Why Paul Foot Has A Great Connection With The Royals

The comedy of Paul Foot is all about ideas — the weirder the idea the better. A comic genius of the surreal and cerebral, Foot approaches the business of making people laugh from an entirely different perspective than your run-of-the-mill purveyor of stand-up, his style bizarre, off-kilter and — assuming you're open to embracing weirdness — completely hilarious.

And this eccentricity extends far beyond the stage — he has a devoted following of acolytes referred to as 'The Guild Of Connoisseurs' back home for whom he holds secret gigs and events like subversive tea parties. The possessor of arguably the greatest mullet in contemporary popular culture, in conversation Foot is dry, deadpan and erudite, and also prone to wandering off on exceptional mental tangents.

"My hairstyle does let me down a bit, but I do have a sense about me of royalty."

"The show I'm coming down to do is sort of a round up of some of my best humour that I've ever brought to Australia, all blended into one show, because my new show will appear in Australia next year — in one year from now," he explains. "It's some of the best humour from the past. It will be nice actually. Some of the parts of Australia where I'm going to won't have seen it so it will be new to them anyway, and it's about four years since some of those pieces of humour have appeared in Melbourne, so unless people there have exceptionally good memories they won't remember seeing them anyway. So it's all new, really.

"And I'm really looking forward to coming to Australia again, because we love coming down there — when I say 'we' I mean in the sense of the 'royal we', referring to me and Prince William. Not that he's coming with me, it's just that I always like to mention my own name in the same breath as the royals. I see a great connection between me and the royals, although they're yet to see a connection with me — in fact, they've never heard of me. My hairstyle does let me down a bit, but I do have a sense about me of royalty. The only royal I have nothing in common with is Princess Anne — I have nothing in common with her. Not that I've met any of the other royals, but if I were to meet Princess Anne I just know that there would be a clash of personalities."

Foot can't fathom why the local Republican movement would want to break away from such a fascinating lineage.

"Obviously there are some people who say that Australia is a thriving democracy; an independent country many miles away from Britain, and a lot of its trade is done with America and Asia," he offers. "But obviously it would be ridiculous for you to have your own head of state — your head of state should be in London, obviously. It's just obvious, I don't even know why people are considering changing it. Clearly the head of Australia should live in London, and probably should never even visit Australia. You wouldn't want them getting too close to the people, that could prove disastrous."