The Canberra talk show birthed from coronavirus

The World From Here with Chris Endrey is the weekly headliner for Canberra Theatre Centre's online offering, CTC@Home, with the Friday night Facebook live program exploring different themes each week.

Having already hosted four episodes, it's hard to believe when CTC@Home was first in its planning stages a talk show hadn't even been considered yet.

"Canberra Theatre first approached me to do a show that I've done there in the past called Canbeurovision and I didn't think online was the best format for it," Endrey says.

"I counterpitch them this variety sort of Tonight Show format. I wanted to take advantage of the chance to produce something that I thought I would be useful for everybody that is stuck in lockdown and all of the artists who aren't able to perform, to provide a forum for exploring a few different ideas about the world.

"The idea is to look at some issues that I think that are common across humanity but from our own cultural lens."

Friday night's show will take a look at the theme of eliteness, with guests including Dr Alex Davies from Google DeepMind, Han Aulby from the Centre of Public Integrity and poet CJ Bowerbird.

"I'm personally interested in interrogating the disconnect between how aspirational people are in culture but then at the same time there is a tall poppy syndrome," Endrey says

"I'm interested in looking what our relationship is with people who try to do things well and how we all benefit from that but at the same time we have such poor cultural representation that when we think of eliteness we think maybe Rupert Murdoch or Gina Rinehart - people who are pretty vulgar to relate to.

"Instead I'm trying to find better models of how we benefit from people who work hard at something and become good at it."

The entire CTC@Home program is supported by the Australian Capital Territory Government, who contributed $10,400 to support local arts in Canberra.

For Endrey, and the other artists involved in the program, this means being a part of meaningful work when everything else dried up.

"I'm sort of below the poverty line any given time of year anyway so to lose the livelihood that I do have anyway was crushing. It's a common story. I don't feel like it was a unique experience," he says.

"To suddenly have meaningful work, it's a total 180 degrees. It's a big project to be doing and it's a new workspace for a lot of us involved, but we're learning more each week and the shows are getting better."