Comedy And Depression

The Melbourne Fringe is an arty festival that had become a bit more comedy orientated which was a bit unfair on other art forms like performance art and tragic plays because quite frankly what are you going to go and see if you are a general punter? Someone you know and like from off the television or some weird arse experimental play?

I have been in those plays by the way. The sort of play where people walk out because it is just so confronting or so left-wing or just plain weird. And I am proud of them. Getting to be in plays written by Rob Reid and put on by Theatre in Decay was brilliant. I felt like I was part of something important, something with a message. Not just telling jokes so people could relax. When I started comedy I thought that I could be clever and topical and political and change the world. I couldn’t, I wasn’t good enough, funny enough or brilliant enough to do that. Here in Australia getting to make political jokes is a privilege afforded to a very few and they have had to play their share of Milo Kerrigans along the way. Comedy could never be described as a dignified act. In fact, if you want to maintain your dignity I suggest you steer clear of performing altogether, think of the funniest comedian you know and then think about the incredibly undignified things they have done to make you laugh. The same for great actors, they have all performed acts of debasement in the name of art, of truth. And they are the good ones. There are those who have had to sit on the desk of a commercial show on a commercial station night after night, I can only presume…