You’re recording this on the dictaphone, right? My jokes don’t really work when people paraphrase, you know what I mean?”
The eternally honest Anh Do, as always, cuts straight to the point with trademark candour. Even over the phone, there’s a warmth to his voice, a comfort, as if we’ve been mates for some time.
It’s this friendliness, along with an undying devotion to the model of try/fail/repeat, that has seen Do become a beloved Australian figure, and a success in the worlds of literature, television, art and comedy. Naturally, it seems necessary to humanise the man and ascertain whether or not there’s anything he sucks at – take him down a peg, so to speak.
“Actually, I probably suck at most of those things you’ve just mentioned,” he laughs. “But you just keep going … My dad said, ‘Anh, you know what? If you give it a red hot crack, son, and you fail, you oughta celebrate that because at least you know you’re soaring near the edge of your capacity.’”
Do’s parents come up regularly in conversation – the core subjects of his acclaimed memoir The Happiest Refugee, they are clearly an inspirational force in his life. Nominated for the Archibald Prize in 2014 for his portrait of his father, Do is sure to acknowledge their influence.
“When I pick people to paint, I pick people who’ve had a really interesting life,” he says. “I’ve got mates who have had a good life and I’ve painted them and it doesn’t come out so good, but I’ve got other mates who’ve had a really up and down life and I paint them and for some reason it comes out a stronger painting.
“I started a bunch of self-portraits but I never finish – get sick of looking at myself in the mirror. I don’t have the best head around.”
Now taking to the stage with the story of his arrival in Australia as a refugee, Do has gained a lot of perspective on life. “I had an interesting childhood – it had ups and downs, and some of the downs were due to us being very poor and stuff, and I used to look at that and think, ‘This sucks,’ you know? But now that I’m older and I’m a comedian, I get to mine all of the experience for comedy, so I kind of have a larger well of material than if I had’ve had a really easy upbringing.”
His is a true rags-to-riches tale – decades after arriving in a leaking boat stripped of valuables (and engines) by pirates, he’s now able to recount his rather different travels of late to Italy, as part of his upcoming TV special, Anh Does Italy. During that trip, he and a mate roasted a chicken in volcanically heated sand.
“It’s the kind of thing that would go off in Australia, y’know? All you’d need is for the other end of the beach to have a glacier next to it, and then you can dig a bit in and keep your stubbies cold. That’d be awesome.”
Do’s life has a dual focus: luck and laughter. These traits, and his humility, keep his staged version of The Happiest Refugee buoyant, even through its darkest passages. As soon as the show is brought up, Do credits fellow comic Dave Hughes with the idea of making it a reality.
“He goes, ‘Make ’em laugh and cry.’ I’ve got Hughesy to thank for the fact that this show is so much richer and deeper than my stand-up used to be.
“I painted Hughesy! He’s got a great head.”
The Happiest Refugee Live! plays at The Star Event Centre on Friday June 19 and The Concourse, Chatswood on Saturday June 20.
