Rising Above The Vanilla

Sam Simmons is a hugely eccentric and confident character while he’s up on stage, but that wasn’t always the case for the comedian, who now spends time hopping between Australia and the US. “When I started going into stand-up clubs, that’s when I realised [my style] was a bit weird, and I was made to feel like it was strange, which it’s not – this is what I do. I was only made to feel self-conscious about what I was doing in comedy by other stand-ups when I started, but I stuck to my guns and I’ve succeeded where others have failed, because they were vanilla​!”

Spaghetti For Breakfast marks Simmons’ third major touring stand-up show around the country in recent years. His style is certainly one that can polarise viewers, but Simmons understands you can’t please everyone. “I still have difficult ones with - it’s basically just men. I won’t be sexist, it’s basically men and women between the ages of 45 and 65 that are just like, ‘Nah, what’s he fucking doin’?” And then young conservative men not willing to go with a bit of fantasy and have some fun because they’re threatened by their own sexuality and think that at any possible moment I’m going to jump out into the audience and suck their cock. It’s pretty fuckin’ weird.”

Absurdity in stand-up is something that very few can pull off. Simmons combats the difficulty by flying through different topics within his hour-long timeframe. “I had a guy say to me at the show the other night, ‘Man, you just churn through your material,’ like, there’s a lot of ideas and I throw them all away within a 30-second gag. I guess I do, but I like that because it keeps the audience on their toes. It’s more rewarding for the audience because I’m not just labouring a joke and trying to milk everything I can out of one gag. The majority of stand-up is an idea stretched thin; I’d rather too many ideas crammed into an hour than not enough.”

His new performance pushes the boundaries even further – while his last two shows have had solid plot lines amid the chaos, this one’s a little different. “It’s interesting to see how people react sometimes and this one’s really full-on, really absurd but really stupid. I’ve pushed it really hard this year; there’s this whole sequence in the middle where I’m just placing a burrito on my foot, and it’s really funny, which is the best... I totally took on a character last year [for Death Of A Sails-Man], but this one’s me. I took on a bit of a personal journey with this one. A personal journey, mate. It’s just more loose and stupid. There’s no narrative. It can be annoying sometimes when there’s a narrative because you’re wanting to go for a good night and it’s like, ‘Aw, no, he’s doing a story.’ This sounds really dumb, but it’s a bit like a comedy version of Inception, not in a sci-fi way, but it is a bit mind-bending, and you get to the end and you’re like, ‘Aw, fuck, that was awesome.’ I’ve always wanted to do that kind of show – you think about the whole show in the last minute and go, ‘Ohhh, right!’”