“I’ve been coming across since I was 18 or 19, so it’s my seventh or eighth time here,” says Sloss. “I’ve got so many friends that I only see once or twice a year, so it’s good to hang out with everyone. They all take their shows very seriously, whereas because I’ve been doing this show for ages and it’s got some of my favourite stuff, I can hamper everyone else’s shows by dragging them out into the early hours.”
Having started his career in his teenage years, Sloss has a plethora of stories from his time cutting his teeth in the industry. “I’ve eaten shit so many times,” laughs Sloss. “Once when I was 17, I was doing a warm-up for a non-comedy TV show. Every audience member was over the age of 70. The average age of the audience was clinically dead. The majority of my show was about masturbation, and the audience had lost function of their genitalia years ago. It was awful. There was a little lady in the front row who hated me so much, that from her wheelchair picked up her walking stick and tried to beat me off stage. I’ve eaten some proper shit.”
This isn’t the only time Sloss has encountered a less than enthusiastic crowd member. Despite this, Sloss refuses to compromise the integrity of his material in the face of those who might be caught offside by it. “I have one atheist joke which when I told in Indianapolis, a man semi-threatened me with a gun. I did get warned by my agent not to do that joke in that part of the country – don’t press that button. And I was like, ‘I’ll fucking press the button, what’s the worst that can happen?’. The joke is a very valid argument that there may not be a God, and I argue that if there was a Jesus, he probably wasn’t white. He was like, ‘Of course he’s white’. And I said, ‘well, he was born in the Middle East, so that would have been fucking impressive’.”
For this year’s Comedy Festival show, there are several topics up for discussion. “I’ll be talking about God, sex, tampons and death,” says Sloss. “I find it really weird that tampons aren’t free. We’ve got free health care in the UK, but you still have to pay for tampons. I don’t understand how that’s not medical, because you’re bleeding. That sounds medical to me. You can get Viagra for free, nobody needs fucking Viagra. You can get condoms for free at STI clinics, yet women have to pay for something they have zero fucking control over. It makes no sense.”
Echoing the concerns that have also been raised in Australia, Sloss adds “In the UK they’re taxed as luxury items. A bunch of women took it to the Houses of Parliament a while ago, and they were like, ‘Quick question, the fuck? First of all we’re paying for them, which we won’t complain about but will eventually because it’s stupid, but can we at least take the luxury tax off?’ The PM David Cameron, who allegedly fucked a pig, said no. Well David, if they’re luxury items, buy one for your wife’s birthday.”
BY BEL RYAN
