One of the great joys of interviewing artists is their strong drive to be unique individuals. As if predestined, they forge themselves away from the “safe job” and embark on a career path that has many uncertainties. They challenge and question the world around us and this is so important to art and our way of life.
Our penultimate 2009 Adelaide interview today is with the erudite Alexis Dubus, who skillfully enlightens us on, “A Bl**dy Brief History of Swearing”. Showing at the Cockoo Bar in Hindley Street at the 2009 Adelaide Fringe, Alexis is on each night till the 22nd March. So let’s put our 10 Questions to Alexis…
1. What inspired you to become a comedian?
I suppose watching the greats on TV as a child – Monty Python, Spike Milligan, Morecambe & Wise, Peter Cook – people who made it all look so deceptively simple, which I know now, of course, it isn’t.
2. What’s your show about and what should the public expect from your show at the 2009 Adelaide Fringe?
Exactly what you’d expect from the title – all our favourite four-letter words explained – where they come from, how they’ve gained and lost taboo over the centuries, and how and why we use them in the first place. Contains swearing and scenes of mild peril.
3. What was the last Fringe or Festival you performed at and what was it like?
Edinburgh Fringe 2008 – an amazing, if wet time. I picked up a little award for the show and got some lovely reviews, but I’m still wringing my jeans out to this day. I think we had about 3 days of sunshine – a good Scottish summer!
4. What are your funniest and worst experiences performing in front of an audience?
I think these two experiences can be summed up in one gig – doing a guest spot for a bizarre Long Island alternative comedy group on the outskirts of the Edinburgh Fringe. And when I say alternative, I had to follow a midget riding a hobby horse in a nappy, then a man shuffling on dressed as the Pope and vomiting on the stage. How do you follow that?!
5. What’s the best and worst advice you have ever been given? And did you follow it?
The best advice? To never show fear. You can be having the worst time up there but you’ve still got to be in control of the proceedings. Audiences can smell fear a mile off, and that can be the turning point of a gig. I can’t think of any bad advice in particular, but what annoys me is certain newer comedians who seem to think there’s some kind of fast-track system to being a good comic, like they can just skip a couple of stages in the training period. It’s a trade you have to learn, like any other, and you’ve got to put in the time. It’s well worth it though for the thrills you get along the way.
6. What are you most proud of and what dreams or goals would you like to fulfill?
I guess I’m most proud of a show I consider good enough to transport to the other side of the world. I had no idea it would be such a success, and for all that my teachers and elders said about swearing limiting my vocabulary, I’m now making a living out of it! My goal is to carry on getting away with it for as long as possible…
7. Which three famous people would you invite to dinner and why? And what culinary dish would you prepare?
Am I allowed dead celebrities? They’d be alive for the dinner, obviously. Would be a bit weird otherwise. I guess the world’s great explorers, like Sir Walter Raleigh, Jacques Cousteau and Neil Armstrong, to hear what it’s like to be the first to discover this incredible uncharted territory, straight from the horse’s mouth. Our generation is so used to being able to see anything and everything at the click of a button that a certain sense of wonder’s been taken away from the world.
Oh, and beans on toast probably. They’re all used to roughing it and I wouldn’t want to miss any of the conversation by being stuck in the kitchen.
8. What is the best book or books you have read and why?
I remember finding the Dice Man by Luke Reinhart quite a remarkable book when I first read it many years ago. I love the nonchalance and irreverence of it.
9. Tell us 5 interesting and unknown facts about yourself?
1. I’m a little bit Australian and a little bit French. My Mum’s side of the family’s actually come from Adelaide – can’t wait to go back, 20 years since I was last there.
2. I’ve previously performed stand-up in a swimming pool, an elevator and the most haunted pub in Scotland.
3. I can do a pretty fine Donald Duck impression.
4. I’m also a semi-professional photographer. I recently had my first published commission in the UK, for a book about sprouts.
5. I love music, but sadly can’t play a note myself. Most of my idols throughout my life have been musicians – Morrissey, Ryan Adams, Ben Folds, Neil Hannon from Divine Comedy…
10. If you could change one thing about the world what would it be?
I’d love to put a stop to the general dumbing-down of our mass media. We have these incredibly powerful tools to educate and enlighten, and yet we’re getting force-fed reality TV, ‘talent’ shows and irrelevant celebrity gossip. The younger generation’s attention span is being constantly shrunk and the morons are slowly taking over…
Tags: Adelaide 2009, Alexis Dubus, comedians, comedy history, Dumbing down Australia, Dumbing down the world, Dumbing down UK