Comedian Tom Gleeson said Canberrans had nothing to worry about with his latest show. He had already taken Sure Thing to many venues, including the Adelaide Fringe, the Perth Fringe and the Melbourne and Brisbane Comedy Festivals, and knew exactly what worked.
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"I've been all around Australia - this show is really huge," he said.
"It's a quality item - it's all sure-thing comedy."
Gleeson said he would be dealing with some topical material at the top of the show, including a perennial favourite target, the Catholic Church.
He said Canberra would be luckier than Merimbula, where he had to omit some of his best church-related material to save his mother, who lives there, from embarrassment.
"My mother goes to Mass every Sunday."
Gleeson said he would also be discussing the phenomenon of "unsmacked adults" - grown-up spoilt brats, of whom he cited former National Party leader Barnaby Joyce as a prime example, blaming everyone but himself for what happened to him.
At 43, Gleeson was of a generation where parents still smacked their children but - perhaps paradoxically - he doesn't use that form of discipline himself. He said he wanted a method that would instil the good behaviour without the trauma.
Other subjects on the Gleeson radar will be equal pay and the "emphatic" vote in favour of marriage equality - he noted that most of the people who predicted the silent majority would vote "no" have gone very quiet.
Gleeson has had a high media profile in the last year or so, with a game show, Hard Quiz and his Hard Chat segment on The Weekly With Charlie Pickering making more people aware of him and his comedy.
"I absolutely love it," Gleeson said of the TV work, especially the squirm-inducing Hard Chat interviews where he puts everyone from former politican Wyatt Roy to celebrity Sophie Monk on the spot (the video of the latter, he said, "has gone viral, as they say").
Now, he said, "people are lining up to go on it".
But a major reason for all the media work, he said, was to promote his stand-up comedy appearances, talking about the sorts of issues that came up in dinner-party conversations.
"I talk about stuff I care about, stuff I can engage people with ... I put a point of view, a position."
Sure Thing is on at the Canberra Theatre on Saturday, May 5 at 7.30pm. canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 62752700.
