Comedy Collective: Dave Thornton, Mel Buttle, Nikki Briton
Byron Comedy Fest | Byron Surf Club | Saturday 18 May | 8.30pm | $50
You’ve seen Dave Thornton. He’s the guy with the best eyebrows on The Project. Waleed’s wingman Dave Thornton has one of the slickest on-point wits of his generation – and he’s coming to the Byron Comedy Fest.
Do you ever get sick of people telling you how much they love Waleed? (I’m only asking that because I love Waleed too.)… How could you not like him? He’s intelligent, he’s won a Walkley award, he’s in a band, and he even helped me jump-start my car the other day. Actually now that I think about it he’s too perfect and I’ve come to the conclusion he’s pretty annoying.
I’m intrigued by comedians being journalists, comedians being presidents (like in the Ukraine)… Why is the world suddenly taking us seriously? The world is so strange now it’s like the general public are the riders getting thrown off a bucking bull. Now it’s time for the rodeo clowns to come out and make us remember to calm down and not get too worried about the bullshit we’re stepping in!
Do we tell the truth? I guess that depends on whether we get caught or not.
We’re coming up to an election. Who’s the most difficult politician you’ve had on The Project? What – I have to pick one? That’s like asking which is the wettest fish in the ocean. I think Craig Kelly was the most difficult. The spin he created to fight against any sort of renewable energy was quite mind-boggling. If he could harness his own renewable energy about his hatred of renewable energy you could power the entire eastern seaboard.
Which politician is the most fun to interview? Michael Hing. He’s a Sydney-based comedian trying to get voted into the Senate on his own One Asian party. There you go, another comedian trying to be a politician. Man we’re everywhere – we’re like cane toads!
What’s your political view? No pineapple on pizza (controversial, I know).
What do you think about denialists? Is there anything you’d like to deny if you had the chance? I’d like to deny there was a time there where I had an eyebrow ring and dyed the tips of my spiked hair blond (it really was more of an auburn).
Now that you have kids how has your life changed? Has it impacted much in how you talk about stuff onstage? Someone told me having kids is like being addicted to heroin; you love it, soon enough the only friends have you have left are the ones also doing it and any money you earn you know will be spent on them. So I guess that’s a definitive YES!
What does Dave Thornton give a shit about on a daily basis? I have a two-and-a-half-year-old and a five-month-old. I care about sleep. And possibly naps. And lastly more sleep.
You’re nearly 40, Dave. What old-bloke habits have started to creep into your life? I now love reading plaques. Plaques on statues, plaques in parks, plaques anywhere. I think it’s the lifecycle; as a kid you don’t care about them, as a teenager you graffiti them, as an adult you read them, and when you die you become one. Hakuna Mutata.
What should we expect from you at the Byron Comedy Fest? My intense critiquing of any kind of pineapple on pizza.
Dave Thornton appears with Mel Buttle and Nikki Britton at the Byron Comedy Fest at the Byron Surf Club on Saturday 18 May at 8.30pm. Tix are $50 at byroncomedyfest.com
