AN INTERVIEW WITH COMEDIAN JOSIE LONG

Welcome to Impulse Gamer and thanks for being part of our Entertainment Magazine!

1. Jodie, why did you become a comedian? 

It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do and I really love doing it!

2.  Who inspires you as a comedian and why? 

I really like going to comedy festivals like Edinburgh and Melbourne to get inspired, I feel like people bring their a-game to them and watching other people’s brilliant shows makes me feel like I need to try and be a better comedian. I like comedians like Claudia O Doherty and Tony Law who have a great mix of silliness and really astute, clever stuff.

3.  Where do you get your material from? 

Absolutely everywhere I can find it! I totally vampyrise my life when I am writing a show. I also try and write about what I am passionate about and what I feel is most important to me at the time, so at the moment when I’m in the UK a lot of it is reacting to our insane coalition government.

4.  Before going onto stage, do you have any rituals that you perform?

Not really, but I tend to go and have a wee about five times just to make sure.

5.  Which country has the funniest comedians?

UNITED KINGDOMMMMMMM! haha

6.  What do you look forward to at the Melbourne Comedy Festival? 

Getting to see all of the bloody brilliant aussie comics that I know and don’t see enough like Lawrence Leung and Andy McClelland and felicity ward! And the fact that Melbourne is such a lovely city to be in. And people saying “let’s give it a red hot go” I miss that a lot when I’m in London.

7.  Why should visitors to the Melbourne Comedy Festival see your show? 

Because I’ve come ever such a long way and there’s a bit in it where I pretend to be some kind of Godzilla or something.

8.  Have you had any horrendous experiences on stage? 

Oh goodness me, yes. But nobody’s thrown anything or punched me yet so I think I’m doing ok, and the good ones outweigh the bad ones.

9.  How do you wind down after a show?

I like to go out for Chinese food with my friends and we can all talk about our festival shows and muck around. The last time I was in Melbourne we picked up a habit of going out to the karaoke and that was bloody excellent, Tim Vine does an incredible falsetto version of the Bee Gees.

10. Tell us a joke about an inappropriate topic? 

When the pope resigned all of the cardinals were really sad and as he was leaving they said to him “you cant resign from being pope! Once you pope you can’t stop!” it only works if you say it in a pretty unacceptably bad Italian accent.

11. What happens when you mess up a gag? 

I try and muck around with it and let the audience know that I’ve messed up in the hope that I can do some kind of good improvisation as compensation.

12. Is there a type of self-inflicted punishment involved when this does happen? 

Haha yeah I guess I’ll tell the audience what a grade a idiot I am, if they haven’t already realised that. 

13. Tell us the first thing that pops into your head when you hear these words 

-      Prime Minister Julia Gillard?

-      FEMENISTUSMASSHHHHU!

-      Batman?

-      Awesome.

-      Mushy peas?

-      Do you even have these in Australia? How am I so ignorant.-       

-      Death?

-      No thanks.-       

-      Family?

-      Alright, rather that than death.

14. Apart from you, who do you want to see at the Melbourne Comedy Festival?

I want to see the body of Phar Lap in its glass case and the comedy of Greg Fleet.

15. What does the future hold for you?

Oh my how can I possibly tell. I’m hoping to make a low budget feature film next year and then take it to film festivals, that’s my dream.

16. Lastly, 10 words or less why we should see your show? 

What else have you got on? Let’s bloody do this!

Thanks again and all the best for the Melbourne Comedy Festival for 2013!  

Thank youuuuuu

Check out Josie Long at the
Melbourne International Comedy Festival