Having bashed skins for acts like Mortal Sin, Slaughter Lord and Nazxul, Hughes could well have spent the rest of his days behind the double kick drum were it not for one small distraction – the fact some people found him funny.
Hughes first tried doing stand-up comedy in the mid-’90s – and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since then, Hughes has put down the sticks for the most part; taking on audiences across the globe with his irreverent, world-weary take on stand-up. It brings him back to Australia this April as a part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival – a festival to which he is no stranger.
“I did it for the first time in about 2009,” he says. “It’s been really good to see how my shows have grown over the years – it’s kind of grown with the festival itself, in a way. It’s just like anything that you work on, really – you strive to get better and every year shows that bit of improvement. You keep practicing and it keeps getting stronger.”
It’s been great to see comedy expanding nationally on the festival front – Brisbane’s festival is great, Sydney’s is working out well. Even Adelaide’s got one now.”
Hughes’ show is untitled at the 2017 festival, which has been done for two main reasons. The first is that Hughes’ brand of comedy is practically name-synonymous at this stage – if you know the name, you know what you’re in for. Furthermore, Hughes’ 2017 hour doesn’t relate back to a particular theme or concept – it’s about as traditional a stand-up comedy show as you can get within the context. “My shows always tend to come about in pieces, bit by bit,” says Hughes. “It’s very difficult to write toward an entire hour in a single block – you just go one thing at a time, trying to bring it together.
They always tend to get better when you start performing them on stage, anyway – you pick up on more and more stuff that you want to talk about.”
Okay, we’ll bite: What does Hughes want to talk about? “I’ve been talking about this era we’re in,” he says. “This era of the social justice warriors, and this era of outrage where everyone is fighting. Saying that you’re offended by something seems to be the way to immediately shut down a dialogue.
“It’s a strange scenario that’s developed in the western nations – these countries that claim to be the freest in all of the world, having had enlightenment for 500 years, that people should be free to express themselves however they see fit. It’s like what Voltaire said – ‘I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend your right to say it.’ I’ll be looking at all of these mass freakouts in America, especially.”
By David James Young
Venues: Melbourne Town Hall – Main Hall & ACMI – Beyond
Dates: Saturday April 1 & Wednesday April 19 – Friday April 21
Duration: 60 minutes
Tickets: $35 – $44.50
