If you haven’t heard yet, Taylor’s current Melbourne International Comedy Festival show 10 Things I Know About You is getting rave reviews and they are very well deserved. Taylor is being touted as ‘One To Watch’ on the Melbourne comedy scene but says all he needs to do to live up to reviews and set himself apart is create a show worth watching, and slip on a slim fitting Hawaiian shirt.
Taylor’s performance history can be chronicled in obsessive stages. It goes a little something like this; Dance from 5-15 years old, Drama from 15-18 years old, Music and Poetry from 18-21 years old, Magic (yep, MAGIC) from 20-23 years old and Stand Up from 22 years old to present. I wasn’t kidding this man is a singing, dancing, funny, magic MACHINE.
Sometime amongst those years of artistic development, Tayloralso found the time to get a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. At times, 10 Things I Know About You will feel like a university lecture- if your lecturer makes you laugh, busts myths and grooves like no man should be able to. The human mind is very interesting toTaylor, “Humans are capable of creating wonders of the world. We are able to design and build sky scrapers. We’ve made air travel a common part of life. We can communicate with people on the other side of the world. We’ve been into space. And most importantly, we love watching animals fart on YouTube- Such brilliant minds.”
Taylor’s comedy has been influenced by a variety of sources from Bill Cosby, Rod Quantock’s political comedy, to one of our favourite television princes. “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air was the first comedy I was obsessed with. I like singing an acoustic cover of the theme song in my spare time.”
10 Things I Know About You is a mixed bag of all ofTaylor’s talents: songs, dances, anecdotes and improvisation, delivered with a level of intelligence that is impressive. When asked how he keeps his intelligent comedy accessible to all he says it simply, “I do a lot of gigs in seedy pubs around town to ensure I can make drunk people laugh. It’s an enriching life skill.” This show will make you question your reactions to World Vision ads, your use of language and you’ll add the best collective noun for bogans to your vocabulary. You might also find yourself questioning how you have your coffee as much ofTaylor’s observations on mankind have come from his time behind a coffee machine.
Twitter is a huge platform for comedy. Comedians young, old and non-existent use the social networking site to practice jokes and network. For an active tweeter such asTaylor, it’s a useful tool, “I write a lot of jokes on Twitter. Sometimes the ones with the best response make it into my stand-up set. It allows me to practice writing jokes more often than just at gigs. It’s like building comedy muscle I guess.”
A few of Taylor’s jokes centre on being a struggling twenty-something arts man and this isn’t a rare story. Last week, Taylor (@MrSimonTaylor) tweeted to fans that if low funds were the reason they weren’t coming to the show that he would supply them with a ticket. He explained it’s simply because he can empathise, “I’m a full time artist. That means I’m often very hungry. I know people of my generation aren’t likely to be in high paid jobs yet. I make enough to live off, so I’m happy to share what I’m doing with them for free if they need it. They’re more likely to appreciate my work than those money-making Baby Boomers.” Damn those pesky boomers.
The young comedians ofMelbournestick together and Simon Taylor’s personal top five local performers are Khaled Khalafalla, Tegan Higginbotham, Beau Stegmann, Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall and Adam Knox, “Make out with them before they get famous.”
Simon Taylor is the quintessentialMelbournearts man but how DOES he have his coffee? “I drink tea.” If you go see his show, that’ll make sense to you.
