Nick Cody

Fresh from a string of shows at the Brisbane Comedy Festival, Nick Cody is back in Melbourne and keen as mustard to deliver his latest effort, Here's Trouble. “It's a completely different show from last year: all new. There are stories of me going to Afghanistan in September, me almost getting killed by a bear in Alaska in the middle of last year, me just being an idiot getting into the wrong situation,” he laughs.

Not shy to take pot shots at his long-suffering girlfriend, Cody surprised himself by side-stepping relationship gags altogether in his new show. “I mustn't have thought to verbally tear her apart on stage this year,” he admits. Being the brunt of a stand-up comic's jokes would have to require a thick skin. “She loves it! She's Australian-French-Mauritian, so she's crazy. She's a big arguer, and I don't like arguing, so she'll yell at me and I'll just nod, and then turn it into a piece of material later, that's how I handle it,” he laughs. “I might not get the victory in the lounge room, but I'll get the victory in the comedy club.”
Being picked to perform for Aussie troops in Afghanistan last September has been the highlight of his career thus far. “I don't think I'll get the chance to go back to Afghanistan. Now that all the troops are gone there's no way I'd go by myself. I'm brave when there are 10,000 people with guns around me on my side – very brave then!”

The full medical requirement for his Afghanistan trip saw him dabbling with sobriety for three months last year, which took a lot of initial willpower and just a hint of deceit. The trick, Cody says, is fooling one's mates into believing one is drinking with them. “I would just get drinks that look like a drink. I would get a Coke in a small glass and people thought it was a Jack and Coke, or I'd just get a soda and lime, so people just thought it was a vodka, lime and soda. And because you haven't had booze for three months people look at you and go 'Oh mate, vodka lime and soda, no wonder why you've lost weight.' No... I just haven't had beers every day!”