Matt Okine : We Made You
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

All

Matt Okine : We Made You

mattokine1240x5450.jpg

“By all means, I should be in my best form this year because I haven’t had to wake up at 4.30am that same day,” says Okine. “I’m going to be so happy that I won’t feel like a narcoleptic person on stage. I sleep too much now though, it’s pathetic. I wake up and I moan in pain from oversleeping. Maybe I should just do the show from the bed – I’ll make it like a one man play.”

Often telling tales of his experiences on radio in his stand-up routines, Okine says that We Made You will see him sharing triple j stories for the very last time. The one-hour set promises to include off-air topics as well as tid-bits from his rather unique day-to-day life.

“I’m going to talk about everything that’s happened to me in the last year. There’ll be some political takes on things and also just some sheer stupidity – I’ll be talking about when my cat was wearing one of my socks. Tom Ballard can do an intelligent, poignant one-hour lecture on the refugee crisis in Australia; I’m going to do a joke about my cat wearing one of my socks. That’s just how it goes.”

Making his way to Melbourne for his sixth solo show to date, Okine describes his first time performing at our renowned festival as an incredibly intense experience. Nevertheless, the adored act continues to appreciate the thriving atmosphere that the month of comedy provides.

“It was 2012. Nothing prepared you for what 23 nights in Melbourne was going to be like. I put so much pressure on myself to be the best. Every night I’d go home thinking, ‘What the hell can I do to make this show better?’ You’d be standing on the street all night trying to hand out flyers and people are pretending you don’t exist.

“But then you couple that with going to The Hi-Fi every night, drinking until 5am, meeting all these incredible comics and learning things from other people on stage, getting jealous of other people’s ticket sales but then having sold out shows on the weekend and feeling over the moon. It’s this weird sort of world that exists only for a month.”

The multi-talented artist says he has paid tribute to his loyal listeners one last time through his upcoming show’s title.

“Basically, it’s me saying, ‘You made me,’ to all the people who listen to the radio. It’s not just in a profile-raising way, the contribution of people listening really made our show. Without listeners, we were nothing – we were just two idiots in a box.”

By Phoebe Robertson

 

Venue: ACMI – Beyond

Dates: Thursday March 30 – Sunday April 2.

Duration: 60 minutes

Tickets: $30 – $37 

Recommended