Josh Ladgrove & His Alter Ego Neal Portenza Admits He's 'Phenomenally Annoying'

Josh Ladgrove has a bit of trouble switching off from the "tornado of ideas" he has swirling in his head. "In my normal life, I do characters constantly; every day. I have no idea why my girlfriend puts up with me — I'm a phenomenally annoying person — so I'm pretty lucky in that regard."

On stage, however, that character is Dr Professor Neal Portenza — a beret-toting buffoon whose shows are more absurdly unique each night. "I think I only ever really have about 23 minutes of material and the rest is just banter," Ladgrove says, "But Neal is weird because on the one hand, he's really stupid and childish, but he can also be really biting and clever, and it just allows me to access a part of my brain that's a little bit more wired than what I am in normal life."

"Neal is just an extension of myself: it's just me doing a silly voice and trying to be happy and have a good time."

Speaking on the line between himself and Portenza, Ladgrove continues, "Neal is just an extension of myself: it's just me doing a silly voice and trying to be happy and have a good time. I could do all the stuff I do without having to do a character, but it's not that fun for me and I find myself a bit boring. Like, here I am now, rabbiting on, and I don't think I'm that interesting. So I like Neal."

While Portenza's origins are still a bit of a mystery, Ladgrove gives particular thanks to Mighty Boosh co-founder Julian Barratt for much of his inimitable style. "There's not much of it, he didn't do stand-up for a super long time, but it's still, to this day, some of the most original stand-up I've ever seen. So I was really using that sort of stuff as my metric." And Portenza's trademark way of speaking? "That evolved because I lost my voice one day and my friend said that it was really funny. So all this wasn't really a conscious thing, everything just kind of fell into place."

While some may not realise it, there's a lot more going on at a Portenza show than just a silly man-child in a hat. "There's been a bit more of just myself in the Neal shows, and I think it's really nice to do that. Because it's a character and because it can be a bit off-putting for people, it's nice to try and blur those lines, saying, 'yeah it's a character, but I'm still here' you know?" Ladgrove continues, "I'm quite attracted to that aspect of doing material and jokes not just for the sake of being offensive, but seeing if there's a way to attack topics that may otherwise be offensive, and to do it in a way that's clearly so gentle and irreverent and piss-taking and larrikin — which is very Australian. So Neal helps me do that."

When Portenza does eventually grace the stage at MICF, Ladgrove has a simple mission in his sights. "Hopefully I've created something that's fun and interactive, but not in a naff way, and something that's unique, that might make you laugh from your stomach instead of your head. And maybe if you take a risk on something stupid you might be rewarded."