Interview with Tegan Higginbotham about being Touched By Fev, and other things…

By Lisa Clark

Tegan Higginbotham has been around the Melbourne comedy scene a long time, yet still seems like a fresh faced kid. Last year she told us about her new hobby – professional boxing in her debut solo standup show Million Dollar Tegan which gained a lot of praise and thankfully didn’t end with her coach euthenising her. This year she is talking about her childhood obsessions in Touched by Fev. She began her comedy career performing wild fast-paced sketch shows with Rob Lloyd and Adam Mckenzie as the Hounds. This has morphed into Watson without Rob and they will be performing Once Were Planets this year. Apart from her work with Watson and her own stand up solo show, she will be doing her regular Monday night spot at The Shelf at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival this year. Tegan is clearly very busy at the moment, but she kindly found some time to answer my questions.

How Long have you been doing comedy and how old were you when you did your first comedy gig?

I was 17 when I did my first gig. So I’ve performing for 2ish years. (ish).

Did you always want to perform on stage?
Unfortunately, yes. I was that annoying kid who made my parents sit down every night to watch my latest piece of theatre. I just never would have thought that one day I’d actually be enjoying them laughing at me.

Who in comedy has inspired you?
Celia Pacquola, Judith Lucy, Nick Cody, Justin Hamilton and my good friend Adam McKenzie.

Does your work with Watson inform your stand up and visa versa?
I think that the joke writing skills I’m learning from stand-up have most definitely helped with my writing for Watson. But I was actually surprised how little all the years of performing sketch helped when I finally got the balls to get up on stage by myself. It was a whole new game. I kept running out of breath because I was waiting for someone else to start delivering lines but it NEVER HAPPENED

Do you think the timing and running around with Watson helped you be a better boxer?
“Better” would imply that I’m any good. I’m terrible at boxing. Just ask the trainers.

When did you decide it was time to do solo standup?

I felt like it was a natural progression. And I’d been hanging around with stand-up’s for so many years I felt it would have been wrong not to give it a go. But specifically, I was 21 when I bit the bullet.

Was it hard to step out on your own away from the support of Adam McKenzie & Rob Lloyd?

Absolutely. Not only in the sense that performing solo was difficult, but the support they offer after a show is invaluable. When you’re part of a group, you all ride the hard shows together and share the blame, so to speak. Whereas having to pick yourself up after a bad stand-up set can be a very tricky task indeed.

Did they prepare you for life as a comedian?
Adam and Robby taught me right from the get-go that to be a successful comedian you have to work incredibly hard. During our very first comedy festival we would often be performing three times a night, so doing that now seems quite natural. In this way, they did help. Robby and Adam also exposed me to a very unique style of comedy that I would have missed completely had I just gone straight into stand-up and I’m very lucky that I got a fabulous opportunity to experience that and experiment with them on stage.

When you were growing up did you ever see yourself as a comedian, who punches people as a side hobby?
I saw myself as Ripley from Aliens. So the punching thing was certainly there. It’s the comedy I’m surprised by.

Have you enjoyed working on The Shelf?
Defintely! But it still scares me. Sometimes I find myself standing on stage with people who are SO much better than me and I have to stop myself from freaking out or yelling “You’re from the TV! Say hi to my Mum!”

How do you plan to juggle 3 shows at this years MICF?
With a mixture of coffee, Lindt and pure adrenaline. Wish me luck.

Have you done much hosting at comedy gigs?
A little bit. I’m hoping to do more and more over time. It requires a really fabulous set of skills that I haven’t quite mastered yet. Harley Breen, who is another comic I look up to, once pointed out to me that when you’re performing a solo-show, you ostensibly have to be your own MC. So it helps to be good at it.

When did you start thinking about this as a topic for a festival show.
A long time ago, actually. I usually think of my shows long before I attempt to write them. In fact, I already know what my very last show will be.
I second guessed “Touched By Fev” a bit and considered doing something else for a while. But for me, there was too much to talk about and I’m genuinely interested in the subject matter. It felt right.

How do you write a show, in bits and pieces, in big chunks?
I actually don’t have a set style of writing just yet. Last year it was matter of experiencing boxing, then simply taking note of what happened. This show has involved more research and delves a little further in to personal stories.

