Edinburgh Fringe previews 2011: Sam Simmons

 

[Sam]...I got slammed in a review in The Times today which was really nasty, completely didn’t understand what I was doing. It’s the worst review I’ve ever received so I’ve been pretty fucking shitty all day, to tell you the truth.

 

 

I have to change something tonight, which I didn’t want to do. I think it’s taken a while for the audience to…I don’t know whether it’s something about an Australian being absurd that’s freaking them out, but I think what I have to do is just go straight on – and I hate doing this – but do something at the start of the show to say ‘ hey, here’s the show’, because I think people are freaking out because it’s such a weird, dark start to the show. And it’s why I love it, it’s like a film with what I’m doing on stage, but now I feel like I have to go ‘hey, I’m a clown, funny man, funny man’, and then people will go with me on the journey. Otherwise all the way through they’ll just be thinking, he’s a bit weird. I’ve been thinking that for the last few nights anyway. 

 

 

The UK in general, it happened in Edinburgh last year as well. Maybe it’s because audiences elsewhere know me so they’re more aware of what I’m going to do. Maybe here because I’m an unknown.

 

 

Well, I’ve not touched it since the end of last year actually. I’ve been doing Meanwhile for a bit, in Adelaide and Melbourne. I’m looking forward to ending Fail, just for a bit, because it’s been a bit of a strange one here. But I can’t wait to start my new show because it’s fucking good. It sounds really arrogant but it’s a really good show. I’ve done it through festivals already and I hadn’t finished it. I took the prize in Adelaide and nominated for the award in Melbourne and I hadn’t even finished the show then, so it’s a huge confidence booster coming to Edinburgh and going, right, I can put on something pretty good.

 

 

Not really because I’ve been completely away from it. It’s actually about some pretty dark stuff in my family, something I don’t actually go into on stage, so it’s very strange going back to it because of that. No, I’m just up for doing something new. I’ve only done four nights at Soho but it’s been pretty odd. Pretty much the most disrespectful thing I’ve had happen to me on stage in seven years of doing this was in Soho the other night. 

 

There were two older women in the audience, and maybe it just wasn’t their cup of tea, but at the end during the applause they just sat there with their arms folded and glared at me. And I thought, woah, that’s really nasty.

 

 

It’s a fucking good show, I know that. It’s shocking, I was just thinking, fucking hell, you dirty old skanks, just fuck off.

 

 

I work for a radio station back in Australia – it’s a really important station especially for rural kids back home because there’s not much to do in small country towns any more than in a village here. I got a letter from a kid from near me who wrote about how he was depressed and how he was socially awkward, and how does he make friends, and do I know the secret to making a friendship. Pretty sad, and I didn’t want to make it into a poignant show as that would be pretty stupid.

 

But I rang him up and had a chat to him, got his family to come to the show, and thought, why not put it out there to the people who listen to Triple J? And that's what I base the show on, letters that I read out. I give out advice that might be bright or stupid. Meanwhile all the way through we cut to stuff that's happening all over the planet. Have you ever seen Amelie, the orgasm scene? I pretty much try to condense all these wild moments happening all over the planet into one hour. So meanwhile in Afghanistan, meanwhile in Belarus, as an audio thing. It's really cool and works really well, it's absurd and stupid, and it's a good show to do after doing a dark show. It's nice to do something a bit fluffier.

 

 

No I haven't. I've slipped into Fail just to see how it goes. I'm pretty confident about how it will be received over here. I've made my mistakes with my last two Edinburghs and how to approach that.

 

 

It's like there's a reverse racism against Australians being absurd. I consider myself a blue-collar suburban absurdist from Australia. We're pretty silly people too. But I feel this strange vibe when I'm doing stupid stuff. I can't work it out. It's probably because you've got to be really fucking good to get ahead here if you're Australian.

 

 

I'm sure there might be some tweaking, but I'm pretty confident with what it is. I'd like to just say that's what it is. You should just do whatever you want to do, not try to appease...I know I'm never going to be a big mainstream comic. I'm going to do it for me, it's not for them, or you.

 

 

Yeah, definitely.

 

 

I've done it, I love it. I just think they're a bit scared of having me back again. I split the room quite violently. There were people standing up and cheering and people standing up and booing. It was great and I loved it. Someone came up afterwards and said oh my God that was awesome, do you want to come back next week. And I think I was feeling a bit fragile and didn't, but I am happy to jump up and do anything. 

 

I had so many people enjoy the show, my ticket sales just spiked afterwards. I know on the stage it's going to be memorable to catch what I do at all because it's really different.

 

 

I'm hoping Nick Sun will be up again. I'd like to see Josie Long as well, because she's doing something I think is quite cool, the arts rage bullshit. I'd like to just go see the randoms you've never heard of. I'm not a huge fan of stand-up. 

 

 

Yeah. Well, I did it for cash, I didn't just corrupt my body. We raised about AU$12,000, which is about £4 million at the moment for animal research. I don't regret it but I do, but it's in the past, so, whatever.

 

 

I really, really don't know. Whatever. I've got some stuff back at home. What I'd really like to do is make some animal documentaries, because I used to be a zookeeper. Have Animal Planet or the BBC go, here's some cash, off you go to Botswana. That's the passion, being able to present it in a pretty fun, different way to what's been done before. This industry is pretty fickle; I miss my animals and I miss my zoo mates.

 

 

Yeah, I know a few of the keepers there already, they're lovely.