Alex Williamson is a comic of secrecy – trying to dig up any footage of his brand new show ‘Sin On My Face’ only stirs greater curiosity.
“I think this is the year where I’ve had a really solid package of stuff but not a lot of stand-up making it online!”
Fear not, Alex says all will soon be revealed, particularly at his upcoming appearances around the country. In a time when people conformed to rules laid down by an unseen god and suppressed their true depraved natures, Alex is morbidly fascinated by the Victorian era. Where most might think the depravity and debauchery of that time is long gone, ‘Sin On My Face’ looks to share not only the delightfully disgusting elements of that period, but travel down the timeline and mirror it with the now.
What’s hard to get your head around with Alex, is that last year he was touring up to the eyeball and yet still found time to write a new show – how does one master such wizardry?
“It’s a fair bit of guesswork but it’s a year’s worth of selecting from insane ideas,” he says. “Saving ideas in your phone throughout the year for the following year’s show. This year, I’ve spent a fair bit of time lurking around train stations looking at weirdos so I’ve got a fair bit to tell!”
Being in the motherland, London was a great source of material to draw on the historical underbelly of Victorian times. “There’s a general theme going through the show that there’s been a downward spiral of depravity that society has undergone lately – I might be partly to blame for that! But you know, up until recently you couldn’t say the c-word, now you can call your mum one and everything’s groovy!”
Alex has preferred to lean on the depravity of the Victorian era in his show, it is, he says, a great way to lean into looking at how society has changed over the years. “I guess social media is a great way to see how we’ve changed over the years,” he says. “The internet’s always been this collective consciousness of the world, the best and the worst of everything.
“I guess now, as a semi-professional historian, I can look at how things have really evolved to this point now, where there’s all sorts of little things going on social media – spoilt, rich kids whining, all that sort of stuff – it’s always been there but now we have a firsthand look into on a small screen in front of you.”
Of course, social media has played a massive part in Alex’s own success, so arguably he’s playing a wild card with this show when he’s poking fun at social media. “I’ve like fallen on my feet with that sort of thing!” he says.
“Twenty years ago I wouldn’t have been given a chance to do anything but here, now, in this time, with these doors I’m able to open on the internet, I’m able to build a following of like-minded sickos!”
Alex Williamson Tour Dates
14-15 March – Top of the Ark at Arkaba Hotel (Adelaide Fringe)26 March-6 April – Athenaeum Theatre (Melbourne International Comedy Festival)
26 April – Horsham Town Hall (Victoria)
27 April – Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre (Mt Gambier)
4 May – Astor Theatre (Perth Comedy Festival)
10-11 May – Factory Theatre (Sydney Comedy Festival)
