Demi Lardner drew a picture of a Pelican for Josh.
After Josh had successfully set the Pelican picture as his desktop background, we asked Demi if we could interview her. She said yes. We will be forever grateful.
Your new show is called I Love Skeleton. What are your top three favourite things about skeleton?
My three favourite things about skeleton are ribbies, walkyboys, and all the hinges.
Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Usually I drink the medical limit of red-bulls and then need really badly to piss but then I’m onstage and definitely people know I need to piss because I tell them.
Your humour is so unlike mainstream stand-up and is arguably unique to younger generations. How have older, established comedians reacted to it?
The ‘Secret Stash’ routine at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival gala last year stood out in an otherwise a mainstream setting. Were you nervous about performing that bit?
That was the most nerbus I’ve ever been about anything. I’d never done that bit in a set before and more than one person from the telly team had suggested that it wouldn’t work. I’m pretty glad I believed in it. I don’t do it anymore because it’s a precious little bilby I must protect.
You’ve worked with Aunty Donna; are there any other comedians who have helped influence your work, and any you’d particularly like to work with?
Aunty Donna, particularly Mark Bonanno (who has changed my life and my comedy and I am so grateful for that) are legends and i wish i had any fraction of their talent. Tom Walker is a big inspiration to me. I should like to live in his tummy.
You’ve co-hosted a number of podcasts with Bart Freebairn and Tom Walker. How do you find yourself approaching podcasts as a comedic medium?
Podcasts are my favourite form of comedy to perform. The inherent lack of structure is so tasty and spicy to me, I love flopping about in that space. Plus I get to chat to my best buds.
How have you handled the confronting aspects of your platform — specifically online abuse?
Any stand-up set with sound and lighting cues will inevitably go off the rails every now and then. How do you handle all the technical stuff?
I use a remote now and handle all my cues myself because at the MICF gala this year, literally my worst nightmare occurred. Someone else was handling my tech and just played five tracks all at once and it sounded like everyone’s ears had gone to prison-hell. So I’ll never trust anyone but myself again.
You are so flexible in your press photos. What is your secret?
A criminal lack of self-preservation.
Do you have anything you’d like to plug?
YES my podcast with Tom Walker is called bigsofttitty.png and is not for cowards and ass machines.
What makes you laugh?
Once I saw a picture of a truck that was mashed up in a tunnel and looked really sassy and mad and I laughed about it literally for days. My brain is broken and it is hell.
Where do you want to see the Australian comedy scene in the next five years?
I would love to see it with less old, bitter cunts (majority white men) who think that political correctness is a rattle snake that we have to fuck to death and then throw in the ocean. They’re just mad because now they can’t say the N-word or disrespect minorities without being hassled. I plan to have them all removed.