ANDREW HANSEN AND CHRIS TAYLOR, ONE MAN SHOW
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February 27
Illawarra Performing Arts Centre
Tickets: $36-$32
Bookings: merrigong.com.au/
He has been part of a team that fearlessly bailed up pollies and celebs, infiltrated APEC security and poked fun at the media, but the mere thought of his upcoming stand-up comedy tour has The Chaser star Chris Taylor slightly nervous.
"Excited is one word. Terrified is another," Taylor says ahead of the tour with fellow Chaser member Andrew Hansen.
"It's healthy to get out of your comfort zone, but I haven't done a show like this since our university revue days. I have no real live performance chops," he laughs.
With the sixsome that make up The Chaser - Taylor, Hansen and Dominic Knight, Chas Licciardello, Craig Reucassel and Julian Morrow - on something of a hiatus, the members have gone on to tackle their own projects. Taylor has been working on a web series called Plonk, where he plays a caricature of himself who hosts a wine tasting TV show. The rest of his down time has been thinking about - or not thinking about, as the case may be - the One Man Show tour with Hansen.
"It's not written yet," Taylor reveals.
"That means it will be very fresh when it gets to you. It will be a mix of songs and sketches and monologues. Some on topical issues, things giving us the shits in the news, but it's also a chance to clown around and bring out the absurdist side in both of us."
Taylor and Hansen have collaborated before, on The Blow Parade, the ARIA-winning radio mockumentary about a series of fictional bands. It was silly and wild and over-the-top, a complete contrast to their politically charged Chaser work, and it is more on this end of the spectrum that the One Man Show will focus.
"The Chaser is like a strait jacket, because we can only do topical or political stuff, but we're more interested in that silly British comedy. But we've never really had an outlet for it before," Taylor says.
While admittedly "terrified" about the prospect of entertaining a live theatre audience night after night, rather than having the safety net of a pre-taped television program, Taylor says it is the thrill of the unknown or the scary that is the motivator behind this latest venture.
"Having done TV for so long, I've gotten into a comfortable groove and stopped getting the electricity charge of knowing whether something will work or not," he says.
"Having worked with The Chaser so closely for years, I miss the fear and sense of the unknown. I hope the live show can help me regain the terror. You recharge your creative juices by getting out of your comfort zone."
That doesn't mean, however, that the pair will be deserting the political material totally. For them, the Abbott government is manna from heaven - too good to ignore.