"I am the most alternative comic in Australia." Emma McAlpine speaks to Sam Simmons about winning over Aussie audiences, his London debut and that goat tattoo on his bottom...
Sam Simmons is jetlagged. Having flown into London from Sydney a few days ago, he’s still struggling to get his body clock back to normal. “Last night I fell asleep at 5pm and woke up at two in the morning! I've been up since then. I had to flush all my valium down the toilet because when I first got off the plane, I drank a whole bottle of Chardonnay, took six pills and ended up sitting out on my roof at 3am, feeling pretty out of it.”
The Australian comic is over here to do a run of his award-winning 2010 show Fail at the Soho Theatre. Inspired by a really bad day when his girlfriend dumped him, he had $14 in his bank account and (to cap it all off) dropped a Selllotape dispenser on his foot, it’s a mind-boggling hour of surreal genius, exhilarating madness and frenetic energy. It’s also very funny; the kind of twisted comedy that makes you consistently burst out laughing without any real notion of why.
It was such a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe last year that Simmons has been invited to perform it in the West End next week – his London debut. Despite the show’s success however, he seems nervous about it today, although he concedes, it might be the 'jetlag paranoia.' "It's going to be weird next week. It's been a year since I last performed it and it's a bit of a dark show. I'm not even upset anymore! But it will be interesting to go back to it. Being removed from the sad stuff might make it extra good."
Having caught the show in Edinburgh last year, I’m not quite sure what I expected Simmons to be like. A little bit bonkers perhaps. In fact, he’s very down-to-earth, friendly and jovial (despite the jetlag). He’s led a pretty interesting life so far too; previous job titles include ‘clown’ and ‘zoo-keeper’. Does he ever miss working in a zoo? “Not hugely. I miss the people there. Comedy mates are fun but it can be a bit fickle and competitive sometimes.”
Recently, he did a 24-hour radio show in Sydney, where as well as staying awake, he had to complete various ‘tasks’ like eating the world’s worst toasted sandwich (sardines, cheese and musk-flavoured sweets if you want to know) and fight the ultimate fighting champion. “He really hurt me! I elbowed him really hard in the sternum and then he went mad and tried to emasculate me.” He even got a goat tattooed on his buttock. Why a goat? “Because I requested a live goat had to be in the studio for the last hour if they were going to make me do all this shit.” Fair enough.
Simmons started performing stand-up in 2003, but instead of looking to his predecessors for inspiration, he forged his own mark on the comedy circuit. He tells me unique style developed from an inability to remember long routines. “I had to use musical cues and props to remember stuff and then just started doing my own thing I guess. I like pure stand-up if it's really awesome, but I'm not a huge fan of it to be honest.”
Since then, he's won dozens of awards in Australia for his inventive and daring shows, but he hasn't always been so well-recieved. While the alternative comedy scene has been alive and kicking in the UK for some time, Simmons is still a fairly unique act back home. “Aussies don't like really absurd stuff. They freak out! I am the most alternative comic in Australia. Apart from Nick Sun (my favourite stand-up), there's not many coming through. There's a lot of whimsy and story-telling still. Kitson's got a lot to answer for!”
After a long period of confused faces and room-splitting, he admits the tide has “really turned”. He wasn’t planning on returning to the Edinburgh Fringe this year but his management told him he would be crazy not to. It’s lucky for us he listened to them, because it sounds like he’s got a heck of a show up his sleeve. “The new show is very different. When I tested it in Melbourne and Adelaide before it was even finished, it went really well, which is awesome! It's my favourite so far I think and it's got the best finale ever – I'm so proud of it. All I'll say about it is 'Old El Paso Taco kits'. It's pretty far out.”
Then, after a month in Edinburgh, he’ll be returning to Sydney to work on an animal mockumentary series for the BBC, a “cross between The Trials of Life by David Attenborough and Neighbours”. It looks like the rest of 2011 is going to be very busy for Sam Simmons. After wracking my brain to think of some good visitor’s suggestions for him (I mean, it’s not as if I work for a London events website), I leave him to catch up on some sleep. I think he’s going to need it.
Sam Simmons: Fail is at the Soho Theatre from Monday 18th-Saturday 30th July.
Return to the London Comedy homepage
Add an event
Scoping Out London’s Coolest Historic Bingo Halls
London’s bingo halls were once a bustling part of many of the city’s communities, but as...