Trial-Blazer

“Fuck! I have to do another show? And this time I only have three months to write it?!” So begins Rhys Nicholson, who in the Fringiest of ways is going to run a bunch of new material, and see what sticks.

Earlier this year, Nicholson won the Time Out Award for Best Newcomer at the Sydney Comedy Festival for his show, Almost a Person. The Louie C.K and Sarah Silverman admirer says that his focus has really changed for this time around. “Last year I did a show where I was single and everything was fucked. This year I have a show where I have a boyfriend and everything is fucked.

“It was weird. I met my boyfriend while I was doing Almost A Person. Then he came to Melbourne with me – so I would be up on stage whinging about how I was single and desperate, then we would go get some Thai food and go home.”

Luckily, Nicholson's new man can deal with being the subject of his new show. “I buy him a blazer from time to time, so he gets his reward.”

At 22, Nicholson has been quick to find his own voice. “I try and make my comedy – if that's what you could call it. More kind of a parade of terrible ideas – as personal as possible… I don't really do jokey-jokes. A lot of bad cock-based one-liners, but I try and keep it autobiographical.”

Part of the process, he reckons, has been honing his look. “It's as if David Bowie raped a bogan. That's what happened. And it's all about blazers – yeah, I'm really only doing comedy to fund a blazer addiction. Some comedians have a coke problem, weed problem, drinking problem. I just like Jack London.”

The road to world domination might be a messy affair. “I think I just want an entourage of older homosexual gentlemen, because they seem to be the ones that come to my shows… Hang around Oxford St for long enough and you're going to get a sugar daddy whether you want it or not.

“When we did the last show at the Comedy Store it was the first time that I saw who my audience was. It was the weirdest mix of old gay men and then, like, 40 to 50 year-old housewives… Just older women who hate their husbands who come to have 'cock' yelled at them for 55 minutes just so they know their still alive.

“Hey, I'm happy have them.”

But Nicholson's still working out how to make his material fit this new-found niche. “I feel like my audience are the people that watch The Circle. Or used to watch The Circle. Maybe I should put ads in the middle of my shows for Pyjama Jeans and the Sham-Wow… At the moment my shows are filthy, bad, theatre. Like Marrickville Community Centre does some sort of awful sex play.”

So what's on the cards in the future for this young up-and-comer? “Hopefully success. But if not, I'll just go back to doing heroin… Nah, I never did heroin. But if you wanna print that and it gives me an edge, go ahead… yep, heroin with Greg Fleet.”