The Happiest Refugee

October 29-30

Illawarra Performing Arts Centre

Anh Do is happy to sign autographs for his fans. He’s even happy to forge a signature or two.

“I was in the airport just before and a mother comes up and says ‘you’re my son’s favourite person in the world’ and asks for an autograph for him,” Do says from his Darwin hotel room. He’s in the Top End about to embark on another run of his wildly successful show, The Happiest Refugee.

“As I’m writing it, she tells me ‘you were by far the best Wiggle’. She thought I was Jeff from the Wiggles, so I ripped off ‘Anh Do’ and quickly wrote down ‘Jeff Wiggle’ instead.”

It’s the kind of story that rolls so easily off Do’s tongue, his warmth and good nature and kindness (which even extends to some light forgery so as to not disappoint a young boy) is  obvious, even as he talks to the Mercury from the opposite end of the country. 

Do is probably one of the nicest guys in Australia, as his TV appearances on Thank God You’re Here and Dancing With The Stars attest –  but his affability belies the troubled beginning to his life, which forms the base of his best-selling autobiography, The Happiest Refugee, for which his new show is named.

“Certain parts of my childhood were tough, but there was always something good,” he says, recounting a story where his mother taped regular balloons to the roof at an early birthday party to imitate helium balloons.

Do escaped Vietnam with his parents and younger brother in 1980. His parents had fought in the Vietnam War on the side of Australian troops, so feared for their lives at war’s end. 

A long trip in a leaky fishing boat, beset by  two separate groups of pirates en route, including an incident when his brother was dangled overboard by a plunderer, saw the family settle in Australia. 

Those experiences, as well as the struggles of growing up in a strange country with a new language, are what he recounts and recreates during the show, a live version of the book that won awards, including Book of the Year at the 2011 Australian Book Industry Awards.

“I never used to do this sort of show – I just did jokes –  then one day I was having a beer with [Australian comedian] Dave Hughes and we were talking about family history, and he said I should do it on stage,” Do said.

“Dave said ‘make them laugh and cry, make it a whole journey’. It is a journey, but there’s no lack of laughs.”

Featuring photographs and videos of his childhood, as well as the regular stand-up comedy routines that fans know and love, Do calls the show a “rollercoaster” and says he  ends up emotionally exhausted afterwards. But along the way, he has some laughs himself.

“The best photo is one of my brother. When we arrived in Australia, some nuns from St Vinnies gave us a big bag of second-hand clothes, but something got mixed up in translation, so we got half clothes for a boy and half for a girl,” Do said.

“Instead of giving them back, mum just dressed my brother in girls’ clothes until he was two years old. He hates those photos now.”

Do has been touring the show for a while now, and though this will likely be the last stage run, the story is probably not over for The Happiest Refugee.

“Russell Crowe called me on the phone one day, and said he wanted to turn it into a film,” Do said.

“I thought it was a prank call, but we’re doing the screenplay for it now.”