“We thought it was funny for us to do a masterclass because it was a terrible idea,” laughs Gareth Davies. He and comedic partner Charlie Garber will be bringing back their two-man show, Masterclass, to the Old Fitz in January, and judging by our conversation, it’s going to be hilarious.
How could it not, considering the inspiration behind the piece?
“We would hear that some guy from Home And Away or Neighbours was doing a masterclass and found it to be a hilarious idea,” says Davies. “Often when you go to see little comedy shows, they don’t follow through on the grand concept, and we wondered what it would be like to do it, despite having a ridiculous premise: I am a genius and Charlie is a character I’ve created. What happens if we take it as seriously as possible?”
It seems Davies’ partner has the answer to that question, particularly in regards to revisiting the hit show that debuted in 2011. “We definitely haven’t given the world the full-throttle experience of our combined genius, especially Gareth’s. He really has a special gift that needs to be blasted onto the world,” says Garber.
Davies elaborates, “It will help people with the ‘third eye’ stuff. If you’re not religious, you probably will be at the end. Or if you are religious you probably won’t be at the end.”
“Masterclass is about the power of creativity and acting,” continues Garber. “It’s about a man, Gareth Davies, who is the greatest actor in the world. His power is so great that it’s actually been lethal in the past. He is able to bring a character to life, literally. That character is named Charlie Garber. It falls to him to help convince Gareth that even though he’s killed some audience members because their minds literally blew, he has to get back on the horse and act again.”
There will, of course, be extra bits and pieces for those who were lucky enough to see the show the first time around. “We might take an explosive sneak peak into some of the TV guest work I did that really changed the game for television,” Davies reveals. “You can often divide moments of life and human history in terms of ‘before this moment’ and ‘after this moment’ and we’ll probably put a few of those onstage. Can you have two Ages of Enlightenment? I think this will probably be the second one.”
I wonder aloud whether Davies’ greatness has been passed onto his creation, Garber. “I guess you could say that I’m genius incarnate in that sense – the embodiment of all Gareth’s greatest toil and work in the Dream Forge, which is the space in his mind where he does his creating,” says the self-professed fictional character. “I’ll tell you why I’m a better created being than Frankenstein or Pinocchio and why our story is far superior – they didn’t have the ability to look at their imperfections and I do.”
One can’t help but wonder if one day Garber will rise up and destroy Davies in a Vader-versus-Obi-Wan fashion. The creator thinks not. “The extent of my imagination and will contains Charlie’s. A 375ml can of Coke will always be smaller than a two-litre bottle. I will always be able to out-think him because the limit of his thoughts are inside me.”
Garber suggests otherwise. “The world is full of stories of the son rising up and destroying the father. I think we’d all be kidding ourselves if we didn’t admit that somewhere Gareth fears that I will rise up and slay him.”
Masterclassis playing at the Old Fitz Theatre in the Old Fitzroy on Tuesday January 13 – Saturday January 31. Tickets can be found on the Old Fitz website.
