Award-winning comedian, writer and actor Larry Dean is excited to be back in Australia.
The three-time Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee is giving us his new show, 'Dodger', for comedy festival season – another performance featuring all the hallmarks of a good Larry Dean show.
Larry has performed multiple tours across the UK and Ireland – his fanbase is strong internationally, playing regularly in our own Melbourne and Perth, plus over in New Zealand and across at Montreal.
He made his New York touring debut just last year with 'Fudnut', and now, 'Dodger' is his biggest tour to date.
To dive a little deeper into the work, we passed the mic to Larry himself.
This is a new show. What can you tell us about it?
It's about my granny, heroes, and low self-esteem (I like to keep that a consistent topic through all my shows).
And how would you describe your comedy to a newcomer?
I get told it's daft and cheeky. I do voices, jokes and stories. Don't really take much seriously but I guess that whats comedy is for, eh? But newcomers to anyone's comedy can just look at videos and see if they like it. So do that rather than make me sell myself, because thats cringey.
How did you get into stand-up?
I left Glasgow when I was 18 to go to uni in Southampton, and started doing gigs when I was there. Should have waited until I finished uni to start though, as I wasn't getting paid and I had to travel to gigs. So I gave up alcohol during uni to afford to pay to get to shows. Not much of uni memories when most of what I can remember is being stuck on trains.
And what would you say is the most challenging thing about doing it?
Nowadays, it's probably that you're not able to just do gigs. You have to manage a lot of other things, travel, social media, video editing, video recording, and the turnaround time for new material has got a lot quicker. However, a lot of benefits have come from it, as everyone has more control over their own career. But when you have to hear your own voice back again and again when editing, you go a bit mad.
What’s your method when it comes to putting a new show together?
I usually think of an idea, try it on stage and dig myself into a hole and hopefully come out with some gold. It's probably not the most effective way but it seems to work for me, hopefully. I do that for about half the year and see what the running theme or what brings most of the stuff together. It's funny, I think non-comedians have a similar thing, if you were to take notes of what you're thinking about every day, you'll notice each year has its themes.
You’ve been nominated three times for the Edinburgh Comedy Award. What does this kind of thing mean to you?
It's really nice getting a pat on the back from the industry. Each time I've been nominated it has meant a lot, but especially the last one, as the show was really personal and emotionally exhausting doing it every day. I thought it was a prank when I got told though.
What are you most looking forward to about presenting this show to Australian audiences?
I'm always just excited to be here. Also I get to talk about my favourite people in this show, so that's fun.
Larry Dean plays Brisbane Powerhouse (Brisbane Comedy Festival) 27-28 April, before playing Sydney Comedy Festival at Concourse Chatswood (2 May), Factory Theatre (3 May) and Comedy Store (4-5 May).
