RHYS NICHOLSON

Rhys Nicholson reckons his jokes are “less gratuitous” these days but, as he prepares his new show for Mardi Gras, says he’s “still throwing shit against the wall”. By Andrew M Potts

His jokes are “less gratuitous” now but, he says, he’s “still throwing shit against the wall”.

DNA It’s been 12 months since we caught up with you. What’s been happening?

Rhys Nicholson: I’m literally, right now, standing in front of a whiteboard putting my new Mardi Gras show together.

Your last show had a filthy double entendre title (Seminal). What’s this show called?

Nice People, Nice Things, Nice Situations. It’s a Best Of show, the best jokes from my last four shows as well as some new material from my up-coming tour. It’s a mixed bag of the stuff that I’m happiest with. If you’ve only become aware of me in the last year there will be a lot of new stuff there for you, and stuff that hasn’t been filmed from comedy galas. As far as a theme, though, to be honest, I don’t know what it’s about yet. I’ve just got a bunch of material that I’m putting together. This is what all comedians do at this stage – we frantically try to piece together what the show is about. My partner Kyran Wheatley is my director. I write and write and write and his job is to say what the show is about.

I’m still as filthy as ever, but my recent jokes leave it up to the audience to create the gross thoughts in their own head.

People would be familiar with the process of directing a play or a movie, but how does directing stand-up comedy work?

It’s similar, really. His job is to bring an outside eye to the material because when you’re writing something you can get very deep inside the material and you end up getting really sick of it and you start throwing away ideas that you probably shouldn’t throw away. You can become very frustrated with your own work. Having someone on the outside who knows me and knows comedy, as he does very well, means he can tell me “this is what you should do with this”.

Have you found that your sense of humour has evolved since you started out?

My style has definitely changed quite a bit over the years so I’m being careful in the way I put the show together. I think, well, I hope, these

days I’m a bit less gratuitous. I’m still as filthy as ever but I like to try and hide it a bit. My more recent jokes leave it up to the audience to create the gross thoughts in their own head.

You must have some favourite jokes that you love retelling?

I don’t have proper favourites, and you can’t get too attached to jokes because at a certain point you have to get rid of them. I have a very old joke about being mugged that I still like to do. It’s the first joke I ever wrote that felt like a real bit of proper stand-up and not something a new comedian had written.

Your jokes can be smutty and surreal; does your audience love a particular kind of joke?

I mean, who knows what they like! I just keep throwing shit at the wall and seeing what works. I think they like it when I’m dirty in a silly way. One of my favourite things to say on stage at the moment is a joke about my friend finding her parents’ double-ended dildo and how I think it’s a really romantic take on that scene in Disney’s Lady And The Tramp where they’re eating the spaghetti.

Last time we spoke, you and Kyran were engaged. Are there wedding plans?

Not really. We’re both quite busy! We got engaged well before the plebiscite was even a concept so we thought it would take years and years but now that it’s legal we’re like, “Oh, we should probably do that at some point” after we did all that work on making it happen. But I tour for nine months of the year and Kyran is very busy. A lot of our friends live overseas so we’re going to have to find the right time to do it. But I imagine it will be in early 2020.

Are you looking forward to taking part in the Mardi Gras Festival this year?

I’ve never performed as part of Mardi Gras before, so this is a first for me. To be honest, I’m usually in Brisbane and I love Brisbane but it’s also quite the opposite of Mardi Gras. I’m excited to just be around the festival, but also to be part of it! I’ve marched in the Parade so many times – it’s such a great organisation. It’s nice to be part of the fun of the festival.

There are usually some very funny floats in the Parade. Do you recall a favourite?

Yes. Years ago, in my home town of Newcastle, a giant ship named the Pasha Bulka crashed in the harbour. And in the Parade that year someone made a float about it and called it the Pash And Bonk Ya. So dumb.

What’s your take on the state of Australian politics at the moment?

It’s a bit of a mess! My friend Erik Jensen, who edits The Saturday Paper, tweeted yesterday that it used to be quite a strange thing in Australian politics to have a new prime minister without an election, but now it’s the norm, which I think is true and weird and interesting. I look forward to there being a Labor government in May.

There’s a meme that says a new Australian prime minister means it’s time to change your smoke alarm battery. Do you think ScoMo has any chance of turning it around?

Absolutely not. The government just seems a bit desperate. You have Scott Morrison being booed at the tennis while him trying to be friends with Anna Wintour. Like, come on man, calm down. Scott Morrison meeting Anna Wintour is the strangest kind of world’scollide scenario ever – the most fashionable person in the world with the least fashionable. Fascinating.

You must see a lot of other comedians work, but who still cracks you up the most?

I just love really stupid jokes. Those jokes where you can’t put your finger on why it’s funny, but it is. And videos of dogs looking regretful after getting in trouble.