Given the sheer number of review stars Nath Valvo has been picking up over the last few years, he could have had a solid second career as an astronomer.
The Australian comedian and radio personality has built his reputation on good old-fashioned honesty – though it helps, of course, to fill your day with ridiculous shenanigans and strange fortune. His shows are a smelting pot of impromptu gags and finely honed jokes, though as he explains it, even a well-developed punchline can have an ambiguous history.
“I tell you, the process of comedy is so much more boring than people think. Over the course of nine to ten months, there’s a lot of jotting. I have the most random notes in my phone,” he sighs, laughing. “The shit I’ve written in that thing. A lot of the time they’re notes that don’t even make sense to me. Three months later I’ll go through them and see a note that just says, ‘PIGEONS!’ That’s it? What the fuck did I find funny about pigeons six months ago? But I’ll upload all those notes and print them out, and then I concentrate all those pages down to little cards, all the bits I think might be worth going in a show. The piles grow as the months go on, but after a while you might find a theme or a thread, something that might link them, but that whole time you’re trying them out in clubs, seeing what works, what dies.”
Valvo’s latest salvo, Tongue In Cheek, will be arriving direct from sell-out dates at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and keeping in theme, has been a much-celebrated show. His previous runs – Almost 30, Boy Next Door, Happy Idiot – have led to television spots, various radio gigs and regular columns for News Limited. His audience has swollen dramatically as a result, culminating in a crowd of thousands at Falls Festival.
“Something’s happening with comedy lately,” Valvo says. “You’re finding comedy at music festivals, art festivals. I think it’s because there’s so much more bullshit than ever on TV and radio. I really do. I think people are so sick of the shit they’re seeing. They’re craving something. The odd thing is, I’ve had people say to me, ‘Wow, there were hardly any gay people in the audience tonight!’ Which I’m sure they mean as a compliment in some weird way. But I never know what to say. Why wouldn’t there be? Just because I’m talking about my relationship with a dude doesn’t mean it’s just for gay ears. It’s very odd. I know a couple of other gay comedians have experienced that as well. In reviews they’ll see things like, ‘[The material’s] just as relatable!’ It’s like, ‘What the fuck? We’re not mermaids!’ I just think funny is funny.”
Valvo’s Sydney Comedy Festival show will also be a much different beast to what Melbourne audiences enjoyed, due largely to Valvo’s insistence on leaving much of his time onstage up for grabs.
“I don’t write my shows script-heavy. They definitely have certain bits locked in at the beginning and the end, but they’re pretty loose. I’ll try to have chats, make sure I know who’s sitting nearby, who’s in the front row, is that a couple over there? I do a bit of chit-chat to keep each show different, and to keep me on my toes. It isn’t Melbourne-centric at all. Obviously there are a few things here and there – a particular café, a particular street – I’ll take out, but in terms of general themes it’s good to take it anywhere. No matter where I am, every night is different.”
Nath Valvo’sTongue In Cheekruns Thursday April 28 – Sunday May 1, at Enmore Theatre, as part of Sydney Comedy Festival.
