Scottish comedian Connor Burns is heading back to Melbourne for a two-week season at comedy festival in April.
The Scottish term “gallus” is used to describe bold or rule-breaking behaviour. It’s also said, according to Scottish comedian Connor Burns, when someone is feeling a bit too proud of themselves.
“Colloquially, if someone gets up to sing at karaoke or something, we’ll be like, ‘Oh he’s a bit gallus,’” says Burns, who’s speaking to Beat from his home in Edinburgh. “We’re very, like, tall poppy syndrome.”
Connor Burns: Gallus
- Tuesday 7 – Sunday 19 April
- MICF @ The Greek – Mezzanine
- Tickets here
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Gallus is the name of Burns’ new comedy solo hour, which comes to Melbourne for a two-week season at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April. The 31-year-old Burns has experienced a mushrooming rise to fame over the last handful of years. But, due to his working-class Scottish roots, he’s been careful to prevent it going to his head.
“I’m always crushingly aware, never get caught patting myself on the back too hard, just because I know, in the world I came from, how that is perceived,” Burns says.
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Australia is often thought to be ground zero for tall poppy syndrome, a phenomenon that academics Nick Haslam and Milad Haghani have summarised as the “tendency to drag down those who set themselves above others.” But Burns says tall poppy is also “ingrained” in Scottish culture.
“Scottish people are a really good time, but I think a lot of the mentality comes from the bleakness of the weather and how grey everything is. So, we’re very good at having a good time, but we definitely don’t like someone who gets above their station.”
Not surprisingly, given his prevailing success, Burns has been on the receiving end of tall poppy attitudes since launching his stand-up career in 2017. He places his home country’s dragging-down tendency under the magnifying glass in Gallus.
“Gallus was me trying to be like, I want that to inform decisions that I make about my career less so,” Burns says. “Like, you’ll sometimes catch yourself about to post something on social media or about to phrase something a certain way on stage and that little bit of you chirps in and it’s like, ‘They’re not going to like that.’ So I’m trying to get over that because most of it’s just in your own head really.”
Burns’ fiancée is from the USA, and the couple spent a bit of time in the US while Burns was developing Gallus. The culture in the US surrounding success and achievement couldn’t be more different to Scotland – and not necessarily for the better.
“In Scotland we are so negative towards someone who’s doing well, whereas in America I think the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and they’re too encouraging and too kind to people that don’t necessarily [need it].”
The USA’s you-can-do-it attitude is part and parcel of the country’s rugged individualism, which certainly has its downsides.
“We’re seeing it right now in front of our eyes,” Burns says. “Like, it’s great that you told three or four generations of people that they could grow up and do whatever they want. But the problem is now they’ve grown up and they’re doing whatever the fuck they want – and there needs to be something of being like, you can do whatever you want, but don’t actually be a Nazi, maybe? And then if you are going to be a Nazi, maybe don’t allow that person in a position of power and let them run a secret military police.”
Burns would be forgiven for letting his prevailing success go to his head. The last time he was in Australia, he performed at the Sydney Opera House with fellow Scottish comic Daniel Sloss.
“There’s rooms all over the world that just have that mystique, and that’s definitely one of them. A lot of gigs come and go, but that’s one of the ones [where] you get that slight out-of-body thing where you feel like you’re watching yourself on stage.”
Gallus premiered at Edinburgh Fringe last August, which means Burns will be feeling more than a bit gallus by the time he lands in Melbourne.
“I’ve got a lot of mates who are Aussie comics and their year starts with Melbourne, where they’ll write the new show and that’ll be the launch pad for the year. And we just treat Edinburgh the exact same way: the new show starts in Edinburgh and then your tour cycle backs off of that.
“So I always kind of come to Australia quite smug. Same way that the Aussies come to Edinburgh quite smug. We’re all flapping, trying to get the show together, and they’ve got this beautiful, polished, finished thing. And so I get to do that in Australia.”
Connor Burns will perform Gallus at Melbourne International Comedy Festival from 7-19 April. Tickets here.
