If sex appeal was gauged by your knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System, then Josh Earl would be a veritable sex icon among men. Unfortunately this isn’t the case. Earl’s in-depth knowledge of library science just adds to the already quirky cuteness of one of the country’s rising stars of comedy.

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But yes, it is true that Earl used to be a librarian. In fact, it was only last year that Earl shelved his hardbound tome for the final time.

‘Yeah, I had been a librarian for the last five and a half years,’ Earl told OUTinPerth recently. ‘I quit this year, from my actual job and the library one, too, to do comedy full-time. But for the last five and a half years I was a librarian in an inner-city school in Melbourne.

‘I really used that school for my comedy purposes, as well; I did a whole show called Josh Earl The Librarian where I just went through the entire Dewey Decimal System, but made it funny, not just boring. Also, librarians have access to photocopiers and if you’re a struggling artist, photocopying is a godsend; you use that all the time.’

Of course, Earl won’t mention the school he taught at. And not because of some confidentiality clause either. No, if Earl mentioned the school he’d most likely have to pay back the $1000 he owes them in colour photocopying.

But it’s a $1000 well spent since now Earl will be making an appearance at Beck’s Music Box as part of the Perth International Arts Festival. No more expensive colour photocopying bills this time: Earl has made it big. Metaphorically speaking.

‘I’ve done six comedy festival shows and they all go for an hour, so this is gonna be a best of what I’ve got,’ Earl said of his Beck’s appearance. ‘It’s not going to be a scene; it’s just going to be an hour of laughs, hopefully. That’s the plan, anyway.

‘But I talk about being a librarian. I talk about being from Tasmania. There’s a bit where I talk about my mum. Also I did a show last year called Josh Earl is XXVII, all about how at my day job, a six-year-old girl asked me what I want to be when I grow up, and I said “I am a grown-up,” and she goes “No, like a real one.” So I said “What makes a real grown-up?” and she told me the six things that real grown-ups have; I talk about that a fair bit as well.’

And in his 26 years, Earl has achieved quite a bit. Like… writing a regular column for glossy stick magazine Penthouse?!

‘Yeah, I was writing for them for a year,’ Earl laughed. ‘For one of my shows, my publicist just said “Do you want to write a column for penthouse?” and I went “Oh, alright. You know I’m a librarian?” and he said “Yeah, yeah, that’s fine”.

‘So I just wrote kind of like what I imagined a Penthouse interview with a librarian might be, and I just wrote it with myself and I liked it and they said “Do you want to write for us every month?”. So I did that and I was just writing about being a librarian and my little life.

‘I really enjoyed writing (that column). It was nice to sit down every once a month and go “What am I going to write about now? This’ll be good,” for something that wasn’t just comedy. When I write now it’s all for “Okay, where’s the laugh going to be?” and “How is this going to sound?” rather than “How is it going to be read?”. When you’re writing for print it’s a different set of skills.’

But that isn’t the darkest or dirtiest secret Earl has. If you swing past his MySpace you’ll find something truly terrifying, something disgustingly depraved, something that will pervert your pleasure: spoken word. Yes, Josh Earl is a closet spoken word performer.

‘I’m not even in the closet,’ Earl laughed when quizzed about his secret fetish. ‘I’ve actually done spoken word gigs in Melbourne, which I really enjoy doing.

‘It’s quite weird going up onstage for me, as a comedian, and doing something that’s serious, like five minutes of speaking without laughs, which is something as a comedian that you never want to do. I think it’s a really good skill to have, as well, to be able to hold an audience without relying on laughter. I think as a comedian, that’s a really good skill to have.’

But that isn’t all you need to know about Josh Earl, not by far. In fact, his show for Beck’s will be a pastiche of music, talking and visual aids. Yes, there will be sight gags.

‘I was quite influenced as a kid by reading comics, so I think that’s kind of rubbed off on me a bit, to get the joke across. It can work just saying it, but if you have a picture to occupy it as well, it really gets the message across a lot better. I learned that from being a children’s librarian, reading stories all the time. The kids like the pictures; I thought the adults shouldn’t be any different.’

Josh Earl appears as part of Perth’s International Arts Festival at Beck’s Music Box on Monday February 15. Ticket booking and more information is available online at www.perthfestival.com.au

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