“My stuff is kinda like a stand-up comic in a David Lynch film, doing a show for you in your bedroom,” Asher Treleaven says of himself. “I like the intimacy created in my shows, the awkward feeling in the audience is great. Comedy doesn’t need to be “lovely, lovely, lovely”; it doesn’t have to be a laugh a second for a full hour. Think John Waters and David Lynch, somewhere in between is my funny.”
It certainly is an unnerving style of comedy, which is of course also why Asher shines like a welcome lighthouse to a lost punter in the cliché-ridden sea of mainstream comedy. He performs a show like you have never seen and one that leaves you wondering if it was all part of the act or if he left a bit too much of himself out there. Last year, for no explained reason, he periodically popped pills, the year before he smashed down alco-pops like it was his job, and all while the show hilariously rolls on.
“I read a lot of reviews about my shows that say I am not allowed to do things like that because it is not a clear enough gag,” Asher says, somewhat angered. “It’s not, ‘Hi I’m Mad Ben and in the show I am going to be taking pills and this is why.’ I just throw those things in and you just take them or leave them.
“I guess it is a comment on something about society that I find a bit ridiculous or repulsive. The year I drank vodka cruisers; that was a direct comment on the whole business on the extra tax they were trying to implement to prevent young girls from drinking too much. The pill popping was a thing we added last year to help feed the horrible frenzied pace of the show that built up towards the end.”
Asher’s shows are named to a running theme, Secret Door, Open Door, Cellar Door and now Matadoor (Asher’s spelling). “There is a reason: it is based off a song off Amnesiac – it’s one of those really dark, bizarre ambient numbers off that Radiohead album and in the middle of one of the songs, a weird computerised voice comes on reeling off all these different types of doors, it is all very emotive and enigmatic and unusual. I liked that and I just thought lets see how far I can take it.”
Which makes Matadoor a show about racism, actually. “It seems to have turned into a show about trying to deal with racism, as many of us in Australia are white middle class type of people and I guess my audience is [made up of] white, lefty, queer, good people,” Asher surmises. “And so I wanted to write a show about how you deal with it when you become involved in other people’s racism. If you sit in a cab and the first thing you hear from the front seat is, ‘How about those Sudanese kids?’; moments like that. How do you deal with those moments? Not necessarily talking about going out and experiencing racism, just how to fight it and deal with it when you are implicated in it. Matadoor is a show about a man in slightly tight pants, facing down the bull that is new Australian Fascism, complete with terrible VB shirt and Australian flag cape.”
Asher Treleaven performs Matadoor at Melbourne Town Halls’ Cloak Room from March 31 – April 24. The show starts at 7pm Tuesday – Saturday and 6pm Sundays. Tickets are $20 – $25 and available through Ticketmaster online, 1300 660 031 or at the door.
Jack Franklin
