Helen Thorn is Arty Farty
An interview with Helen Thorn
“Arty Farty is a show about trying to make it in the arts…it’s a klutz guide to jazz ballet, to playing the recorder to doing really daggy performance art, and it’s all about celebrating the failures in art,” says Helen Thorn about her new Melbourne Comedy Festival show. “My show is about celebrating the awkward moments and the humiliations of being with the arts,” she adds, “which I think about ninety five [percent] of the population can share ‘cause I think we’ve all tried a bit of arts and failed and given up, it just those crazy virtuosos who’ve made a living out of it, she says, adding “it’s hamming up…the experiences that I think people take quite seriously”
Helen has had a wide range of experiences working in the arts herself. Amongst other things she’s worked for art galleries, silk scarf producers and taught movement to people with disabilities, and she says these experiences have informed her current show. “I’ve got enough material to make a show out of all my own experiences of being a complete loser, an arty spas I think I like to call myself” she says.
Although mainly stand up, Helen says that this show incorporates “little cameo’s of arty characters, they’re not really the main focus point, more sort of like an illustration of my experiences and my stand up is broken up into four parts…in which I’ll be playing an arty farty child, a person that I’ve met in the arts as a child, someone at university and someone who I’ve worked with.”
In 2005 Helen performed in the MICF supported Comedy Zone, which saw her perform with financial and promotional support as well as having the benefit of a director. This year she is stepping outside of that nurturing environment. “It’s scary and it’s expensive,” says Helen, “but kind of exciting…it’s much harder and there isn’t that safety net anymore…but the thing is that when the highs are high they’re all mine…and that’s exciting.”
For a dose of art culture, farty style, check out the booking details for this show at Helen Thorn is Arty Farty