English comedian Tom Allen is a snob, and proud of it. The only problem is, he's dirt poor.
“I describe myself as posh-sounding, snooty and gay but due to financial situations I find myself living at home with my very ordinary, working-class parents in suburban Bromley, which is a south-east suburb on the outskirts of London,” Tom says.
While living at home can have its perks, Tom says his taste for the finer things in life can be a sticking point with the folks.
“For example, when they're redecorating and I would say something like 'what theme are you going to go for with this room?', and they'd probably say 'magnolia', whereas I would say something like 'have you thought about a mid-century Danish theme?' and they will say 'why don't you get your own f...ing house?'”
This comedy season brings Tom to Australia with his new show 'Absolutely'. Although it will be his live solo performance debut here, Tom's no stranger to our beautiful country and already professes a deep love for the city of Adelaide and its surrounds.
“I have visited [Australia] before because my aunt and all my cousins live in Adelaide and along the coast from Adelaide, so I have a great fondness for Australia and particularly that area. I know people look down on Adelaide but I'm very defensive of it and I've always had a lovely time there.”
Tom's upcoming visit has him performing at Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Sydney Comedy Festival.
“I love being in Australia, I love the openness people have with communicating with one another, by which I mean they tell you what they think, and I think that's admirable,” he comments.
“I also very much enjoy the snobbiness of cities like Melbourne and Sydney; I think Melbourne has some great snobby ways.”
With his disparaging and acerbic wit, not to mention his dapper dress sense, Tom is taking camp humour to an all-new riotous level. Though most people don't rate snobbery particularly high on their list of favourable personality traits, Tom believes it's something that actually brings people together rather than dividing them, as he explains.
“I aways describe myself as being quite snooty and haughty but always confined by my circumstances,” he says.
“I have no right to be snooty or haughty, but I feel like it's something unifying about humanity that we all have the ability to look down on one another.
“Usually in a very harmless way, but we all have this air of, 'oh no, well of course we would never fold our napkins like that' or 'oh no, we would never wear sneakers on a Sunday'.
“The fact is that you can have as high an opinion of yourself as you like but at the end of the day you can still suffer road rage, as I do, and you can still be told to shut up by your parents.”
