A comic economy
Comedian Luke McGregor has landed a spot on The Weekly as it returns for its sixth season. McGregor tells Danielle McGrane what he aims to bring to the satirical news show.
L uke McGregor is finally putting his economics degree to good use.
The comedian, actor and writer has spent most of his life on the stand-up circuit or on TV screens, but now the nation is set to see another side of him as he joins The Weekly with Charlie Pickering.
“I completed an economics degree at uni but I’ve never got to use it. But I’ve always been fascinated with economics because I like that it’s just numbers, and speculation and analysis,” McGregor said.
“I’m kind of excited to talk about that sort of stuff in a funny way. I don’t really get a chance to look at things from that angle normally.”
He wasn’t exactly sure how to approach it at first, so McGregor looked to his dad for inspiration.
“I always think about how I argue with Dad at Christmas and I thought, ‘Maybe I should do a segment which is basically me trying to write segments that help encourage my dad to think a little differently’.”
It’s an unusual approach, but it seems to work.
“So that’s kind of the angle I take every time I write something now, I go, ‘How would my dad react to this and what could I say to make him think that maybe there’s another side to this?’”
McGregor’s dad really just stands in for the rest of the world, who the comedian is hoping to encourage to think a little differently.
It’s a noble pursuit, but McGregor has the added job of trying to also make that information funny.
That’s even more of a challenge now because of the pandemic.
“Initially, I wrote it so it would be with actors and in different locations and now because of the pandemic I’m filming everything from home, doing all the sound, lighting and camera work myself, and just learning as I go.
“I’m doing an Eddie Murphy basically and playing all the characters myself because I don’t have access to actors any more,” he said.
Thankfully, he’s finding comedy in that too.
“I didn’t really have any costumes, so to dress up as Mum and Dad all I did was write ‘Dad’ on an A4 piece of paper and stick it to my chest, so it will be interesting,” he said.