Andy Saunders has always known how to make people laugh.
‘I was always a bit of a bad boy. Always saying the most inappropriate thing at the most inappropriate time. It was my not just thinking dirty thoughts. I was saying them.
‘I have always been able to translate an idea or something into my head to make a joke. A lot of people are funny, but they lack the skill to translate it to material!
‘A lot of my family are really funny,’ he says. ‘They try and tell me jokes that I am supposed to say on stage and I am left saying to them, that’s going be hard to translate… and they say, look at Andy, he’s the big comedian now!’
Andy came to public attention with his online comedy sketch show called [ITALIC]White Bloke Atcha. [/ITALIC] ‘I felt the hunger and fell into it,’ he laughs.
‘I remember my first real gig – it was a little bit daunting, and everyone does things that are like comedy. You joke with your family for 20 years before you become a professional, but the thing is my first professional gig happened in front of a bunch of strangers. They were going to hear what was in my head. It was a RAW comedy heat in the bar on the hill in Newcastle , jam packed. I was in the top three so went on to the state finals, which was good.’ Yes it was good. State finalist for your first ever live performance is nothing to sneeze at!
‘When I started off I was very political,’ says Saunders of his foray into standup.
‘It was because of the lack of inclusivity of Aboriginal people in main-stream media. Now we are all over mainstream media. Well we’re in the anti-smoking campaign ads. I have always done a lot of tongue-in-cheek jokes and that can make me look angry. I steered away from that. There is a lot of humour in an angry comic, but you just don’t want to mix it with bitter and cynical!’
Saunders is nothing remotely bitter or cynical. Fast, furious, able to jump from impressive act-out to act-out at lightning speed, making insane comedic connections missed by others… like Aliens coming to Earth and saying, ‘take me to your leader’ and having to take them to Donald Trump.
‘Anger is a great comedy avenue but it needs to be used right; it’s like crudeness. There are some comedians who go too far and it’s not funny any more but if you are smart and use it in an articulate way people get it. That’s the same with political humour and cultural humour. It takes skill to not show that anger, and to try to get your point across in words.’
As such, Saunders often finds himself a bit of a cultural educator for community members who have little Indigenous knowledge or experience.
‘I find this quite endearing and quite funny that people come up to us and say you know what, I learnt something. It makes me just think, wow people can’t be that detached from Indigenous people! But they are.’
Although Saunders’s comedic star is definitely on the rise, he won’t be leaving his home town of Taree any time soon. ‘Living there really helps with my lifestyle and my inner peace,’ he says. ‘I tried the city twice and it just didn’t suit me. I would definitely live in Byron Bay! For me it’s about the conncection in the country. I am not saying I couldn’t connect in the city, but there is a rhyme I think to myself: One in seven billion and still more to come – how am I going to make a mark when I am only one?’
Oh, I should have mentioned: Saunders is also an impressive hip-hop and beat-box artist.
‘I find power in being able to put words together. Humans really respond to rhyme. There are new rappers saying let’s go away from rhyme. You are trying to change mindsets with words. People need to hear the lyrics and the rhyme helps them move their mindset!’
When Saunders is asked about his greatest influence, he goes to family.
‘My grandfather – unbelievable man, greatest human I have known – he taught me it’s human to be different and humane to accept the difference. He was very compassionate, and my grandmother was the same.
The matriarchs: we miss them. They are there for a reason, to instill those types of beliefs in the younger people. He used to have a bunch of people coming from universities and asking questions about acceptance and diversity and one time one of them asked him about to stop racism.
He said to this older journalist, “Do you have kids? The only way to stop racism from this point on is to teach your kids to have acceptance, be inclusive and non-judgmemtal. Stop racism one family at a time; start with your kids.” It’s that great saying; children are messages we send to a time we will not see and it’s our job to make those messages strong and true, and I believe that is what humour is about. It’s okay to laugh at things, and to laugh at yourself, and the best thing to do is to be happy and have a laugh…’
Andy Saunders is not just a comedian, he’s one hell of a message carrier. Don’t miss him when he headlines at the Byron Services Club with Ms Stella as support and Mandy Nolan as MC on Monday.
Tickets are $20/25 and are available at the club or can be booked on
6619 0529.
