Voice Of The People

Every year, from February to May, Australia becomes comedian Nirvana. From Adelaide Fringe, touring comics carve out a path around the country to Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth comedy festivals. Some UK-based comics have become very familiar faces in this way, and London-based Stephen K Amos is one of the most beloved.

“What a good time to come, when in England it's all about the snow and the sleet and the freezingness,” the comedian says from Melbourne where he is wrapping up and preparing for the next leg of his tour. He says this year's show, The Spokesman, started its life a few weeks ago in Adelaide and he will be taking it home to tour the UK after its Aussie run.

“It's about people who talk on behalf of other people – and we see in the news how this happens on a regular basis, like the Australian PM being challenged for her leadership, or the death of Margaret Thatcher this week,” he says.

Mrs Thatcher's death in particular has been huge news globally and Front Row has heard that comics are already folding jokes about it into their acts. 

“It's very hard to ignore by comedians, but the only gags that will survive are the clever ones,” Amos says. “All you have to do is look on Facebook or Twitter and see the divisiveness of this woman's legacy. People have lost friends over the comments that have been posted. It's incredible. Even people who weren't around during her leadership have something to say. I've kept out of it; I've not put anything out there because I don't think we should be heralding the death of anyone. One of the other big topics this year [among comedians] has been same-sex marriage and the fact that both the leader and the opposition leader are against it. My take on it is: isn't it weird that the leader herself isn't married – that raises quite a few eyebrows, what's she hiding herself? – and Abbott has a gay half-sister. Well, if you can't even respect what your own family wishes, then that says a lot about you.”

Amos says his new show has four or five periods of audience participation, which keeps it fresh for him; but despite his affinity for Australia, you won't find this man stooping to base gags about a city's shittiest suburb or any other local rivalries. “To be honest, that's not my thing,” he says. “If anything I'll talk about politics, or the news. I was watching the news last week and one of the main headlines was that in servos, the sales of pies have gone down and the sales of sausage rolls have gone up by four per cent. This, I found hilarious. That's about the extent of my local material.”

The comedian recently published his first book, a collection of anecdotes about growing up in London as part of a big family, under the title I Used To Say My Mother Was Shirley Bassey. “The Shirley Bassey reference is because when you were a kid from a big family, like myself, you had to do anything to get noticed and be popular,” Amos says. “One of the things I used to say was that my mum was Shirley Bassey. A little white lie. It worked for a while, people believed it, but it was back in a time in London where people thought that all black people looked the same. So when the teacher asked me to ask my mum to open the school fete, my actual mum opened the school fete.”

WHAT: Stephen K Amos: The Spokesman 
WHEN & WHERE: now to Sunday 21 April, MICF, Athenaeum VIC
Thursday 9 to Saturday 11 May, Enmore Theatre NSW
Thursday 16 to Sunday 18 May Astor Theatre WA