How does it feel to be performing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival?
It’s the third largest comedy festival but in many ways it’s the purest. Edinburgh is a free for all. Acts promote themselves and – especially in their early days – lose money doing so because it’s such a competitive field and there simply aren’t enough punters around for every show to have an audience. But you do it because you want to make a name for yourself, to prove yourself. I wouldn’t have a career without Edinburgh. Montreal is great but it’s run for the benefit of the US TV industry and people go there hoping to make deals. Melbourne isn’t tainted by anything like that. In Edinburgh and Montreal the reward is all potential, all this-could-happen stuff… but in Melbourne coming here is the reward itself. It’s not for the industry, it’s for the audience. The comics love that.
How did you break into comedy? Was it something you always knew you wanted to do, or did you somehow…fall into it?
Nobody really falls into it. You have to get up somewhere and tell jokes. Nobody does that accidentally. It’s a very deliberate action. Everyone pretty much has the same story. Do it for free and keep doing it until someone wants to pay you. That’s the only way in. But I did once tell a journalist that I witnessed a gangland killing and was put on a witness protection program with the not very undercover, undercover identity of a comedian called Dave Gorman and they believed me… so maybe I should have tried to pass that lie off on you too.
You’ve become quite the blogger. Do you like connecting with your fans and sharing your experiences?
I don’t think of myself as any different to any other blogger. I don’t sit at home typing thinking, “My fans will love this!” because that involves contemplating having fans, which is just weird. Millions of people have blogs. The vast majority of them don’t do the kind of jobs that involve “fans”… but they still blog. I’m pretty sure I’m doing it for the same reason as them. I suppose one benefit of it for my work is that it flexes a writing muscle. It’s good to write regularly, to play with ideas and have a conversation with the world.
You’re quite active on Twitter. What is it about the social media platform that you like?
The immediacy of it is great. It’s very unobtrusive. I think when people first use it there’s a honeymoon period where you think you’re supposed to use it constantly and so you’re telling people about the minutiae of your life. But then you calm down and just tweet as and when. I do a weekly radio show in the UK and when I stop to think about what we might talk about that week I often do a mental trawl of what I tweeted in the last few days because those were the things I obviously thought were worth mentioning at the time. I guess I write less in a notebook these days because putting an idea out there does the same job. I reply a lot. To everything I can. I used to get 200 emails a day. Now I get a lot less because I think that kind of communication has migrated to Twitter.
Out of all the cities in all the world, where is your favourite one to perform?
Comedians are shallow souls. We don’t like cities. We say we do but what we mean is that we like audiences. You can visit somewhere that would be considered a shit hole in any rational thought process – but if the theatre’s full and they like you, you “love that town.” I genuinely love playing in Melbourne but in the UK there’s a folk history of English comics being given a tough time in Scotland, in general, and in Glasgow, in particular. So when I started out I kind of dreaded playing there. But the reality is that they’re a phenomenal audience. They come out in their droves and they really want to have a good time.
What are your thoughts on Australia? Can you make any observations on Australian culture?
The thing that weirds me out most aren’t the differences but the similarities. On my second day here I turned on the TV at breakfast and the presenters were fawning over the royal family, reporting a Wills & Kate skiing holiday in intricate detail. This was followed by an excited report about One Direction arriving in Sydney. I looked out of the window to see that it was raining and wondered if I really had travelled 10,000 miles at all.
Just seeing the Queen’s face on the coins freaks me out. I’m not a hardcore republican but I am mystified by the reverence paid to these people by accident of birth. It’s odd enough that it happens back home… but discovering that people are doing it on the other side of the globe is even weirder.
Name the first word/thought that pops into your mind after reading these words…
Koala: Clingy
Show: Business
Nose: Job
England: My England
Book: Flights
Melbourne: Manchester with better weather