Are you disciplined, do you have a routine or is it more organic?
Organic.

Do you think you can make this festival show appeal to people who know nothing of Aussie Rules or Brendan Fevola?
The show is also about Harry Potter, so I’m hoping that if people aren’t massive AFL fans, they’ll come for the Potter instead. That being said, I have written this show with a non-sporty audience in mind as well, and I’m pretty sure that they’ll still understand everything hat’s going on.

What’s your favourite thing about taking part in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival?

I have been thinking about this answer for 20 minutes now. I just have to pick something, don’t I?
Um…oh god! It’s so many things! It’s the laughter; both from an audience and from myself as I watch Adam try to keep a straight face each night. It’s the incredibly warm feeling you get when someone enjoys something that you’ve written. It’s huddling with other comics on the steps of The Melbourne Town hall and sharing battle tales. It’s feeling a little bit spesh for a whole month. It’s meeting new people and eating pizza at 1am on Swanston Street and so many things. I honestly can’t choose.

Tegan Higginbotham’s Touched by Fev is on upstairs in The Spleen Bar throughout the Festival – There are NO performances Mondays, Fridays & Sundays

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/touched-by-fev-tegan-higginbotham

Watson – Once Were Planets is on at Trades Hall

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/once-were-planets-watson

The Shelf – is on for three nights at Toff of Town

http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/the-shelf

 

Interview with Adam Rozenbachs about ‘Eurodad’

By Lisa Clark

Last year Adam Rozenbachs travelled through Europe with his dad and tweeted his experiences along the way. If the tweets were any indication, Eurodad should be hilarious. Adam took time out of his pre-festival pressures to answer a few questions about himself and his new show.

When why did you start doing Standup?
I started in 1999, at The Espy, a comedy institution at the time. Why? Stupidity mainly, now that I look back on it. But I had a love of stand-up, and used to go and watch whenever I could, so I thought I’d like to give it a crack. And I’d been doing Triple R for about two years [Crud Boys 1997-99], so had been writing for that time. It was time to take away the safety net performance wise. Plus, I thought I wasn’t having enough feelings of insecurity, so wanted to bump that up a bit.

Who inspired you in Comedy?
I idolised the D Generation/Late Show/Martin-Molloy era of Australian comedy. Having met them I can see why they were/are so good [they steal a lot].
We also used to listen to Bill Cosby on family trips in the car, so I remember how much I enjoyed that. Although it was a bit muffled hearing it from the boot. And dad took me to see Billy Connolly when I was about 16, so that had a huge impact on me, watching people, including dad, lose their shit for about three hours.
I also heard my first Rodney Rude tape when I was about ten. I probably understood most of the jokes in it when I turned sixteen.

How do you write your festival show? Are you very disciplined?

I’ll start off with chunks, bits, words, occasional letters, and then slowly try and piece them together. Then I’ll print that out, go to a cafe or a pub or crack den and try and joke it up – adding bits and pieces here and there to try and add strength to the strong bits.
I go through patches of discipline. I’ll write and be productive, and then I’ll leave it for a bit or procrastinate, and then I’ll get mad at myself and force myself to sit down and write. It’s all part of the process. I’d like to see how many of the classics would be around today with the nuisance of the internet at hand. I bet Tolstoy’s book would have been War and I Can Haz Cheeseburger.

Are you still writing at the last minute or do you like to have it ready to go for the previews?
Probably about four of five days prior I’ll stop writing so I can start to learn it. Mostly the order, as by that stage I will have only done it from start to finish maybe twice.

Then, the day after my opening show, I’ll furiously re-write, regretting all those times I kicked back looking at cats on the internet, thinking it was a good show.

Do you usually practice bits of it in comedy clubs?
Yep. It’s nice to have a few bits ready to roll for the festival, so you know they’re solid and reliable.

This show has been a bit different to previous years, as it’s my first real narrative, so it’s a bit harder to do ‘bits’ in the clubs/rooms, as it will seem a little disjointed without all the other information surrounding it. Well, that’s what i tell myself when it doesn’t work. But I have been able to work up bits by changing them slightly so they can stand alone.

