Baz McAlister, Journalist

“With comedy you learn to find common ground with audiences all over the world, but I have no clue what to expect [in Australia]."

“Some things stuck out instantly, like Richard Kingsmill’s Italian accent, but other things, I had to be reminded of. You can hear us getting younger, I think, the further back you go.”

"I keep joking that I want to hold onto copies of Mad Men so I can show my grandson how we used to live. ‘Look at that, men were allowed to read and we could still vote. Those were some good times’.”

"It’s good to walk away from stand-up for a while until you’re brimming over with material and hungry for it again.”

“All my shows tend to be based on some sort of basic positive message – Happyism is my religion, trying to be happy, putting out positive energy at all times.”

“I guess the interesting phenomenon in Brisbane now is the rise of the indies: there are a lot of companies springing up from the ashes of the big companies that were based here [such as Krome or Pandemic] that closed down during the GFC."

The Merger has the genius premise, the timely relevance and the charm to go beyond a mere stage show and find new life as a film script or, ideally, a Chris Lilley-alike sitcom.

He’s meant to do an hour but is having such a good time he adds on another thirty beer-fuelled minutes – and it’s certainly not as if anyone’s got time between laughs to check their watch.

Even just bouncing off each other and riffing like this, the pair have a comic energy few can match.

“I am one of those guys who, when I hear comics talk about their kids, I’m like, ‘Shut the fuck up, nobody wants to hear about your kid.’ So I made a conscious decision not to be that guy."

"People don’t imagine little bags you use to clean your orifices any more. That word has changed.”

“Over the last 12 months, I’ve been questioning why I do comedy, and the obvious answer is for attention. It’s important to me that people like me. That’s fundamentally why I do it."