To fully understand the context of this interview I recommend listening to the audio linked below.
Here a few selected highlights from my chat with legendary Australian comedian Steve Hughes
On why Steve Hughes decided to become a stand-up comedian
Steve: I was in bands for years and years from the 80's up until the 2000's. I was always funny, I used comedy to distract myself and make others laugh, I remember when we were really young in the 80's, I remember one day listening to "Hell Awaits" by Slayer and "Bonded By Blood" by Exodus. And we sat around listening to those albums and then we listened to Bill Cosby records, I never quite saw the connection back then, we sat around listening to Bill Cosby stand-up then we'd put "Bonded By Blood" on. Then in the 90's it wasn't as "metal", there would be periods of downtime, someone might leave the band to go do something else. When I'd watch all those movies from the 80's like Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor, Steve Martin... I'd always loved comedy Black Adder and all the English stuff. I just thought " I need to do something else" like drama courses and improvisation courses but I just wasn't interested enough, then I thought I'd give this a go "it's fucking horrifying", it's the one art form that is really horrifying to start because you can't do it anywhere except in front of people. In a band you can practice for years and then do a gig or be in a play and learn the script, but the stand up is the one where you go "Is this any good?" "am I funny?" the only way to know is to go out there and. But I did it, I kept doing it, that's how I started, just like anyone I guess, I just decided "yep, I think I'm funny" and then there's that part of you that just goes "fuck it, I'll just do it". There's no explanation for it people ask "how do I start?" I say "fuck it, there is no other way, you just gotta do it".
On how people that could have been considered "left-wing" a few years ago can now be considered "far right" in contrast with the new rise of "Social Justice Warriors" and "triggered" outrage mobs
Steve: It's funny having to deal with kids that are 20 years old that think I'm some kind of conservative prude but in a way I suppose I'm becoming one, well not a prude but I just grew up and understand more. Without having any kind of political allegiance my entire life I was exactly one of those people, I grew up as an outsider, I had a traumatic childhood, I couldn't play sports as well as other kids in Australia, I didn't like school, I didn't like fucking jobs, I enjoyed Metal. I knew other outsiders, goths, metal-heads, punks, I went to hippie festivals, I've met gays, I know trannies, I know artists. I've hung around gays and trannies and freaks and metal-heads and goths and outsiders and fucking drug addicts, performers and muscicians, poets, comedians and actors my entire life. So yeah I've met em' all. I'm basically a lefty, I've never been a racist, I didn't mind if you were gay, I didn't mind if you wanted to do what you wanted to do without hurting anybody else, I never gave a fuck.
But now I'm like "no, no, no no" you people have gone a little too far now. If you are going to manipulate anybody that's an outsider and put them into a box and label them a "victim" and then go tell them they should go carry a flaming torch of vengeance, to bring down the "evil white-man patriarchy" that has "destroyed the entire world with colonialism and capitalism" and are basically the only people in the universe that have ever done anything wrong and now need to be destroyed and put in their place. And all the small minority groups which were wound up and poked with sticks through the universities and with their "political correctness" and their "cultural Marxism", now we start sending them out as psychological foot soldiers to monitor the rest of the population if they don't heed the supporting of "minority groups" into the whole, well then "phew" it's time for you to be attacked on social media or branded a bigot and you'll have your life absolutely destroyed.
On "Cultural Appropriation" [e.g "not appropriate for white people to have dreadlocks"] and thoughts on mass immigration
Steve: If that's fair ["white people not being allowed to have dreadlocks] then every black-man should take his suite off. That's cultural appropriation, "alright every black man take your suite off", "get rid of your cars", "don't have computers", "you can't have air-conditioning", "no flying in planes". "You understand that if I can't have these dreadlocks then you're fucking certainly not getting in this plane, son". "Why? that's appropriating my white-man culture". White men don't have a culture that's what we've been told. White men are just a homogeneous mass that just sit in their country and are ready to take in constant immigration so they can become the multicultural uncultured people that they always were. Their culture [Western Culture] is evil and colonialist and bigoted and racist, you can't have any kind of white-pride because that automatically means "white supremacy", so we'll flood you with immigrants from every part of the world and put the torch of vengeance and victim-hood in their hands and then we'll rouse them up. You gotta have pride for Nigeria, of course you do. "I"m proud to be from Europe", "ah no no no, we'll have none of that, stop that supremacy immediately".
