Comedy sensation Demi Lardner has a new show. Hold on, this is going to get weird.
Following the success of last year's character-driven piece 'Look What You Made Me Do', Demi's new show is called 'I Love Skeleton' and has the absurdist wonder return to cracking jokes and making people feel awkward.
“The show is basically all stupid, silly sketch,” Demi says. “My shows don't ever mean anything because I'm an idiot, so it's just a lot of loud, unrelatable sketch that hopefully brings people joy.
“It's just going to be a bunch of stupid stuff because doing 'Look What You Made Me Do' was my gateway into doing the dumbest stuff I could think of. I wanted a story to make sure I had something to write when I didn't have ideas, but now I've got a huge back-log of ideas so I'm going to try and do them all and see if they fit into an hour.”
As for the title, 'I Love Skeleton', Demi admits to harbouring a deep love for the skeletal form.
“I find them very pleasing, which is one of the most sinister things you could hear a little goblin like me say but I really love them and I don't know why. It's weird. I have a skull tattoo on my arm that I got last-minute one Halloween.”
Demi has been doing comedy since she was just 15; now at 24 years old, she is an in-demand performer who has built a reputation on being a delightful oddball, and proud of it. Demi recalls the first time she made people laugh:
“It was about six years after I started making comedy. I was a weirdo kid; I think it might only be the context of me being on a stage that makes it funny because initially it was just me doing this weird shit at home and it was worrying.”
Just how weird can Demi get on stage? She's yet to discover that for herself, but if it's any indication, she's not above climbing on the laps of audience members and whispering sweet-nothings into their foreheads. For this show, Demi is pushing to the next level of awkward crowd interactions.
“In one of the trials I latched onto a man and made him carry me back onto the stage, so we'll see if that makes it.”
Demi says she and her comedy style naturally attracts fans registering on the freakier end of the social spectrum, and lately it's only been getting worse.
“I have a lot of very interesting fan art going on,” she says. “I don't know; there's a lot of me as an orc, or making out with dragons and stuff. The second one, I f@#$ing love that but I would rather I draw it than them. I don't want them dreaming about me with large lizards on my lap.”
Having achieved so much by such a young age, Demi has a clear goal for her career over the next few years that involves greater independence and expanding her international horizons.
“I want to quit comedy and move to Argentina and never see my family again.”
Demi Lardner Dates
Until 18 March – Studio 7 at The Garden of Unearthly Delights (Adelaide Fringe)23-25 March – Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane Comedy Festival)
29 March-22 April – Victoria Hotel (Melbourne Comedy Festival)
16-20 May – Factory Theatre (Sydney Comedy Festival)
