Those familiar with David Quirk’s stand-up have probably heard about his desperate affection for skateboarding. There’s also a chance you’ve caught wind of his less-glamourous sideline working in retail, albeit at a skateboard shop. At MICF this year, the separate worlds of Quirk’s existence will intertwine in an especially concrete manner. The show Thrasher is not only rooted in reflective self-examination, but it’s also being staged in the store where Quirk’s been intermittently employed for the past 15 years – Fast Times on Swanston St.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a stand-up comic do anything like this before,” he says. “I know that site-specific stuff has happened, but the bosses agreed to 20 nights, so I can’t believe it’s even happening.”
Quirk made his MICF debut seven years ago and Thrasher takes audiences back to that point in time.However, there’s a little more to it than a straightforward stand-up show performed in a novel location.
“The reason why 2008 is mentioned is because that was a particularly significant time,” he says. “Originally I thought it could be set in 2008, just an hour from a day of mine in real time, but then that started to go out the window a little bit. It’s somewhere between theatre and stand-up, with very theatrical interludes that kick in.”
During the course of any self-reflective pursuit, you’ll inevitably come into contact with aspects of self you’d since been left behind. Opting to focus on the events surrounding his MICF debut, Quirk’s found lucid reminders of what his stand-up was like back then.
“That was a show where I came out swinging,” he says. “I did all kinds of really heavy full on material that I think people noticed and I was really happy with it. There was this reputation that said I was a dark comic. I can be, even now, but back then I’d particularly do a lot of full-on stuff.”
Along with the major leap forward in his comedy career, in 2008 Quirk went to China on a professional skateboarding tour. There was also another event of great significance to occur. “The show was named after my mum,” he says. “It was called Kathleen Grace and I didn’t expect my parents to see it, but then one day they came along. My mother happened to be terminally ill at the time, so it was the only time my mum would see me perform comedy. I look at the show now and I’m like ‘Oh my God there was ten minutes on suicide and there was one of the most rough punch lines I’ve ever written.’ I’m trying to tell all these stories in this show and it feels like I have changed as a person.”
While re-connecting with elements of his past has led Quirk to make comparative assessments, he denies that this show was conceived for self-therapeutic purposes. “In that way I’m so naïve,” he says. “I just think ‘Make something interesting and funny and put it out there.’ If it happens to be dark or a bit twisted then that’s fine too.”
Quirk’s going method continues to prove successful, and he’s been named as one of the recipients of this year’s Moosehead Awards. As it stands, he’s not currently working at Fast Times, but that’s not to say his tenure’s over.
“I’ve tried to quit about four or five times, but I just always come back,” he says. “I check my bank account after six months of going ‘I’m just a comedian now,’ and go ‘Oh God I’m screwed.’ It’s just been this live-saving kind of thing. I’m like a homing pigeon.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
