Stephen K Amos
He’s survived the South African jungle in I’m A Celebrity Australia, tread the boards of London's West End in the smash hit musical My Fair Lady, and appeared in Tim Burton's film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
This month, a long time between drinks, Stephen K Amos returns to Darwin with his hilarious show Oxymoron. Tierney White caught up with him for a jolly old chinwag.
Stephen! Great to chat – how do you feel about visiting us in the tropical north?
I am very, very much excited about it. I’ve only ever been to Darwin once, and that was a long time ago, so I want to have my memory refreshed.
Well, you will love it here. Have you got any plans other than making us laugh a whole lot?
Well, I’m actually going to take some time out. I’m going to come for the show and stay another day just so I can catch the sights and the historical parts of Darwin that I missed out on last time.
Well, if you need any recommendations, I’d be happy to let you know … So, can you tell me a little bit about your show Oxymoron?
Well, basically, the idea came about because I think that, post-pandemic, we live in a more contradictory world than ever. What better word to use than oxymoron? Which, in itself, is the most oxymoric word there is! Oxy is Greek, I believe [for oksús] … meaning sharp, and moron from the Latin mōros which means dull. So, a wonderful, self-contradictory phrase.
[Laughs]. Sharp dull! Love it! And you’re a busy, busy man. An award-winning writer, broadcaster, actor and comedian. What’s the journey been like?
To be honest, I started off in the whole stand-up arena, and once the doors opened on that, other opportunities came, so I’m very grateful I’ve been able to express myself in different forms of art, be it writing, penning a self-semi-autobiographical book, to appearing on the West End stage – I never, ever thought that would happen! – to a cameo appearance in Beetlejuice.
I mean, I can die a happy man, to be honest, but my first love is stand-up. Stand-up has been the thing that has allowed me to traverse the world, connect with people from different cultures, different backgrounds, and ultimately to enrich my own experience of life and humankind.
Yeah, lovely. I was going to ask what gave you the biggest buzz. I also think that your comedy is clever in that you highlight some real issues faced by many – racism, homophobia, socio economic status – I love how you make subtle digs at wealth, particularly your own.
[Laughs] Thank you!
Why is comedy a good medium to share or highlight these prejudices, these issues?
Personally, I think people like to laugh, and I generally like people. And obviously laughter is subjective. People pay X amount of money to watch a comedy … and as we know, there are many different forms of stand-up, whether it be political, observational, kind of more slapstick or even one-liners, but my thing is to have an audience come along … the main focus is laughter. But in-between that show, I like to weave in things that are important to me.
Whether an audience shares my point of view or not is another thing, but it’s all cased in a show full of laughs … I want an audience to come to my show, who don’t necessarily look like me or think like me or have the same background, socio economic or political, but get back to the days where we could all be friends with people who are different, you know?
Yeah, totally. And making people laugh is not an easy thing to do – what does it mean to you to be able to do that?
Do you know what? I mean, it’s quite humbling, to be honest, because it’s also a very strange job to do. To stand up in a room full of strangers, people you’ve never met before, and try to make them laugh and win them over. I don’t think there’s a needier job! Not that I’m thinking of myself as a needy person, but the sound of laughter, I mean, ask any adult, the first time you hear a child laugh … when that noise of them laughing, that pure joy and energy, nothing beats it! And it’s infectious.
Basically, not to sound corny, but I really do believe laughter can connect people. And that’s why, particularly when I do shows in London, you look at my audience and they are a multicultural bunch of people. And the one thing that bonds us all is that we are there to laugh, at the same things, no one is singled out … If you wanna see this black Englishman with his weird, skewed vision of Australia and the world, come along.
Stephen K Amos - Oxymoron
WHEN SAT 9 NOV | 7.30PM
AT DARWIN ENTERTAINMENT CENTRE
COST $49.90 | $44.90 MEMB/CONC
INFO yourcentre.com.au