Is your dad OK about you writing a show involving him?
Probably not, but unless he wants me to move back in because I have no cash, he’ll have to be.

He didn’t want to be on the poster, but I said he’d be in the background, blurry and unrecognisable. He’s not.

I think he’ll quickly work out I lie to him a lot.

Are there stories that you can’t put into your show?
Mostly the thoughts that ran through my head about how I could bump my dad off and make it look like an accident.

Have you travelled with your father as an adult before?
No. And if you ask me that question again in twenty years, the answer will be “ONCE!”

Did you have to change the way you travelled i.e. nicer hotels etc?
Absolutely. I can be a bit of a loose traveller i.e. decide what to do when I arrive in a city, but I had to be more rigid with planning, as I didn’t want dad wandering around with his luggage looking for accommodation. I also cut back on a few things I would want to do, as dad wasn’t interested. Like, for example, fun.
Dad didn’t really like to talking to strangers either, which really cuts back your drug purchasing options.

Be honest did you put yourself through this hell hoping to get a festival show out of it?
How dare you be so cynical about a comedian. But yes. 100%. I hope people appreciate what comedians go through for a show… Twenty one days for an hour’s worth of material is not the greatest ratio.

How has been the experience of working on The Shelf?
The Shelf is fantastic. And working with Tegan Higginbotham has been great. We do a weekly news segment, and i always enjoy reading her stuff when she sends it through to be printed out [I’m the printer owner of the duo]. I love the process of writing news jokes too… getting the story, and then trying to think of a take to have on it. Plus, we can be particularly dark and get away with it as we’re just newsreaders telling it like it is, right?

Justin Hamilton brings together some of the best comics in Australia, so it’s great to grace the stage with them. And nice to try and include them in the gags sometimes.

And The Toff is a brilliant venue.
How will you cope working on two shows during MICF – The Shelf and your solo show?
Once it’s all bedded in, things should run smoothly. That’s what I tell myself. In reality, i will be a burnt out wreck on day two who somehow stumbles to the finishing line, crying and wailing. But, you know, in a funny way.

Luckily The Shelf is on a Monday, which is my day off Eurodad – so at least i can take a break from that and write some news gags.

Are you hoping/planning to guest on other shows during the festival? [i.e. Setlist, Festival Club, various podcasts, etc]?
I’d love to do Setlist. Thinking about it now scares the shit out of me, but I’d love to know how I’d react at the time. Probably with a lot of swearing and regret to be honest.
And once you’re in the Comedy Festival, you try and do as much as you can – Festival Club, podcasts, spots, alcohol… whatever is around, I tend to jump at as it’s nice to be a part of it all.

You do a lot of writing behind the scenes, do you think of yourself as primarily a comedy writer or performer or both?
Initially I though of myself as a comedy writer, but I think in the last few years the balance has tipped over to performer. But I enjoy all facets of comedy – it’s just so much fun to try and find the funny, no matter what the medium. Unless the medium is mime – then you can just fuck off.


Tim Minchin told anyone who’d listen (inc. Andrew Lloyd Webber) that his dream was to play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and it worked, as Andrew kept him in mind when he needed to cast it in a hurry. Do you have an ambition you’d like to share with us?

To play in a Carlton premiership. And trust me, I’ve been pestering Mick Malthouse about it. But I’ve since given up on that, mainly because I’m not allowed within 500 metres of him.

Did Becoming one of Cleo’s 50 Most Eligible Bachelors get you laid help get you a girlfriend?

It actually didn’t. The only thing that increased was mocking [up 400%] and disbelief ‘How did you get in there?”. Unfortunately not that many people in the circles I move in read it, no matter how many copies I left lying around.

Eurodad is on throughout the Melbourne International Comedy Festival 
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/eurodad-adam-rozenbachs

Adam will also be appearing at The Shelf on Mondays during the Festival 
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/the-shelf

as well as somehow squeezing in hosting duties at The Comics Lounge 
http://www.comedyfestival.com.au/2013/season/shows/hosted-by-adam-rozenbachs-live-the-comics-lounge