Simon Taylor’s style is has been described as intelligent comedy. Drawing from his travels to places as diverse as India, Italy and the deep south of the USA.
Taylor has shared cars with Hollywood stars and gotten lost in the gritty ghettos of New Orleans. He has eaten at five star hotels in Singapore and sipped bitter rice beer in isolated villages of India. He has spoken at world-class science conferences and sung gospel songs with homeless people in Texas.
He’s also had a successful career working behind the scenes on some very successful television shows. This month he’s bringing his stand up show to Fringe World. 
You landed a job writing for Jay Leno within just two years of performing stand-up shows. Did it feel like you jumped in the deep end?
I remember how hard my heart was beating when I was sent the contract for ‘The Tonight Show’. Until then I had only written topical jokes for Twitter so this was surreal. For at least two months I was definitely terrible. I look back now at jokes I sent in and cringe. But the thing about being thrown in the deep end is you either drown or learn to swim. I just kept writing 200 to 250 jokes per week and eventually I knew what I was doing.
Did you find you had to change or adapt your sense of humour for American audiences?
Funny is funny. My sense of humour didn’t have to change, I just had to follow American politics super closely. It’s so much more intense than Australian politics and for that reason it’s a lot more rich. At the end of the day, making fun of politicians is something that brings us all together.
‘The Tonight Show’ is part of a massive, age old culture of late night talk shows in the US. Do you think there is a reason that culture hasn’t developed on Australian television?
Rove was successful in Tonight Show format for ten years, so it’s definitely viable here. We perhaps just don’t have the pool of international celebrities to draw from to make it a nightly show. I hope to host a Tonight Show in Australia one day, but I think the internet has added another factor into it. So it will have to follow the classic format with a unique twist perhaps.
You have performed stand-up all across the world. Do you feel this helped you develop a sense of which jokes are regional, and which are universal?
Travelling helps you learn how to cut straight to the universal funny bone we all share. Any differences are superficial, like references or cultural trends. The idea that some cultures don’t get sarcasm is ridiculous. The reason I love comedy is because the same joke that makes a tradie in Perth laugh can also make a corporate business woman in Singapore, or a graffiti artists in New York, or a farmer in Texas laugh too. That’s why I do it.
In Australia, you’re working on ‘Live on Bowen‘ and ‘Mad as Hell’ with Shaun Micallef, as well as touring your own shows – do you have any free time at all?
There was couple of months at the end of last year where from 6am-11pm I was working non-stop. But it’s funny, once the TV seasons were over I had no idea what to do with myself. I ended up watching everything on YouTube and playing every iPhone game ever. I prefer it when I have work.
Aside from television, you generate a lot of web based content (Beat Streets). Do you find more freedom in online work?
The internet is like the Wild West. You can roam around doing what you want but eventually you’re going to get a reputation. So when I create content I am free to make whatever I want, but I also want to be able to build a consistent following. Thus you find yourself being restricted by your own online identity which means the freedom you had in the first place is now just where you built your own parameters to function within. That’s a pretty nerdy answer, I know.
Simon Taylor’s comedy show ‘Funny’ is on at the Circus Theatre, Perth Cultural Centre from 29th January to 3rd February at 6pm. Bookings www.fringeworld.com.au
Leigh Hill
