Councillor and comedian Trent McCarthy has two offerings at this year’s Comedy Festival – Mo the Plumber and Returning Sudanese. I recently spoke with Trent about both shows and just how fine the line is between his two careers.
First up is Mo the Plumber, which is a political satire. Trent teams up with Mohammed El-Ieissey, who is from the original line up of Fear of a Brown Planet. They’re the same duo who collaborated to bring you the hit of the 2008 Fringe Festival, Who is Abdul Smith? which was a multicultural game show.
With a play on the ‘Joe the Plumber’ story from John McCain’s US election campaign, Mo plays a young Muslim plumber who is the ‘everyman’. It’s a similar type of story except in this case I play one of the Premier’s chief advisors – a political mover and shaker, one of the Hollowmen basically. There’s a leak in my bathroom and I can’t get anyone else in except for Mo the Plumber and he’s not even a registered plumber he’s just got a dodgy certificate off the Internet. While he’s there another leak happens – this time out of Parliament. So the big question is, will Mo save the day or will he throw a spanner in the works? It’s a bit like My Fair Lady (or Kenny) meets The Hollowmen. I turn him into a good political candidate.
When I question Trent about how much of his comedy material comes from his role as a councillor, he explains, The councillor role has kind of informed the Mo the Plumber show. It’s about what really goes on behind closed doors in that political world. Political comedy is about sometimes putting things on the agenda, and showing what’s been going on but not banging people over the head too much.
If you’re familiar with Trent’s work, you’ll notice this similarity in all of his shows. I’m doing a PhD in how to use comedy to create a culture of human rights so it’s my passion and all my comedy shows are actually research – how you can use comedy to get people thinking about issues differently. No joke is ever just a joke. It’s actually a tool for change. I feel that all comedians have got a moral responsibility to use their power for good not evil.
I can’t have a bad relationship with the audience says Trent. I have to feel like we’re doing something together, like we’re achieving something. Which ends up limiting you to a particular type of comedy, but there are enough 19 year old guys out there telling dick jokes, so I don’t need to touch that market.
Trent admits that you do need a sense of humour to get through the political world and it also comes in handy in his other role (how many does one guy need?) as a trainer in leadership for young people. I’d often have to use humour to break the ice and get people to feel comfortable. I trained as an actor originally but my whole comedy style comes from being in a room with people trying to make them feel comfortable.
It was this role that inadvertently led to the second of Trent’s 2009 MICF shows. I was speaking at an event organised by Rotary, and there was this guy by the name of Akoch who is actually in the Returning Sudanese show with me. About two months after this conference that I’d spoken at that he’d been at, I get this phone call from a mutual friend saying that Akoch wants you to teach him how to do leadership because he needs to teach the First Lady of Southern Sudan.
Before I knew it I was swept up in this world of The Lost Boys and that’s what the Turning Sudanese (2008) show was about. It’s about the experience of being invited to become part of something quite different to yourself. Getting to know people who have a totally different background, have different customs, totally different life and integrating into their world while they were trying to integrating into ours.
The new show, Returning Sudanese is about Akoch going back to Sudan for the first time in a decade, seeing his family, his village and having forgotten a lot of the customs and the awkwardness of that. From a refugee to being a visitor again. This is about someone who has had a really incredible experience.
Trent’s various vocations come with their own set of humorous implications. As the local councillor for Northcote, I have people coming up to now in the street in Northcote, and a lot of people know me through the comedy work and some people know me through the councillor work. Usually when they’re going to talk to you as a councillor, it’s because they want to have a go at you about something. Whereas with the comedy stuff it’s usually good. So, I’m always really edgy now when anyone says hello. You just kind of smile and hope for the best.
All the other councillors are really scared actually and are really careful about what they say around me, they’re worried I might be writing a play and I don’t even actually want to be a councillor at all, I’m just doing research.
Click here to find out more about The Lost Boys. For info and booking details on Trent’s shows go to Mo the Plumber or Returning Sudanese. Thank you to Trent McCarthy for his time.