John Robertson is a globetrotting stand-up comedian best known for his show The Dark Room. He’s spent the last 21 years on the scene, hosting TV shows, writing kids’ books, hosting 50+ hour marathon charity shows, and mostly doing very, very funny improv. His new show, The Human Hurricane, is at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.
STARBURST: How would you pitch The Human Hurricane to folk who have only ever seen stand-up comedy on Saturday tea-time TV?
John Robertson: Hey folks, do you like laughter, but with a much higher chance of getting accidentally spat on? I mean, there’s a longer pitch to be made about the pleasure of being in a room watching a silly person do stuff that’s just for the crowd that night, but I have watched a LOT of people cover their drinks when I’m onstage.
And how would you pitch it to Commander Worf from Star Trek?
You listen to me, you petaq! Your quch is tiny and dishonourable! To a Klingon, this is kind of light-hearted abuse is heavy flirting, so the only way he’d miss the show now is if he wouldn’t get out of my bed.
How different is The Human Hurricane from The Dark Room?
People tell me my stand-up is wilder than The Dark Room, which I think has something to do with the complete lack of structure and the endless leaping on things. The Dark Room is the game show a clown with ADHD dreams u; The Human Hurricane is the ADHD unleashed. Let the spicy brain do the driving!
You’re mostly known for your improv; why the change of pace?
Oh, somewhere in my mishmash of crowd work, I really wanted a good excuse to wear a suit, shout some poems, and play some songs! I just like playing with people, and my tools are love, noise, and dirty words. And an electric ukulele because 1, I like ukulele and 2, when you plug it into an amp and a distortion pedal, it stops being a ukulele and becomes good.
What is the one rule of comedy you think we should ignore?
The front row isn’t a scary place! Life is a scary place!
What makes you the human hurricane? Do you have superpowers?
Nope! But I do have to get the show done in exactly 45 minutes and then get across town to do my other show, The Dark Room, half an hour after this one finishes, so we thought it best to go with a title that suggested speed and also disaster!
You’ve previously done character comedy on your Twitch stream. Will we see these characters on the stage?
You will! Some, like Pope Gossip III, the gossipy pope, show up a fair bit. Some you won’t see again – a character called The Sex Dolphin bombed super hard once, which was a real bugger since I’d had 100 t-shirts made that said, ‘Sex Dolphin’. That said, people bought them, and then Adrian Stout from The Tiger Lillies and I formed a one-night-only band called Sex Dolphin, and people SHOWED UP WEARING THE SHIRTS! So maybe the lesson is to overcommit to the bit. I dunno!
Why the Edinburgh Fringe?
There ain’t nothing like the world’s largest arts festival. Anything and everything can, will and does happen. The Edinburgh Fringe has directly and indirectly given me a lot of my audience, my books, the times I’ve been in TV development, my agents, and my firm belief that chips n’ cheese and a whole pizza every night for a month is a solid nutritional choice.
What was the most challenging part of the production?
I keep sitting down to write some silly little songs and accidentally cranking out sad bangers about dead people I know. Christ, I hope it doesn’t mean anything.
What else do you have planned?
I’ll go see some mates while I’m up there! Old Aussie pals Laura Davis, and Josh Makinda are super funny, Louis King and Laurie Black are up there doing songs, and might catch the legends The Umbilical Brothers, then there’s my hysterical cousin Marjolein Robertson, Sooz Kempner, Juliette Burton, Sam See, the late-night miracle of ACMS, and I’ll definitely see my pal Tom Crosbie do some damned clever thing with Rubik’s Cubes.
Where else can we see you?
On August 9th, you can see The Dark Room at Worldcon in Glasgow! It’s a rare pleasure to leave the world’s largest arts festival to go and perform at the world’s longest-running science fiction convention. I can’t wait. Also, The Dark Room is on tour, heading out to PAX West in Boston, PAX Australia, Pixel Expo in Perth, Western Australia, and a million other places – it’s all at www.thejohnrobertson.com/livedatesor you can see me stream on twitch.tv/robbotron!
Vampires or Werewolves?
I’d normally be so across vampires, but I just got a Warren Zevon tattoo. Aawooo, werewolf of left leg.
Diamond Dogs or Ruby Slippers?
Diamond Dogs, I like David Bowie and I just hate it when my flying house crushes old ladies.
Godzilla or Cthulhu?
Godzilla, though I do own two Cthulhu plushies to help fend off madness.
Luck or Destiny?
Luck, because if destiny’s real all this improv has been for naught.
THE HUMAN HURRICANE runs from August 1st to 25th, 2024 at the Edinburgh Fringe. Book tickets here.
