Art Talks - Paul Foot

“I've written a show and toured Britain since I last spoke with you. Now I'm back in Australia making art and performing a show.”

On the other end of the phone the Nutcracker Suite can be heard. Paul Foot is painting a picture and he's getting serious about the game of making people laugh. For those who know the absurdity that comes with this man's comedy, it's surprising that something stranger isn't happening. His comedic art, which has been likened to both genius and stupidity, gives his style a sense of cult class, a style people want to understand but most of the time can't comprehend.

“There is a craft to it. There is comedy which I'm developing which is like madness, which is the edge of meaning. It almost means something but not quite. So it's meaningful enough to be funny but meaningless enough to be hypnotic and not to encumber the listener with too many judgements.”

His exploration and departure from the bulk of the comic world, the obsession with observational and current issue funnies, has let him build his style without competition. He knows what he's about.

“My comedy for several years has been changing; not changing for the sake of it but gravitating towards a point. In last year's show I had Madness 1.0, and now I have Madness 2.0. And my next show, which Australia won't see until next year, will have Madness 3.0. Creativity is a fascinating sort of process. A lot of people ask me who inspires me, and it's not really anyone in comedy; it's more like Brahms inspires me, and Sibelius. They seem to understand my head.

“In the latest show there is a rant on toast. There is comedy about how life is a pilafa. There is rookery-based comedy on getting into the rookery.” He's also painting in his show, but he has got another name for it. “They are called disturbances. The disturbances are sort of human, I read them off the back of a card then decorate the other side of them. They are quite involved some of them. A lot of people think the show is random, but it takes a long of time to make a show that looks random and holds together.”