The comedian chats The Sims, rock making and their new show, Turbo Lover.
Scout Boxall has quickly become one of Australia’s most recognised comedians: a 2019 Best Emerging Artist at the Melbourne Fringe, 2021 Best Newcomer at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and a 2022 recipient of the Moosehead Award, there’s no question why this show is a hot ticket item.
Their new show Turbo Lover brings a different flavour. Scout’s focusing on just jokes, rather than a mix of things, like we’ve seen from them in years past.
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With so much incredible comedy coming to our screens and stages from all corners of the Earth, it’s hard to split apart from the pack. The most popular shows in recent years tend to have a clear through-line and are often inspired by real events.
“I think originally, the show was actually going to be more similar to things I’ve done in the past,” Scout says. “It was going to be sort of like a meditation on loneliness, and there was going to be music, and a lot of lighting moments.
“Then I did a bunch of touring and travelling, and I just realised that touring is such a bitch when you have to do sound and lighting stuff. So I was like, ‘Fuck it, I’m just going to do stand up, it’s going to be the lowest maintenance show with the most punchy jokes.’
“Last year, I had a breakup, and I was alone for the first time in a long time. That’s where the show sort of started to germinate. The show has just become a real celebration of all the shit that I really enjoy – like old CD-ROM games that I used to play.”
For all the millennials reading this, the early 2000s was rife with the best time-wasting computer games. Scout’s full of nostalgia for their favourites and the impact they’ve had on their life.
“There were games like Convict Fleet to Dragon Boat, which we played in primary school, where you essentially play like a convict coming over on the First Fleet, but it includes a really graphic whipping scene.
“And of course, like any millennial, The Sims Nightlife expansion pack, which changed the game in 2004. It had an indelible effect on how I live, and also how I try to avoid swimming pools without ladders.”
The process of making these gaming experiences into jokes that the average comedy fan can enjoy seems like a tough ask?
“It’s like rock making, they’re like layers and layers and layers of sediment, placed on each other and crushed together over a long period of time. And I think that’s how the majority of shows and jokes are written is it’s just layer upon layer upon layer of like, insights and punch lines and ideas. And then it eventually gets solidified into a single joke, or show.
“Sometimes you feel like you really have to put things together to make a joke. And sometimes you’re chipping away, and the joke kind of reveals itself, like a statue out of marble or something.”
Scout’s month-long run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival kicks off in March and runs through April. Scout explains the routine that happens before each show.
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“I love constructing rituals around work, I think it’s really hard when you work in a creative field, you have to set your own hours, you have to set your own KPIs.
“So I think having rituals around shows and around performances are incredibly useful to just switch your brain into work mode, in the same way that we’d have a commute to get into a day job.
“I’ll probably get there way earlier than I need to, I’ll have a snack. I’ll have a Diet Coke, and then I will listen to a playlist of tunes that just get me really stoked for the show.”
Scout Boxall’s Turbo Lover is taking place at the Melbourne Town Hall’s Regent Room from March 30 until April 23, as part of Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Buy tickets here.
This article was made in partnership with Junkyard.