They train young people these days to actually hate themselves, to hate their culture, to hate what they've been brought up in. In one sense they [SJW's] are traitors, they're a cancer actually. SJW's are a cancer within the body politic and like a cancer they try and kill the host and that's exactly what they are trying to do "kill the host". You've gotta breakdown all its traditions all its borders, all its morals because the host country for these immigrants needs to be destroyed so that everyone can fit into this homogeneous mass. "No, no no" you're so wrong, you need a host country and you need that host country to be the majority and then if you want to come to that host country you need to acclimatize and accommodate yourself into that home country, which is exactly what you want to do because these SJW's are completely against colonialism which didn't do thing like that. It [colonialism] went to other peoples countries and completely took over their culture and dominated them and put them in their place, right? Did white people do that? yeah they fuckin' did and it's shit and heaps of other people thru-out history have done that as-well it's called fucking "domination", it's called "conquering" and it has been done by fucking heaps of races of the earth. But white people did it in the most recent part of history that most people can remember and they did it with technology. So that's the one they remember, the one they've been promoted too but it's exactly not a good thing to do. It's not cool to come to Australia and kill the Aboriginals and shoot them and put them in chains, "you don't like that do you?" - Well mass immigration is the same thing but done without the guns and the obviousness. It's done until eventually there's 40% black people in Ireland... well that's not going to work, that is an invasion, now you don't have an Irish culture there, now you've got Mosques all over Ireland.. Well I don't wanna see Mosques all over Ireland. Why? Because it's not a fucking Islamic country, it's a small Christian/Pagan country, it can only take so many people, it has got green grass and pubs and wit and funniness and poetry and I don't wanna see thousands of Muslims on their knees praying and I don't want to see thousands of Mosques decorating the Irish countryside. Why? Because that's an invasion, that is the destruction of a culture, which is exactly what colonialism does just more obviously and violently. multiculturalism is okay as long as it's contained. I use the example if you've got a 12 seater bus and it's already got 25 people in it then you can't stop to pick up the hitchhiker!
Germany is a mess, Sweden's a mess, France is a mess, the UK is a mess. It's the eastern block countries that were under communism in the 80's that are the ones that know what's going on and they're going "Nope", Poland, Hungry, Czech Republic, they're going "no, no no way" and the EU [European Union] are going "we'll find you" and they're like "we don't give a fuck, no way!". "we just got out of the yoke of communism 35 fucking years ago, we're not starting this now"
On why people still watch Television and listen to commercial radio now that we have the choice of YouTube, Netflix, Spotify etc.
Steve: It's quite remarkable isn't it. I haven't watched the TV since the 80's. I've watched films but not on TV on DVD's, It because I can't watch ads, I can't. I can't fucking watch them. I can't watch a film especially in a country like this where every 7 minutes they give you fucking 5 minutes of ads. You can't watch a film like that, that's not watching a film. That's like having sex where every 5 minutes you gotta get up and doing some washing up. It's ridiculous. And as you said "there's so much on offer" and yet there are still people that want to watch fucking My Kitchen Rules and Bondi Vet and fuckin' "I've Just Got Married to a Fuck Wit" or whatever that show's called. And while they're watching that they disperse some ads about insurance and "how men are horrible". It's beyond me. They're beyond me, they are the people I call "The Mainstream-Mainstream". When I was in Heavy Metal bands and I started doing comedy I thought the people who watched were "mainstream" because they were't covered in spikes and Slayer shirts and then I realized they weren't they were people that actually got off their ass and saw some comedy not knowing who it was. They just went and were like "I wanna see what this is like", they're not totally mainstream people. I suddenly realized when I got bigger in comedy that there is a "mainstream-mainstream" and they're the people that don't go anywhere they're not told. They don't go to any concert any performer any film if they are not told. They wont go and find out about a comedian because they've gotta go and see one of the "comedians" that are "off the TV" , they're not really comedians, we just put them on the TV and call them a comedian, he's sorta doing comedy but it's not that good and it's very safe and boring, so now we can have him on TV. And then he will go do the Melbourne Comedy Festival and sell out shows in front of thousands of people and it's very frustrating for people like me. I know I'm not everyone's cup of tea but I slaughter "this guy"
Make to check out the full interview below to get the full context of the conversation, we also cover plenty more topics such as what is was like to be roommates with Jim Jefferies (Australian Comedian), thoughts about Joe Rogan's podact and much more!
Here's a photo of me and my friend with Steve Hughes in Brisbane. [I'm the one in the middle]
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