Paul McDermott, the longtime master of mayhem at Good News Week, ringmaster of The Sideshow and potentially the maddest member of the Doug Anthony All Stars is heading to town with a new show. OUTinPerth’s Nadine Walker answered the phone when the larger than life comedian called to chat about singing, inspiration and who he’d turn for.
Paul McDermott: I wouldn’t say this to a heterosexual magazine, but I think I could be in love with a couple of members of One Direction, I think Harry Styles has stolen my heart.
Nadine Walker: See I’m in this with you, because I’m gay, but I think I’m sexually attracted to him, and I’m really confused.
This is great! You do realize if you maintain your current sexual positions, that Harry Styles is out of your ball park, with me being a heterosexual male it’s a little bit out of my ball park, but I’m willing to cross that line for Harry.
I feel like if I had the opportunity to sleep with Harry Styles I would do it, we should organize a threesome with me, you and Harry Styles.
That’s going to be death defying, I like your attitude.
Tell me what the show is about.
No! I want to keep it a mystery [laughs] essentially; it’s just a music show more or less. I get melodies in my head that form the basis of songs and I have to sing them to someone so that I can write music.
So you have to approach a musically talented person?
Well even just an idiot. Anyone who knows two chords can normally do it. It’s not complex melodies. I must admit I’ve picked up a guitar in the latter years in my life, and I don’t know why I didn’t do it earlier.
You co-write your own songs. Where do you get your inspiration from?
From God.
From the hand of god?
From his soft gentle caring hands, the benevolent soaked hands of god. Look, it doesn’t stop, it never stops, it’s like there’s a little voice in my head.
Constant chatter?
Yeah, ‘why don’t you just sit there and do that, why don’t you go do that for a while, hey – here’s some chalk, go draw on that wall’. My background is actually art; I went to art school, that’s my calling I suppose. I’d want to buy canvas, but I’d end up stealing them out of bins. People used to get upset with me.
Because you’re a criminal?
Not a career criminal, but an aspiration criminal. I used to go round the skips at the art school at the end of the day. People that were frustrated or didn’t like their paintings would often rip them off their painting frame and throw the canvas away. I would go round the bins and get these old canvases and scrape them back and reuse them. It would cause me a bit of hassle at art school.
I have no social skills, I still feel uncomfortable around human beings, I don’t like them that much. Being on stage is much easier for me than being in audience, I think ‘Oh, there’s someone next to me, there’s someone on the other side, don’t touch me. When I’m on stage there is so much space around me rather than down there with all the other sardines with their chairs and their happy faces.’
You’re not even a comedian you just want a bit of space.
Yeah, that’s correct, God damn it.
So tell me about the last time you were in Perth?
The last time I was in Perth was with a comedy super group with Cameron Bruce and Nick Moriani. We were basically just a self destructive juggernaut of pills, crazy high times. We forgot about the comedy and just stuck to the partying. It was great, we met a lot of people and had great times. I can’t remember the shows at all.
All a blur?
It was interesting.
Do you prefer singing or standup?
They are hard to compare.
If you were on a desert island and you had to pick, which would it be?
That is such a weird hypothetical, like ‘if I only had one leg, would I rather do stand up or singing’.
Well you’d probably want to do singing, because you can sit down for that. Are you tailoring the performances for each place you’re visiting?
Are you saying am I going to speak slower for the people of Perth? [laughs] Perth is going to be the fourth installment, so it’s still shaping so it’s impossible to say. We’ll add a few extra flavours.
Paul McDermott will be at the Astor Theatre with his show “Paul Sings” on Friday August 31st at 7pm. Tickets at BOCS ticketing.com.a
Nadine Walker
