just a bit Aussie

UK comedian Mark Butler will become an Australian citizen in time for this year’s Fringe. Having spent the much of the last five years in Australia, he has decided it’s time to be a bit more Aussie.

‘This year’s Fringe show is all about my observations on the Australian way of life,’ he explains, ‘so in order to give you guys a fair go, I felt I should become Australian.’

So does his new show praise or poke fun at our famed beach and barbeque culture? ‘It’s generally positive,’ he claims in his Northern English accent, ‘but I’m not a huge fan of the macho footy culture. I was called a poofter the other day for wearing a shoulder bag! Granted I was wearing it slightly off-the-shoulder, but I still looked tough.’

So why has he decided to make Australia home? It’s not because of the weather, he insists, it’s because Aussie audiences are much more appreciative of his comedy. English audiences, he claims, find it difficult to let themselves go, checking themselves if they laugh too loudly. But that’s never a problem in Adelaide – in his previous Fringe shows he has had to tell audiences to stop laughing so that he can move onto the next joke.

Butler insists, however, that his show is not for everyone. ‘I love your bogans because they’re a good source of material, but I don’t want them coming to my show. My jokes go over their heads.’ So with this discriminatory approach to his audiences, some readers may be left wondering whether Mark’s show is for them. He, of course, has an answer … ‘If you have to ask yourself whether or not you’re a bogan, you’re a bogan! Don’t come to my show!’

Mark Butler’s show I’ve been watching you Australians (but not in a creepy way) in on at the Electric Light Hotel on Grenfell St from 18^th February.