Douchebag

Josh Thomas is returning to Adelaide and in his new show he’s not holding in any of the bad things he may have done.

“Comedians always write a show so that they look a bit like a hero even though a comedian might talk about a mistake they made or something bad. They put excuses in and make them look like a good nice guy,” Thomas explained to blaze.

“So for this show I’m going to try and own the fact that I was just being a bit of a douchebag. Once I was watching A Current Affair, you know what I mean, and they had this story on Boys Town and about how bad stuff was happening at Boys Town, like really bad things they used to do, and I was like, this is bad publicity for Boys Town, right?

“So no one’s going to buy the Boys Town raffle tickets this time around and then I bought a raffle ticket to take advantage of the better odds. That doesn’t seem like a nice thing to do.”

Thomas had disappeared from the comic touring circuit in 2012 to enjoy having a day job and creating a six episode show for the ABC.

“I really liked last year because I didn’t do any touring. Since I was 18 I have been on tour for most of the year. Last year was the first time I had like a day job where I like get up in the morning and like have some toast and then drive somewhere and do some work and then drive home and then watch television,” he laughed.

“Last year was the first time I ever got excited about the weekend. That was a thing I never understood, why people were like ‘Hey it’s Friday’. For that means usually that my work is about to start.

“So I really got accustomed to being home, I have like three chickens now, I have three little chickens running around the backyard and I spend lots of time just slow roasting meat and decorating.”

For his ABC show, which he wrote, directed and stars in, he has taken on the “in vogue” genre of drama comedy.

“It’s not a particularly original idea. It’s like a stand-up comedian doing a TV show… but my show’s not just a comedy, it’s a drama comedy, it’s very popular now to do like a drama comedy where things are funny but then they’re sad, so it’s got real heart,” he said.

Since beginning his career as a comedian many other gay comedians have followed in his footsteps to have a go up on stage.

“There’s just so many around. You cannot move in this country without running into some tiny homo comedian talking about coming out. Just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them,” he chuckled.

“That’s good I guess. Hopefully what’s happening is, something like gay comedians have always done really well with straight audiences…because straight people think that homosexuals are really funny, it’s a really funny idea to them, they just cannot get their head around it.

“So gay comedians have always been popular, what’s like interesting now is like it’s hopefully become a shift of gay comedians that are popular but the audience isn’t really laughing at their gayness. You’re not just a gay guy they find funny, often I feel that they are just laughing at gayness as a thing.”

Josh Thomas is performing in Douchebag from February 26 to March 3 at the Arts Theatre on Angas Street.