The Circle Of Laughs

23 July 2014 | 5:03 pm | Baz McAlister

Matt Okine celebrates a decade as a stand-up comedian this year, and the journey has taken him to a wealth of unexpected places.

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Being the voice of triple j breakfast, along with Alex Dyson, has meant a bit of sleep deprivation for Matt Okine as he balances his radio duties with his stand-up career. This year’s recent festival season was intense as he rose at 4.30am, knocked off after lunchtime, snatched some sleep, got up to do his nightly show, then more sleep. “It all blended into one big weird night-and-day,” Okine says, “but it worked out well.”

So well, in fact, that the Brisbane-born comedian is doubling down with a tour of the country, going off the beaten path and hitting some regional venues. “Because triple j goes out all across Australia, I can now go to the places where before I didn’t know if there would be anyone who would want to see the show.” 

While he’s amped for every show on the tour, he says Hobart has a special place in his heart. “There’s always something going on there – little festivals, art galleries,” he says. “And it’s not as mean-spirited as bigger cities can be. I also think I have a special attachment to it because it’s the last place I went on holiday with my mum, before she died, when I was 12. Every now and then, even though I’m kidding myself, I will go on to realestate.com and see how much places there are to live in. If I get to the stage where I feel like I’ve done enough at triple j and don’t want to be in the middle of it all any more, I could just pack up and move to Hobart at any time!”

This year marks Okine’s milestone of a decade doing stand-up. One of the events that spurred him into giving it a go was going to see Wil Anderson’s stand-up show at Brisbane Powerhouse in 2003. “It was my very first stand-up show ever [as an audience member],” Okine says. “At that time I knew Wil Anderson from triple j, listened to him every morning. And my girlfriend at the time bought tickets because we’d talked about how much we loved stand-up and loved that show. And nine years later [in 2013] I’m calling him up going ‘Dude, I just got offered triple j, is it something I should do?’ In a way it really did come full circle.”

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When The Music suggests that on this tour, Okine’s triple j replacement ten years down the line might be in the front row, he laughs. “Now I’m really nervous,” he says. “Every single kid I see in the show I’ll be like ‘Is it you? Are you going to be calling me in ten years? I hope you enjoy my show!’” 

The pièce de résistance will come right at the tour’s end, when he plays the Spiegeltent during Brisbane Festival. “When I was making crap rap records in my bedroom back in 2003, before I even started comedy, I was sending my terrible demos in as applications to be a part of Brisbane Festival. So just to be a part of it now is very special.”

Catch Matt Okine while he's in Tasmania next month:

August 8: Launceston Fresh On Charles

August 9: Waratha Hotel, Hobart