The result is a slow motion clip of Kreischer landing on his arse, flanked by his two daughters and ten of their friends chanting ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi’, while he remains unfazed.
“The first time I did that slide, I landed on my feet,” Kriescher explains. “So I thought that it would be cool to stick the landing and just be like, ‘What’s up?’ But when we did it for the cameras I fell and my daughter’s friends started giggling, so I thought I’ll just keep going with it. But man that hurt,” he laughs.
Kreischer will be in town mid-September to appear as part of his Melbourne debut. But while his crazy antics at Florida State University are known to have been the inspiration behind the 2002 movie, National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, these days he admits most of his stand-up material is influenced by his wife and daughters.
“I don’t know any other way than telling the truth and that’s how I approach comedy,” he says. “Although I never run anything by my family first. I remember the first time that came to bite me in the arse. I told a story on my first comedy special about my wife giving birth, and my wife came and surprised me at one of my shows. So I told the story and my buddy in the audience was howling with laughter and I was freaking out.
“Now I always talk about my youngest daughter Isla on stage and I’m very quick to tell everyone, ‘Hey she’s got learning disabilities, she’s got an IEP (Individualised Education Program)’. I never want to be seen trying to paint my life as something it’s not. I want people to think, ‘Hey my kid’s kind of fucked up too.’ I love it when people come up to me and say, ‘I have an Isla. My daughter is just like your daughter’.
“I talk about my body too. I’m always trying to lose weight. In fact, I was going to go to the gym this morning, but I got drunk on radio instead so I passed. From my podcast to my stand-up, there’s really nothing that’s off-limits in my life. I think the older you get the more you find your voice. I don’t mind making a joke about anything, but there is stuff that I stay away from because I feel like it’s not really my lane in comedy.
“I don’t talk about politics really. That’s not my lane either. I don’t really talk about race as much as I used to when I was younger. What I like talking about and what I think people enjoy about me, is good fun, forget-your-problems kind of comedy. I’m not Anthony Jeselnik, you know? People come to my show to have fun.”
And from all accounts Bert “The Machine” Kreischer plans to live up to his wild reputation while on the road this spring. “I’m nervous that I’m not going to come back alive after this, that’s for sure. It’s going to be insane.”
