Tommy Little Has a Regular Size Deck
You’ve seen him on the telly, you’ve heard him on the radio, and now Tommy Little returns to the Top End for Darwin Festival. Revered as one of the country’s most popular performers, Little’s built a reputation for his hilarious live shows with his signature razor-sharp wit, wild stories and infectious energy.
Tierney White caught up with him to chat about his new show, gettin’ roasted, and... tiny beers?
Tommy, thanks for the yarn. I have to apologise in advance for the noise at my end – I know you’re a pilot and nerd out over aviation, and there’s this thing going on at the moment called Exercise Pitch Black, have you heard of it?Oh my gosh, is it the military air show?
Yeah, there’s like 20 nations participating in it, and at any point there’s just gonna be fighter jets flying overhead. It’s full on.
Tierney, never apologise for airplane noise, I love that sh-t … It sounds awesome.
Well, Tommy, you’ve hit the Darwin Festival stage in the past, how’s it feel to be coming back?
I’m so excited. It’s the best up there, it’s beautiful. If I didn’t have a job, I would move there in a heartbeat, and especially, I mean I know you guys know this, but winter for the rest of the country, it’s just heaven in Darwin, it’s just perfect. So, I can’t wait!
Tell me about your new show, what inspired it, and how the heck do you name your shows?
Look, I don’t know. With the names, I just pitch to my management, and they decide it’s too rude, and we start a bargaining process, and we end up with something that’s mildly rude, and not too bad, and go with that. And basically, this show is about the love of my life, it’s about ruining the celebrity Grand Prix in this country, and failure in general.
So, the love of your life, in your show description it says we’ll “have to buy a ticket to find out who has stolen his heart” – is it an actual person or is it flying?
[Laughs] No, it’s an actual person. I’m not making love to a plane or helicopter just yet, but if in two years’ time I’m still desperate, maybe that will be in my future?
Yeah, well I can’t wait to hear what you call that show when it comes around! Earlier this year, you put your hand up to get roasted by your comedy mates at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Why did you do that?
[Laughs] I’m mates with some of the funniest people in the country, and they’re so good at giving me sh-t that I thought it was a shame just to keep that behind closed doors. And it was honestly the funniest time I’ve ever spent on stage, it was, you know, a dozen people who are great at ripping each other to shreds and going at it unfiltered for two hours, it was great.
Most of it was far too rude to ever see the light of day, so I think of the two, two-and-a-half hours on stage, I think we could show maybe 15 minutes? It was good.
[Laughs] So if you had a ticket to the live show, you got a very good insight into Tommy Little and exactly what his friends think of him?
Yeah, and that’s one of the things I love about live comedy, too, it’s kind of one of the last remaining spaces where you’re not on your phone, it’s all for the room, you can say all the stuff you’re not meant to say, and it's fine – we just agree we’re all adults and we’re there to have fun.
Yeah, totally. You’re embellished with lots of tatts, so I’m wondering, any plans to get inked while you’re in Darwin?
Maybe? I mean, the problem with getting inked in Darwin is that it’s so hot there, and you’ve got that lovely outdoor pool and I usually go for a swim, so tattoos and swimming is generally not the way to go. I generally tend to get tatted up in winter down here.
Ironically, I just got a tattoo from Teddy Swims yesterday, he tattooed a little teddy bear on my leg. But I don’t know, you guys do a lot of things that aren’t really for hot climates. I remember last time I came up there everyone told me to get a curry laksa for breakfast?
Oh yeah, that’s a rite of passage.
Well, I thought it would be this thing where hot cancels out hot and has a cooling effect, but nah, it’s just hot as balls and you sit there sweating so much. Why? Why do you guys do that?
Well, you can just jump in the pool later, it’s fine.
That is true, that is true.
If you’re not getting any tatts – possibly skipping on the laksa this time – anything else planned while you’re here?
Yeah, I’m gonna party, I think. It’s such a great place to party and everyone in that city is so fun. And I got introduced to tiny beers for the first time in my life the last time I was there, so I think I’ll probably have a few thousand tiny beer shots and see where the night takes me?
What are they? Tiny beers?
Yeah, have you seen them? They’re shots in mini stein glasses, as shot glasses, and they make shots that look like beers.
Right, no, I haven’t heard of those but now I feel like I need to have one.
Yeah, they’re wonderful ... I’m just excited to get there, Tierney.
Tommy Little Has a Regular Size Deck
WHEN SAT 24 AUG | 7PM
AT INPEX SUNSET STAGE
COST $40-$44
INFO darwinfestival.org.au
