Tom Green is arguably the trailblazer of modern-day prank culture captured on film.
Before YouTube, Periscope, Vine and Snapchat, Green was terrorising unsuspecting targets with a video camera and his unique sense of humour. A quarter of a decade later, he continues to entertain audiences around the world, and will be bringing the laughs to Sydney on his latest stand-up tour. Unfortunately for us old-school fans, he has confirmed the Slut Mobile will be remaining at home.
“The hood of the car still exists! Is it the ‘bonnet’ or the ‘hood’ in Australia? That is where the painting was on my parents’ 1992 Honda Accord. I replaced it for them and kept the bonnet, so I have the Slut Mobile and it’s hanging in my garage here in Los Angeles.”
The Tom Green Show, which aired from 1994-2000, was incredibly innovative in the world of comedy at the time. Green admits he and his team were conscious of their pioneering prank comedy style. “We were aware that we were doing something that was new and hadn’t really been done on television, and I think that was a big part of the motivation behind a lot of the ideas. We tried to use video cameras in a way that we hadn’t seen them used before to do pranks and make a TV show in a really raw and guerilla way.”
Although he still dabbles in prank culture, Green doesn’t feel that is entirely what he’s about anymore. “Everything has become so mainstream, whether it’s YouTube, Vine, Instagram or Twitter. I use all of that stuff and it’s fun for me, but I think the place where I’m getting my most creative inspiration from is onstage doing stand-up. That’s where I really get to talk about the world we’re living in, the absurdities I feel that aren’t talked about in the mainstream media by other comedians. That’s where I feel I can do the most innovative stuff.”
When it comes to his social media presence, Green explains he has something of a love/hate relationship with the internet and technology. “I use it all the time and we’re living in a world now where so many people get their information from social media,” he says. “But then I’m also frustrated by how much time I spend on it and how much time others spend on it. Especially when you’re hanging out and everyone’s on their phones and not talking to each other, and that has become a consistent theme in my stand-up over the years.”
He continues, “It’s very cathartic for me to get up onstage and vent frustrations about things, but it’s also a lot of fun to interact with audiences that are having a great time and grew up watching the Slut Mobile and remember that their favourite movie is Freddy Got Fingered.”
Stand-up has also given Green a chance to get back to his comedy roots. “I started doing stand-up when I was a teenager, long before I was doing films and television – it was really my first toe in the water of show business. It’s super exciting to be able to focus on it now at an older age and have a lot more perspective on the world and my opinions on things. It’s really been great.”
Now that his perspectives have evolved, Green ponders the question of whether his entire sense of humour has changed. “In some ways, yeah, but I’ve always liked to look at the world and poke fun at it and pick it apart from a weird point of view. As a stand-up comedian it’s a completely different type of comedy than making video pranks, but the heart of it is hopefully shining a light on the power and hypocrisy in the world and laughing at it.”
Beyond that, however, Green won’t reveal too much of what he’ll cover in his live show – at first, anyway. “Oh it’s all completely top secret,” he declares, before caving immediately. “Honestly, I have so many different subjects that I talk about – there’s a lot of spontaneity, a lot of improv. It’s not a political show – I’m not there to talk about politics in the traditional sense – but I do like to talk about things that I find ridiculous about the political system. I mean, Donald Trump is running for President and I touch on that a bit because I was on his Celebrity Apprentice show and got fired by him.
“I do a lot of crowd work; I like getting into it with the audience and pulling a lot of comedy out of thin air through spontaneous conversation. There’s also a lot about technology and how relationships are affected by them. Everyone is on Instagram posting their entire private lives for everybody to see. How does that affect our daily existence on this planet when you’re dating or in a marriage and your husband or wife is putting everything about themselves online and everyone is talking about it or commenting on it? What are some of the pitfalls of that? I like to make fun of that stuff.”
Tom Green appears at the Factory Theatre on Thursday March 17 and Saturday March 19.
