Charlie Pickering is returning to Melbourne with his brand new show ‘Thirteen Ducks’. He spoke to Annette Slattery about standup, storytelling and style. However, somewhat suprisingly, there was little talk of ducks.
The last few years have seen you oscillate between stand up, theatrics and, particularly storytelling? Where does your new show ‘Thirteen Ducks’ fall into this scheme of things?
It is definitely tending back towards standup. I basically set out to do a standup show with some story elements. As it turns out, even when I just do standup I end up telling stories anyway. It’s just how my brain works, I suppose. It is nice, though, to be able to talk about politics again. I haven’t done that for a while.
How important is it to push your work stylistically?
Well, I’m not sure how it is for other comedians or for audiences, but to me personally it’s important. I never want an audience to come to one of my shows and feel like they’re seeing the same thing they saw last year. I like each show to feel different to the last. For this show, my challenge is getting back into a standup mode after telling longer stories for so long. If I’m out of my comfort zone, it stops me getting bored and makes my shows better.
The last few years have seen you win more and more international attention. In appearing in international comedy festivals in countries as diverse as Scotland, South Africa and New Zealand, how do find it coming back to Melbourne? Is it still as exciting and frightening as it was when you were comedy-baby-Charlie?
It’s possible not quite as frightening, but there are still pressures. New pressures, I suppose. Before the pressure was to not die and do a show that people would actually want to watch. Then it was about improving and trying to get more people in to see it. Now, as I move into a bigger venue, there is the new pressure of doing a show that can work to a bigger audience and keep drawing people in. It’s also a little nerve-wracking because it’s my home town and a feel a certain responsibility to do something good.
What can audiences expect from Thirteen ducks?
In a word ‘fun’. This show is meant to be more playful that some of the last few shows. I want to basically just make people laugh for an hour. That said, as it turns out I do talk a bit about racism and politics, but in as playful a way as I can. I’ll also be giving myself room to improvise more. The last couple of shows have been a little locked in to a structure and I’m looking forward to breaking out of that.
For booking details for Charlie’s new show Thirteen Ducks check out the Melbourne Comedy Festival website here