Annette Slattery interviews Dave Thornton.
I remember seeing you perform in a tiny comedy room when you first came back to Australia from the UK. Since then you’ve been nominated for awards and had numerous TV appearances. How has this changed your audience?
Ah yes the ole Muse bar on the corner of Inkerman st & Williams Road. If I recall we performed in the stage with a window behind us. People must’ve thought we were the most animated manikins ever.
I think the main difference in audience members is now some of them are sober, sure not all of the time but some of them. On more of a serious note I believe every comic’s audience grows up with him or her. Now people who come to see me are a little bit older and possibly a little bit wiser. Hopefully not too much wiser or I’ve lost them.
You ran your own room, TGIF, for a while. Does this make you appreciate how difficult it is to work behind the scenes in comedy?
Absolutely. Trying to book comics, making sure people turn up, making the bar owner happy- it’s all very difficult to balance. I remember we ran that room (it was called TGIF for ‘thank god it’s funny’ Fridays. I’m still waiting for the law-suit because we must’ve breached some kind of trademark laws with that name) but we took too many drinking customers away from the regular Friday nights so we had to move to a Thursday. It was still TGIF Thursdays. That name didn’t even make sense for God’s sake!!
Your show is called “Never Sweat”. Can we expect your typical, laid back persona in this show?
Yes but now it’s honed. I’ve been method living now for 29 years to get that persona just right.
Tell us about “Never Sweat”.
My father, who owned and ran a cleaning business, called me ‘Never Sweat’ because I never worked hard enough to perspire. I tried to help him out with mopping and such but word to the wise- if you want a teenager to work hard do not surround him with the vapours of cleaning agents and chemicals!! Dad thought I was lethargic yet I was really tripping out like Hendricks at Woodstock.
He always said I hated manual labour and people can come along and see how I dodged doing hard work for a living- by telling jokes for a living.
For more info and booking details go to Never Sweat