Just a Fully Naked Encounter is what comic Harley Breen is promising MICF 2015 audiences. Only he’s fibbing, there will be no gratuitous male nudity, damn it, Breen says he’s only exposing himself in the figurative sense. Breen reckons ‘climbing the comedy ladder’ might be a simplistic way of talking about his career. “If it were that easy, if there was a ladder to climb, I’d have climbed it by now!” His comedy is based on everyday life, specifically his own life. “I don’t branch out much further than my involvement in life and my interactions with humanity,” he says.
What makes him funny? “A combination of nature and nurture,” he answers. “Most career comics have some kind of dysfunction. My life is fairly funny, being the son of a preacher man. Growing up in organised religion, which I have nothing to do with now, meant that I watched my father perform for 20 years.” What flavour Christianity? “Methodism. I lost interest at an early age but didn’t back out ‘til I was around 22. It’s taken me the last 13 years to shake it off.” Does he have a go at his family in his routines? “No, I show them mercy. When I tell my story, it’s all my own journey.” Breen reckons there are worse backgrounds for a comic to have. “Christianity is based in narrative, so it makes sense that you might start life as a storyteller. My stand-up is narrative; I don’t try to put jokes into my stories, I just tell them.”
So what does Breen joke about? “It’s pretty bloody blue! I really hop over the barrel.” Do tell! “You’ll have to come along and see. I got a wonderful review from the Adelaide Fringe that said Harley doesn’t just cross the line, he ignores it. I tell stories about being a single father, about being a positive role model for my little boy who’s four. And the difficulties of living a debauched life when you’re a parent. You have to organise your partying. Doing stand-up is not a job that’s conducive to raising a small child,” he adds.
Are there any taboo subjects in comedy? “My job is to make the audience entertained, to make them laugh, not to shock them for the sake of it. You can’t appeal to every person. If you try to do that you’ll be most bland and beige comic.”
In the comedy scene, who is Breen jealous of? ”Everyone with a stable income. People who get to plan their holidays, have them paid for, people with a super plan and sick pay.” Breen says he got into comedy cos he was shit at everything else. “It’s the last bastion of the idiot.” With his star still rapidly rising, one of Breen’s career highlights thus far was being compared to a young Billy Connolly. “I am very, very humbled by that remark,” he says. “I adore the guy, as a man and as a performer.”
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
