuts were nominated for but didn't win that best describes How to Write an Album: Best Directed Chaos.
"It is very chaotic," admits Kelly, the show's director, who also acts as MC, hype man and whip-cracker-in-chief, "and things get more chaotic as the day wears on.
"By 6pm people are starting to drink a little bit and more people are filing in," says UnderCuts marketing manager Sarah Burton. "Everyone in the audience wants to pitch their ideas all at once; it can be a bit nuts."
Members of the audience don't necessarily last the whole 12 hours but are expected to be central to the songwriting process while they're there, throwing ideas at the band and, in grand improv tradition, attempting to throw the band off. It's how a song that started off based around the idea of a trombone solo ended up being about the Star Wars character Han Solo instead.
Despite the chaos, How to Write an Album requires extreme discipline to produce and record a dozen songs in as many hours. The UnderCuts do it partly by keeping to a strictly observed one-song-per-hour regime and partly by following a different set of rules for each song.
An hour during which The UnderCuts were prevented from speaking, for example, led to a crowd-devised song called The Tortoise Chorus.
For the show to work, Kelly says, it needs musicians who can think on their feet and who are willing to suppress their own creative urges.
"When we were casting [the musicians], one of the key things was that they were people who were also interested in theatre. I think it takes a certain type of person to be open to changing and adapting their ideas and not be precious about everything they're creating, because it's so based on audience input."
Kelly and Burton both admit that allowing the audience so much influence doesn't necessarily make for great music. Whatever the quality, the UnderCuts record the songs and post them online, reasoning that the artistic value lies in the process, not the result.
After the Fringe, The UnderCuts remain in Auckland to take part in the PANNZ Arts Market, where the troupe will pitch How to Write an Album to producers, with the hope of being funded to tour here or overseas. It's an important opportunity, says Kelly, who senses international potential for the show.
"We're interested in seeing how far we can take and adapt it for different situations and different festivals. I think How to Write an Album is both adaptable and exciting for audiences; they seem to be interested in helping to create something and that's quite powerful."
Perhaps, but is it all just a laugh for The UnderCuts, a 12-hour joke at the audience's expense? Kelly says not.
"We're aiming for songwriting that's as genuine as possible," he says. "That's hard with people we don't know, asking them to open up about vulnerable things in trying to get an interesting subject for a song. Sometimes that leads to a song that's sad or genuinely heartfelt. Sometimes it leads to tortoises."
Lowdown
What: How to Write an Album, for Auckland Fringe Festival
Where & When: TST Studio, Grafton, Friday March 1
