Reuben Hunter has a problem. A problem with The Hoard.
How much stuff is too much stuff? When does saving something for a rainy day become hoarding? Are you keeping hold of things because you're afraid of letting other things go?
Part happy, part sad, part silly, but altogether funny, 'The Hoard' is a stand-up comedy show about mess, junk and baggage – the stuff we accumulate, and the reasons why. This show from a local comic talent promises big things, or at least a lot of them.
Reuben Hunter is an ex-expat British-Australian stand-up comedian and serial-hyphenator. He did his first ever stand-up gig at the age of six at a church talent show. He then rested on his laurels for another thirteen years until his second ever performance as a part of Australia's national 'RAW' comedy competition. Since then, he's been on stage whenever and wherever he can. He's performed across Australia and the UK, gigging in New Zealand and the USA.
Now living and performing in UK, Reuben is undertaking a festival tour throughout 2018 and spends most of his time writing bios for festival listings.
“The first seed of the idea for this show was planted back at the end of 2014 when I was getting ready to move in with my girlfriend. I had to downsize the houseful of junk and clutter I’d been accumulating for seven years and was struggling to decide which stuff to keep and which to part with. I had the TV on showing reruns of A&E’s 'Hoarders', and although I didn’t have quite the same amount of stuff to get rid of as the people on that show, I could see them dealing with the same issues as I was.
“It made me realise this is something that a lot of people deal with – we all buy or accumulate things we don’t need, or develop attachments to otherwise useless objects, or find ourselves in a constant battle against household clutter.
“The show also talks about what I think of as ‘Emotional Hoarding’ – un-dealt-with feelings or memories that get packed away and buried deep down, and end up as the baggage that we carry around with us. I started thinking about this after losing a close family member to suicide, and I realised that the way I dealt with that loss bore a lot of similarities to the way I dealt with physical possessions, and there were a lot of connections there which would be interesting to explore.
“So the show does venture into some difficult areas, it’s a very personal piece of work for me. But I think it’s a story that is worth sharing, and I think people will get a lot out of it. Like an actual hoard, there’s a lot of stuff packed into the show, so I think most people will find something in it for them.”
