Danielle Walker, Angus Gordon And Sam Taunton Join Comedy's Big Leagues

While the road to success is a long one for those making their start in comedy, what comes next can be even more taxing. For post-fledgling stand-ups Danielle Walker, Sam Taunton and Angus Gordon - and dozens more like them - graduating from amateur to professional comic means no more messing around. After all, being funny is a serious business.

"I've probably jumped in far faster than anyone should," says Taunton, "but I've managed not to be called out yet." The Sydney-based comic says of writing his second show, It's Nice, It's Modern, "The first show was this build up of good material that I could form into a show that way. But this time, I just had this one little idea, one little bit that I started doing at gigs, and then it's grown and grown until I was ready to do it as a show."

Walker, on the other hand, is where Taunton was just one year ago. Bush Rat is her first ever solo show, and while she's rich with material, the Queensland-born comedian knows she still needs to take risks. "I used to get excited about doing comedy because I wanted to get on stage and make people laugh. But now I know that I can do that. The high for me now comes when I write a brand new bit and trying to make people laugh with that," she explains. Gordon, who took home the coveted Best Newcomer gong at last year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, is also unique in circumstance: "When I started, I described my style as self-hate erotica. I think the self-loathing has abated now, but my comedy is perhaps, still at its core, an exploration of violence. If there is a difference, it's one that reflects my growth as a person between 19 and 25."

"When I started, I described my style as self-hate erotica. I think the self-loathing has abated now."

Though the trio have put in the hard yards, slumming the open mic and unpaid circuits, they assert that the biggest change in their comedy comes from realising the value of sticking to your guns. "It's about what's fun for me, too" Walker says confidently. "Like, the silly jokes for me are the most fun. There are jokes that I like that have the hard-hitting punchlines and it really means something, but also it's not as fun as the image of a pig dressed up inside the Pope-mobile." Gordon says of his own upbringing in the craft, "I jumped all-in to comedy from the get-go. I would perform or go to gigs to watch every night of the week, so I think it very quickly just felt like, 'This is just what I do now.'"

Conversely, Taunton has an awareness of audiences that many do not initially consider: "When you start out, you don't really realise that people can laugh and you're actually not being that funny. You can be funny and make people laugh with something that is genuinely funny and relevant to you, or you can do this sort of trickery with hacky jokes or whatever, and people will laugh, even though you're not actually being funny," he explains. "What I'm doing now is what I actually think is funny. When I started I would just do anything that would make people laugh, whereas now I feel like I'm really saying something. It's all dumb stories but I'm actually saying something and it's actually interesting." Gordon adds on this subject, "My first gig went very badly. I completely froze on stage, like I felt like I couldn't physically speak for about 30 seconds. But once I got my first, very sympathetic, laugh, I was ok."

While the three are some of the most unique voices in Aus comedy, there are times when even they admit that being true to yourself is not as straightforward as it may seem. "When you start, you are just ripping other people off," confesses Taunton. "If you're consuming comedy in that way, you're always taking things on board, and you get influenced in the same way as any kind of work. But it's just a lot more visible with comedy." Gordon laughs, "I write jokes I think would work better for other people fairly regularly," before adding, "I think comedy is an exploration of who you are as a person, so it's only limiting in the way being stuck in your own body and with your personality can sometimes feel like a trap."

"I think I was lucky in that I never really watched much stand-up before I did it myself," Walker says of her own journey in comedy. "I think a lot of people are like, 'I want to be Bill Burr! I want to be Bill Hicks!' like, why would anyone want a Homebrand version of that?"

Taunton says that the antidote to accidental imitation is just good old-fashioned hard work. "There's no other way around it," he affirms. "It's really about the flight hours you put in. It's doing that apprenticeship, getting up and slogging it every night and getting better and better until you get very comfortable on stage, and you feel like you can just roll with the punches." Walker agrees, adding, "Because I've had the experiences on stage over the last few years, I'm more confident in my abilities. I have the confidence in any new material to go out and do it and know the crowd will most likely back me." For Gordon, any stray from his original surroundings is a good thing. "I moved to Melbourne for more stage time and I think to try and escape the Brisbane Pokie dens where I started doing comedy. I think in my head I am still playing for working-class audiences who implicitly understand what I'm doing but are not entertained by it. If there is anything interesting about what I do, it's that struggle."

As the comedic scene around them rapidly changes, Walker, Taunton and Gordon are able to look back on their passage into their chosen profession and know just how much they've changed. For Taunton, it's simple: "I'm a lot funnier now... I think." For Gordon, "I don't think there is a huge difference in tone, but maybe more maturity?" And for the Melbourne-based Walker? "I didn't drink coffee before, and now I have cold brew in my house."

Danielle Walker, Sam Taunton & Angus Gordon play the Brisbane Comedy Festival from 27 Feb, and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from 28 March.