Damien Power returns to MICF with a new hour of stand-up, Sell Mum Into Slavery. Power scored a Barry nomination for last year’s politically alert show, I Can’t Believe I Cared. That sort of kudos is an affirming confidence booster, but it could also heighten the pressure to deliver the goods once again. However, Power tries to disregard any competitive inclinations.
“I think it can be dangerous to see it like this show’s got to be better than the last show,” he says. “I’ve done that before and it sort of bit me in the arse a bit. You make [the show] over a whole year – I work on it every night and bits come and go. So when I’m working on the material throughout the year in the clubs, those bits that I’m working on and I hope to be my best bits, I try to set the bar higher as far as how insightful they are, how original, how funny.”
Much like I Can’t Believe I Cared, Sell Mum Into Slavery sees Power exploring issues of social, political and cosmic import.The show’s own eye-grabbing title is a loose metaphor for its thematic agenda.
“The title was meant to be funny really, but the show does talk about capitalism and evolution and the next step of evolution,” he says. “The ‘sell your mum into slavery’ thing was a bit of a dig at capitalism, really – the idea that a businessman would do anything to get that deal done. It’s sort of a cheap joke, but I think there are definitely elements relevant to that in parts of the show where I talk about the current economy and consumerism and stuff.”
After toying with gag comedy and impressions in his fledgling years, Power found immediate success once he started interrogating such loaded themes as racism, social and cultural value systems, social rituals and religion. Despite exploring bigger issues, his comedy is very accessible – something which isn’t easily achieved.
“This show has a bit of stuff on space and consciousness, and you can get too caught up in that world of intellectual. I’m trying to remove from my act any lecture-like tone of like, ‘This is how ideology works, this is how capitalism works, this is cosmology.’ When you get into that sort of tone, you’re not in stand-up anymore, and there’s none of that in this show. I’m trying to let the jokes have the ideas in them in an accessible way.
“When I go to try that stuff [in front of an audience], you can feel when you’re like, ‘OK this is just way too out there. You’re just jerking yourself off here.’ So that stuff just inevitably doesn’t make the cut. You can say the most beautiful profound thing in the world, but if it isn’t a great bit or if it isn’t really funny, then it just doesn’t make the cut.”
Comedy audiences are there to laugh, first and foremost. But once laughing, people become more receptive to bolder material, and likewise more willing to consider viewpoints they mightn’t otherwise have encountered.
“[I’m interested in] being an artist and pushing the medium and giving punters something they can think about and laugh about. If you come to my show, hopefully it’ll be thought provoking as well as just as funny. For me that equates to just a better show. I’m coming from a more artistic point of view than saying, ‘People are going to leave and I’m going to change their lives.’ ”
By Augustus Welby
Venue: Melbourne Town Hall – Lunch Room, Cnr Swanston & Collins Sts, CBD
Dates: March 24 – April 17 (except Mondays and Sunday April 3)
Times: 9.45pm (Sundays 8.45pm)
Tickets: $22 – $29
