After receiving a nomination for Best Newcomer at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, it’s been onwards and upwards for Nath Valvo. Receiving critical acclaim for his shows Happy Idiot and Not In This House amidst regular appearances across the festival circuits, Valvo has sparked many a laugh with his sharp wit which takes aim at everything in sight.
His ability to find the funny side of anything has become exceedingly evident with his latest show, Show Pony, which pokes fun at everything from Melbourne hipsters to the recent same-sex marriage plebiscite.
“As awful as this is to say, I actually found so much comedy in it – the whole time it was happening, I just thought it was so surreal and so insane that it was happening,” Valvo says of the postal vote. “It’s not a political show as such, but I’ve tried to make it as funny as I can about what we had to go through.
“Obviously it hurt as well, I’ve been with my partner for nearly five years and it affected us. I don’t know, maybe it’s the comedian blind – when something shitty happens, from that, some really good comedy can come out of it. Of course, I wouldn’t want it to happen again but I can’t deny that there’s a lot to discuss, there’s a lot to take the piss out of. It was a really weird double-edged sword.”
When he’s not poking fun at Australian politics, Valvo is usually setting his sights on something equally close to home – “taking the piss” out of Australian-isms, even if it is admittedly slightly hypocritical at times.
“We’re just sheep and it’s so funny. We just do night markets and cafes and acai bowls and different cool weddings. Everyone’s like, so cosmopolitan – it’s just so fucking hilarious to rip into because it’s such a wank. But the entire time, I sign up to all of it. I am totally on board lining up for having a good breakfast.”
While many would shudder at the thought of standing centre stage at the world’s most renowned comedy festivals and baring their souls, Valvo finds this to be the most effective method, drawing “close to 100%” of his material from his own life, and well, the proof is in the pudding.
“I think some people think comedians are liars – we can definitely tell a good yarn, but I can’t really seem to find comedy in something that hasn’t happened to me. That’s kind of the only tool I have.”
Don’t expect any major revelations to come from a Valvo show though, his main goal is simple: to make people laugh.
“There’s some comedians out there that are actually amazing at making audiences think about stuff. I don’t go at it like that. There’s a couple of brutally honest, insightful things about the postal vote, but they’re funny – hopefully. So if some of those stories have a deeper effect on people, that’s really cool, but that’s an added bonus, it’s not the aim.”
