Comedian Lloyd Langford wasn't properly dressed before his phone interview with Fly. That's because there was a fire alarm in his New Zealand hotel.
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Over there to perform prior to coming to Australia to take part in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival Roadshow, "I was waiting outside for quite a long time for them to let me back in and hoping they'd let me back in time for my interview," Langford says. "I bumped into one of the other comedians and he had his passport, he had his wallet, basically he had everything he needed if the hotel was on fire. And I was just stood out on the pavement in my pants hoping that it wasn't a real fire."
Langford has appeared in and been the warm-up comedian for QI, written for and performed in Never Mind the Buzzcocks, and been the support comedian for Alan Carr, Russell Brand, Rhod Gilbert and Tommy Tiernan. He's keen to hit Australia for the first time, doing four or five shows a week for about a month. "I'm going to see a hell of a lot of it," he says.
Using personal anecdotes and observations in his stand-up, Langford plans to get out and explore in search of new material.
"I like having fun and playing around with the environment where I'm working," he says.
"Right now I'm in New Zealand, and there's a lot to find funny," he says, by way of example. "And something I'm finding particularly funny at the moment is on the street where my hotel is, there is a strip club called the White House. Basically, it's architecturally modelled like the White House in America. And it has a separate bar called Monica's. But just up the road from the White House, maybe like a couple of houses up, is a Baptist Tabernacle church, which looks exactly like the White House. And I was coming back the other night and I saw some drunk guys who were clearly wanting to go to the White House but were trying to get into the Baptist Tabernacle chapel. Which I think is going to be an entirely different experience."
Hosting the Canberra leg of the epic Roadshow, that also features Anne Edmonds, Bob Franklin, David Quirk and Nath Valvo, is Australian gagman Harley Breen.
"It's my chance to turn the night into my own show," Breen says of his hosting duties. "Not in terms of stealing all the limelight but I treat it as if I'm introducing two friends to each other. One friend is the comic and the other friend is the audience. And I'm hoping that they get along, so it's in my best interest to make sure that I give both of those two friends the best possible foot up to have a good time with each other."
It's his 10th year in the Roadshow and Breen says there is always going to be something for everyone.
"It's a tried and tested touring show that has been going for years now and I've certainly never been on one where the whole night's been a stinker," he says. "I mean this 100 per cent sincerely, it's just about the best value for money that you'll get in a live show. You've got six comics, one of them is the host, which is me. You've got five acts that are very different from each other in genre and style and delivery, and it's kind of a situation where if you don't like one of them, wait, because there's another one coming along and you'll enjoy it."
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY ROADSHOW
Where: Canberra Theatre, Civic.
When: 7.30pm Friday, May 29 and Saturday, May 30.
Tickets: $46.90 + BF from canberratheatrecentre.com.au