Oliver Clark – Up Close and Personal : Comedy Interviews
March 4, 2010 by Lisa Dib
Filed under Comedy, Featured, Interviews
Picture yourself draped over a cushy maroon loveseat. You’re in a smoke-tinged bar-room, another velvet dungeon in a strip of all-night (oft spelled ‘nite’) Las Vegas nightspots. You sip on your g’n’t as the waitress hands out cigars; a man in a pinstripe suit winks at her and calls her ‘sugar’.
The stage ahead of you lights up; you figure a musical group of some persuasion must be arriving, look at all those shiny horns. The ringleader of tonight’s entertainment is a blue-velvet three-piece suit clad charmer named Oliver Clark.
His light-bulb smile does more to illuminate the stage all the footlights in this damn town. His deep, stately Australian burr drips with charm; his songs are saturated with dry witticisms and cornier-than-creamed-corn lines, in the cheesy-cheese sense of the word. The audience is amused and slightly aroused. I spoke to Clark on the nature of his Neil-Diamond-meets-Robert-Goulet-somewhere-in-Fitzroy musical-comedy act.
Oliver Clarke
“It’s very loungey, very Vegas-y, cheesy in a good way. The kind of cheese you wanna eat. I’m a Gouda, a nice Murphy Valley Crumbly…” Clark explains, as he draws us into the act. “Music is kind of the backup; it seems to be working a treat, the trial show at the Butterfly Club (Melbourne) worked really well. They work really well together as long as they’re done right. Even stand-up comics wanna be rock stars. I’m a comedian first and a musician second, but music is becoming more and more part of the act”
Clark takes inspiration from some of the finest comic minds in ha-ha history- which probably accounts for his unique spin on stand-up; “Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, Peter Sellers, Leslie Nielsen…I latched onto Steve Martin’s stand-up from the 70s”
Clark has also released an album chock full of his swoony serenades and jazz-pop ditties- Ten Thousand Kisses, tracks from which you will hear (with, apparently, some sterling choreography) in his Comedy Festival show coming up.
“I love old school. Elvis, Tom Jones…the whole live band, ultra-cheesy and predictable thing. I’m not a fan of funny lyric comedy; [this is] music drenched in irony with straight lyrics, plus you get a laugh with the padding in between and the talking. Everything about the album is obvious; it crosses a few genres, ballads, Elvis-y clambake-type songs, Glen Campbell-type stuff, slightly bluesy stuff in there, a real mix. I’m excited about the show”
So what can we expect from your shows at this year’s Com Fest?
“My show is called Lady Killer. It’s gonna be the usual shtick; blending the music in with the comedy, and there’ll be quite a few tracks from the album, but shortened versions. The choreography, as well, is always fun to watch. I’ll be bringing the guitar in as well; it’s very musical but very funny as well”
Oliver Clark
“I’ve had crowds that take me literally and that doesn’t work; it would be perceived as genuinely bad” he reiterates, assuring us not to take his lounge-act cheese too seriously. “It’s me taking the piss out of Vegas or a certain type of comedian, or myself in general. Punchlines aren’t really there; cheese is not what you say but how you say it. You can deliver a punchline and say “that’s the joke”, but I think it’s funnier if people look for the joke themselves. Like sitcoms, you end up laughing more at the characters than what they’re doing, much like Steve Martin”
Considering the title of the show, and his goony dreamboat persona on stage, does Clark get much lady love after the curtains (that’s the stage curtains, ahem) are drawn?
“It’s interesting; normally I like to meet girls that haven’t seen me do stand up. People are disappointed that I don’t wear the velvet suit all the time!”
I am disappointed to know this also. A girl can dream. With the 2010 Melbourne Comedy Festival rapidly approaching, who should we- pun intended- watch out for this year?
“Check out Harley Breen, his show is called Personal Space; lot of energy, very likeable. And a handsome devil to boot, so you’re certainly getting your money’s worth (laughs)”
Great article on a very funny and talented comedian!