By BEN CAMERON
A WORD of advice for Pakenham comedy fans: if you’re planning to attend Dave Hughes’ stand up show next month, don’t rock up too late or too drunk, you might get marched out of the place by the man himself.
Speaking to the Gazette from his Edinburgh hotel room at 1am last Friday, and “still wired” from a show at the city’s famous Fringe Festival, Hughes says a recent gig in London’s west revealed why you don’t mess with a comedian’s mojo.
“You get a bit (of heckling),” he says. “If they’re actually involved in the show it can actually be fun.
“I don’t mind a heckler. (But) if somebody’s so drunk they don’t know what they’re saying, that can be tedious.
“One night in London last week, I was having a good show and a couple of people walked in 45 minutes into it.
“I was like ‘Geez, you’re a bit late’. They were so drunk, eventually I said you’ve gotta be quiet or you’re gonna have to go. And they just wouldn’t, so I said nah, you’ve gotta go. So they left and the whole crowd was chanting ‘Hughesy, Hughesy, Hughesy’ … it was like a colosseum-type situation.
“It was quite funny.”
While still gunning for laughs, Hughesy admits his life has been flipped upside-down since leaving the comfort zone of The Project and his decade-long Nova breakfast slot and getting back into the firing line that is stand-up comedy, especially when performing to unfamiliar international audiences.
And to make things extra interesting, his wife and three kids, all under the age of six, are coming along for the ride.
“My life was very structured, every moment was accounted for,” he says of his previous life dominating the Melbourne media landscape.
“I’m spending a lot of time with the kids, especially since we’ve gone overseas. We’re together all day. I’ve got the best of both worlds at the moment.
“They’re very, very active. And they’re very funny as well.”
While his personal and professional life has altered dramatically, his schtick hasn’t.
“I haven’t changed that much to be honest,” he says.
“You just talk about whatever situation you’re in. At the moment I’m the father of three very small children, and been married for seven years.
“There’s different humour in long-term relationships which you can use.
“And when you’re a parent of very small children it’s also very humorous, like any stressful situation you get good comedy fodder.
“Running around after toddlers is bloody stressful, it’s bloody tiring that’s for sure.
“It’s a massive change, becoming a parent. You can be told about it but you don’t listen until it happens.
“You have no idea how much every moment of your day revolves around these little creatures who expect you to be their full-time butler basically.”
He says his routine is tweaked as the tour rolls on.
“You stick with some stuff, but it evolves,” he says.
“I’m feeling pretty creative at the moment, every day something will occur to me and I’ll put it in the act that night.
“You hope that you’re being consistent … some nights don’t reach the heights that other nights reach.
“That’s why it’s interesting, if every night was exactly the same it might start to get boring.
“You’ve always gotta remember the audience in front of you, they may only see you for one night in their lives so you want to make it a good night for them.
“You try to hit the same night with the enthusiasm of your opening night.”
While he’s set to visit Pakenham next month, Hughes says he could be on the road a lot longer.
“I’ve got a hankering to garner an international audience,” he says.
“I might spend a bit more time OS. I do these shows over here and nobody knows who I am, but the Aussies drag their local mates along, and they all have a laugh at me even though they’ve never heard of me.
“I’d love to bloody somehow get in front of people who haven’t seen me, so I can get some new fans. I’m just trying to work out how to do that now, but it’s tricky with the young family.”
“It’s anywhere really, I was in LA and having great spots at the Hollywood Improv there, to purely American crowds. I could have been back in Victoria which is great. It’s universal.
“It’s good to know my comedy connects with these audiences. If they speak English, I just have to make sure I don’t speak too fast so they can understand me.”
Dave Hughes plays the Cardinia Cultural Club on Saturday, 13 September.
