Lawrence Mooney Admits "It Was Sort Of Thrilling" To Be At The Centre Of That Twitter Feud

Lawrence Mooney has come up roses the night after MICF's traditional opening night gala. The secret? It's being filmed in advance for the first time. "It doesn't really change the vibe of the Gala night," he says of the shift. "I'd dare say there's the same apprehension backstage and then elation post the show. Traditionally, it would roll on to this stupidly large party the night you're about to start your show, and then a lot of premieres and first nights would be done under the auspice of a rank hangover, so that has changed."

Although he's happy not to have succumbed to the Irish Flu, Mooney does acknowledge what a bit of alcohol can do for a performance. "You're on this wave of remorse and elation, but also you're uninhibited and you're loose," he laughs. "So it's very hard to say whether the disciplined, well-rehearsed, tight show is better than the hungover, loose, languid show with the same material. It'd be an interesting Harvard Business School study to do."

"Anything that hasn't been said on stage is a genuine, deep dark secret that will never see the light of day."

For his new show, Like Literally, Mooney is looking back on his entire life (including over two decades spent working in comedy) as a means of filtering through his stories for a book deal. "The premise of this show is that I was asked to write a memoir for a publishing company, and this is kind of a, 'What goes in? What goes out? Who am I?' type of thing. Because the thing is, after 23 years of stand-up, I have told them everything. Absolutely everything. Anything that hasn't been said on stage is a genuine, deep dark secret that will never see the light of day. There's no show where that stuff would be admissible." Considering what Mooney does reveal on stage, it would appear he's pretty serious there. "In this show I do talk about stealing drugs from the government when I worked as a customs officer. But the evidence has been destroyed; let's say that."

Of course, Mooney has never been one to hide his feelings, as the now-infamous events of last year's Adelaide Fringe festival will attest. But, as time has passed since his social media outburst, Mooney is more than happy for bygones to be bygones. "At the time it seemed like a good idea," he divulges. "But it's been over a year now, so I've pretty much left it alone - it's sewn in the past. I do just want to leave it alone now, for my sake and for the reviewer's sake; I just don't want to trawl over something so cold.

"But because I am a megalomaniac, it was sort of thrilling to be at the centre of it, to be honest with you. There was that sense of, 'Oh my god, all these people are talking about ME,' regardless of whether it was deep hatred or something positive." Mooney recognises this not only in himself, but also in all comedians. "You need to be validated every night - to be told by a room full of strangers that you are funny. There are a lot of hilarious, properly funny, intelligent people that never bother with comedy because they just don't care what people think. Every comedian I know is a fucking basket case, and the more they pretend they're not, the worse they are."

With the help of a "self-coined adage", Mooney says that while every performer is different, there's a rule of thumb that he believes comics should adhere to. "You have the luxury of digressing," he begins, "but you've got to earn your digressions. So you have to go in with solid material, but if there's points in the show where you can depart from the script, you can grab them and use them to take you home. But you shouldn't think of them as a lifeline or a way out; you have to earn those digressions."

Lawrence Mooney presents …Like Literally, 30 Mar — 23 Apr at the Athenaeum Theatre, part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.