“The thing is with Housos is that everyone knows at least one bogan in their area,” he laughs. “They’ve seen them, heard them or whatever. It’s about that growing population of bogans in Australia. They’re gonna take over so there’s no use building a bogan-proof fence or anything because eventually the whole country will be bogans.
“Your children will be covered in tattoos, know nothing about anything and be pissed or stoned most of the time. Don’t shoot the messenger, that’s just how it is. It’s the neo-bogan apocalypse that’s coming. Don’t worry about zombies. Forget zombies. Bogans are much more dangerous.”
If Paul’s prediction of the forthcoming “bogan apocalypse” doesn’t have chills shooting down your spine, I also had the opportunity to chat with Franky – the character played by Paul in the movie. Needless to say, a typical day in Sunnyvale surely makes my life seem dull.
“No one gets up until about three o’clock unless you’ve got a Centrelink appointment or a reason to thieve something perhaps, like I normally do. I might usually get up at about 11 – usually hungover or under the influence of something else. What else is in a normal day? Usually the coppers come, generally a riot or two – it’s pretty quiet, it’s pretty quiet. Might throw in a stabbing, but like I said, it’s a quiet area.”
And over the course of our conversation, Franky also reveals how Australia might become known more for its footy shorts, thongs and wifebeaters instead of its weather and friendly people. There might just be a surprise candidate for the upcoming election.
“Where we come from in public housing it’s all squashed in. Why aren’t they using that land? We could have mansions mate. There’s that much land there could be heaps of mansions for all us housos in the centre of Australia.
“I’d [also] raise the speed limit because it’s too slow at the moment,” he continues, telling of what kind of policies to expect if he makes parliament. “Freeing all the people with warrants [for] crimes would be the second one. And probably for Sunnyvale I’d have to lower the age of consent to make half the rooting that’s going on there legal. Then with the baby bonus I’d like to triple it.”
It goes without saying that Franky’s promises are purely fictional. However, Paul’s improvisation of his character is undoubtedly the work of a comedic genius. And from what he tells me, it’s the kind of thing that comes with experiencing the subject first-hand.
“I like to do a lot of research,” Paul explains. “A lot of writers I think write in a vacuum, but when I write, I try to do something that’s close to reality. There’s plenty of silly things like the premise and behaviour and the attitudes that match up with some of the stooges you might meet in housing commissions for sure … I mean, we get police telling us how accurate the show is so that’s a great compliment.”
Paul even had real “housos” on the set for the film, which, as he describes, adds to the realism of Housos Vs Authority – as realistic as a comedic spoof can be, anyway.
“It was weird. We just found some of our cast – after we’d cast them – were from housing commissions or had lived in housing commissions. It’s the type of [movie] and just the way we cast for authenticity that naturally attracted real housos.
“From what they tell me – those who have lived the life – they say it’s pretty close. Well, a real good comedy version of. Our biggest fans are housos because they relate to us so you can’t ask for better qualifications than that.”
BY DAVID MISO
