"If we just keep bothering Trump and annoying him he might just go away."
American comic Eddie Ifft may be a frequent guest to our country, but the stand-up is figuring out that the land Down Under still has some surprises up its sleeve. "I mean, beside the fact that I almost cut my finger off while surfing this morning, I'm doing pretty good," he laughs. "Oh, also I nearly hit a shark! It was crazy."
"I detest having to do it, being an adult. Man, I'd love to be an idiot forever."
Touring his new show Man Child across the country, Ifft confesses that as he gets older, he may not necessarily be getting wiser. "I've just had a daughter and [the show] is all about growing up and responsibility and being a good member of society — and how much I hate and detest it." He admits that while he loves his daughter unconditionally, he yearns for a simpler time, saying, "I love being a fuck-up! I'm 45 and still I skateboard, I surf, the other day the river behind my house flooded and we went riding down it on an inner tube. I detest having to do it, being an adult. Man, I'd love to be an idiot forever."
The US comedian also says he can't ignore a much more prevalent "man child" that's taken up shop back in his home country. "Yeah, they say the first sign of the apocalypse is the antichrist and I think, yeah, he might be here." But Ifft also thinks comedy can help the cause, and, "If we just keep bothering Trump and annoying him he might just go away. That's the only thing he really responds to is being agitated."
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Being in Aus has given Ifft's material about the state of the States new life. "It's exciting, really," He muses. "I just did some stuff in the US and it didn't go down well at all and I was tossing and turning, thinking about whether it's even funny and whether or not I should just get rid of it all, but then I did it last night and it was fantastic. I just realised 'Oh, Americans are idiots! That's why it wasn't working!'"
Regardless of whether Man Child holds any poignancy, Ifft is still more interested in the jokes, saying, "If people come, and they laugh their asses off, that's all I really care about. But I guess if they leave with something to think about that's kind of cool, too."