Flacco & Sandman: Sand Up Comedy.

Flacco & Sandman: Unwanted Dead Or Alive runs at the Powerhouse Theatre until August 25.

I choose to start this story now… The characters of Flacco and The Sandman have been with us now since the 1980s. While their bizarre take on life often found their characters intertwined, it’s now been eight years since Paul Livingston (Flacco) and Stephen Abbott (Sandman) have played a live show here in sunny Vegas. While the unlikely duo most recently found their niche as part of Good News Week, the departure of the program as well as the end of Sandman’s tenure with Triple J has left a comedic void. With Unwanted Dead Or Alive the pair are back on stage doing what they do best.

“Bizarrely enough, I’m about to head to Siberia for an SBS program with my mother,” Abbot explained. “My Grandmother was born there, so I’m re-tracing my roots I suppose, and I’m taking my mother with me, who is the real Sandman. I’m going to do it as myself, but if people are interested they’ll see where the character comes from. My mother’s the inspiration for the character.”

When Paul was in Brisbane last working on Emma’s Nose at La Boite he indicated he’d gotten tired of the daily grind of stand up comedy.

“I think we both had, in a way, which is why we’re in a theatre doing a season rather than a one off. Our show is somewhere between theatre and stand up comedy. It’s both, but it’s neither. We’re getting on in years, and you don’t want to be on the road ten months of the year. We hadn’t been to Brisbane as a act since 1994, so it’s time.”

Why do you think Flacco and Sandman are so compatible as characters?

“I’m afraid to analyse that,” Stephen jokes. “I think we’re like a classic vaudeville couple. Like the Odd Couple. I think I’m the brains and he’s the trained dog, but really it’s the other way around. It’s just fun to work with someone. It’s more enjoyable to go on a tour with a buddy. We’re really great friends off stage. I find him incredibly funny. He makes me wet my pants laughing all the time. We babble on in character together.”

Is it hard to stay deadpan and keep in character when you’re making each other laugh?

“It is. I always drop out of character. That’s one of the fun things live. That happens. I do stay in character, but I’m a giggling Gertie really. If he makes me laugh I laugh and that’s the way it is. On television the fear of getting lost and forgetting your lines and looking like a complete idiot is always there.”

Because that can’t happen on stage in front of a live audience…

“But that’s good. That’s when the show comes alive, I reckon. People know it’s an act, and I just let them in on the act a bit.”

Is there a special dynamic between your characters?

“I think that was the case on television. I think we entertain each other, and that’s a good starting point. He’s got a great surreal mind, and I think I’m a shrewd observer of human nature, which makes for a great whole. Hopefully people will see another side to us that what you get from TV or radio.”

Do you find people have difficulties divorcing the characters from who you both are as individuals?

“Certainly when people meet you for the first time. Especially when we were on television. People we’re surprised I don’t speak like Bernie Fraser. Paul isn’t scary. We’re just two suburban guys, really.”

Do people have a certain expectation of what they’ll get when they come and see you?

“I think so, and they may well be disappointed,” he laughs. “Sandman is different live than on radio or television. I think I’m wilder live. I’d hope so, anyway.”

To be continued…