UK comic John Kearns is back again this year with his very idiosyncratic performances. This year’s show is called Shtick and Kearns thinks this show might be an easier ride for punters than last year’s Sight Gags for Perverts. “I don’t think anyone had heard of me last year,” he tells Beat. We saw it and ‘bizarre’ is how Beat would describe his comedy. Kearns agrees. “That’s the general consensus. This year’s show is much more accessible,” he tells us. Not too accessible we hope. “It’s a bit more measured,” he explains. “It’s more of a send-up show, a bit more grounded in reality. If you come on and start flying around the room you want to take the audience with you. As an audience member, you want to be taken by the hand, not punched in the face. When I left Melbourne last year to write a new show for Edinburgh, I didn’t want to have to rely on whether or not people understood me.”
On stage, Kearns makes himself look as unappealing as possible with a very bad wig and horrible false teeth. “Shtick is about my shtick on stage, how I’ve created this monster,” he continues. “Now, I’m trapped in this alter-ego. It’s about me trying to break it off. I’ve considered the show a bit more. This one’s more tapered. And I’m enjoying it more. Last year at MICF was the first time I’d done a show more than 20 times. I was fucking knackered! I want to do a show that doesn’t drive me mad.” How would a show drive him mad? “I had five jokes that I’d done in London and in Edinburgh, but here nobody laughed at them,” he says. “Last year each show had me trying hard to make it work when sometimes there was no reaction. That drives you insane.” What does he think that was about? “It could be boring things like the time of the show, the venue at The Town Hall with horses clopping by, and the Hare Krishnas making noise and drowning you out.” It’s almost a show in itself. “This year, I’m performing at the Tuxedo Cat which is a venue that attracts more alternative audiences.”
Kearns says he doesn’t aspire to perform in the Arts Centre to massive crowds. “I see Arj Barker, Ronny Chieng and I don’t envy them at all.” How so? “I’m playing to 70 people a night. With that you’ve got intimacy, there’s that connection. You can get people up on stage. I can see everyone. In a 1,500-seat venue, you don’t have that. Obviously it’s a different skill. The pressure’s a lot bigger. You’ve got the lights in your eyes, you can’t see anyone. The biggest room I’ve played was 900. I’m quite happy to perform to 100 people in a dark room and create a fan base that way. I think of myself as a little secret. And I can remain a little secret.” Kearns says that he’s sometimes genuinely surprised by what comes out of his mouth when he’s performing. “You have a freedom on stage when the words can run away with you. That’s what’s so thrilling and exciting about it, when you realise how lucky you are. On stage, you have to rely on your wit and your instinct.
You can’t please everyone. Although Kearns has noticed a few people who’ve come back to see him again this year who were in last year’s Sight Gags audience, after performing Shtick in Edinburgh, he had people grumbling that it was ‘a bit different.’ “You can only do what you do,” he says.
BY LIZA DEZFOULI
Venue: Victoria Hotel – Acacia Room, 215 Lt Collins St, CBD
Dates: Currently being performed until April 19 (except Mondays)
Times: 8.30pm (Sundays 7.30pm)
Tickets: $26 – $33
