SYDNEY FRINGE: SAM SIMMONS’ FAIL
His natural habitat may be hanging around young people at food courts. He may say his distinguishing feature is baldness. He claims to have written his latest show by the light of a Nokia 3600. He may even dub said one-man show Fail. Comedian Sam Simmons is either very modest, very strange, very funny, or all three. We caught up with him before his Sydney Fringe debut.
What is the ultimate fail for you?
Kayaking, windsurfing, capoeira, tae bo, triathlons, lacrosse, any kind of exclusive wank sport involving money really.
Your show Fail is already a bit of a win (it took the Comics’ Choice Award at the Melbourne Comedy). Will you need to change the name?
Nah, I’m already working on the next show though… Broken.
How do you fit in your stints at triple j, j TV, the Melbourne Zoo, as well as comedy shows at Melbourne, Edinburgh and now Sydney Fringe Festivals?
Well triple j TV was axed, triple J radio doesn’t really like me anymore cos I tour so much, same for any zoo career, so I think it’s best to focus on combining those three and becoming the next Steve Irwin. It’s time to stop doing festivals and spend more time on animals (that sounded worse than it is).
Why do you have something against, ‘people who hang out at cafes at 11am on Tuesday mornings to discuss their hip ironic movie script that will never get made…’? Are you secretly one of those people?
Absolutely no way, that comes from my waiting days. Since the dawn of affordable laptop computers, everyone’s getting a three piece together, or something like that, you know what I mean.
Apparently you have ‘one foot firmly planted into the soils of reality, and the other rooted deep into the psyche of being silly.’ What does that even mean?
It’s like I’m a giant Moreton Bay Fig tree with all those random roots winding around the ground all at silly angles, yet my foliage above shades my silly maze like roots of silliness, or the other way round… hey it’s still fun to climb.
You target lots of celebrities in your skits – Delta Goodrem, Sandra Bullock, Vince Vaughn. Why?
The absolute abhorrent stupidity of the inanity of celebrity makes me laugh. For some reason I bet Vince Vaughn secretly picks his nose and rolls it into the corner of his mouth.
Australian comedy. Comment.
It’s healthy and alive, especially for peeps like me. If it wasn’t for trailblazers like Greg Fleet, Shaun Micallef and Judith Lucy, the industry wouldn’t be as healthy as it is. That being said, there is some dog awful shit out there too.
Sep 17-25, Carriageworks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, $30, thesydneyfringe.com.au
