After a solid half-decade of oddness, absurdism and acute observations about the world at large, UK comic Paul Foot is taking a brief moment to reflect on his last batch of original festival shows before he ventures off onto a new one entirely.

His imaginatively titled 2016 Sydney Comedy Festival show,An Evening With Mr. Paul Foot, is a collection of stories and bits from across his history at Australian festivals, put together in painstaking detail by the man himself. Despite the potential for a lot of the material to be dated, or not work outside the context of its original performance, Foot feels like he has created something cohesive to present to audiences.

“It’s been quite a challenge to condense all five hours of comedy I’ve done in Australia into one show,” says Foot. “I considered a show containing all the starts of my previous shows, a five-star-rated show. But in the end, I decided to just jam every single piece of humour into one hour via the method of time warping, speaking quickly and leaving bits out.”

Foot’s 2015 festival hour,Hovercraft Symphony In Gammon # Major, was celebrated as one of the best shows of the entire Sydney Comedy Festival season. It was also seen as an interesting approach on Foot’s behalf to mix his usual quirks (see the title) with some more hard-hitting reality-based material on both organised religion and the rights of the LGBT community, of which Foot is openly a part. According to the man himself, however, there’s just as much weirdness in the real world as there is going on in his own head at any given time.

“I don’t see why one couldn’t discuss both religion and surreal absurdism in the same show,” he says. “Most religion is far more surreal and absurd than any of my warped ramblings. I mean, a talking snake? I can’t remember, was that from my show or from that book by God?”

There has always been an interesting blend within Foot’s stand-up – which he has been doing for nearly 20 years – of the observational and the abstract, often where the two combine in the most unexpected of ways. One could see it as a matter of Foot intentionally setting out to find a unique angle on common topics, while it could also simply stem naturally from the way Foot sees the world around him. His take? It’s a little bit of both.

“I do often think of things in abstract and surreal ways,” he admits, “but sometimes I just have normal thoughts like, ‘I gotta wash this cauliflower,’ or, ‘Our society and government are cruel and heartless to the vulnerable.’ It comes out all surreal when I think it. I’m creating new humour at the moment called ‘literal surrealism’, and there’s a piece called ‘Immigration X-Factor’ that is a perfect example of this. It involves a man being deported and being made to sing Rihanna while crying. Sometimes, the most powerful observations are made by surrealism.”

While it could be seen as somewhat resting on one’s laurels to do what is ostensibly a ‘greatest hits’ show at a festival, Foot is simply reflecting on older material in order to give it a proper send-off. He has some much bigger fish to fry at present, and these are taking shape for his next festival show. “I have been working on my next hour show since January last year,” he says. “It will contain literal surrealism, which uses surrealism and madness to make powerful observational points that observational comedy cannot. It will premiere at the Edinburgh Festival this August, and it will hopefully come to Australia next March and April.”

Foot has enjoyed a considerable degree of success with Australian audiences over the years, including a run of sold-out shows and some of the most glowing reviews of his career. When asked to single out a highlight from his multiple visits to Australia, he says, “I loved performing in the Sydney Opera House. That was very exciting. It’s so beautiful there.”

As for Foot’s worst moment in Australia, he responds in a typically silly manner. “My worst moment was one night in Adelaide when I went to bed hungry because it was Sunday and all the shops were shut,” he says. “I had to survive on a few nuts and overpriced sparkling water.”

Of course, for every sell-out and every five-star review, Foot will still be met with apprehension and angry confusion. Famously among Australian comedy fans, Foot appeared on an episode of Melbourne podcastLittle Dum Dum Clubalongside Michael Hing. His derailment of the show’s normal style of banter has simultaneously been hailed by fans as one of the podcast’s best and worst episodes ever. As far as the man himself is concerned, he doesn’t see what he does as any more out-there or eccentric than the next stand-up. His main focus is his work, which he feels speaks for itself.

“I’ve just been saying things for years, and people seem to like it,” he says succinctly. “So I just keep on saying things. I don’t know if it’s divisive, or an acquired taste. It’s just the things that come out of my mouth. Like Prunella Flagon’s loose leg. Some people love it, some people hate it. Don’t ask me. Blame Prunella.”

Paul Foot’sAn Evening WithMr. Paul FootrunsWednesday April 20 and Thursday April 21 at The Comedy Store.

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