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April 11, 2025 • 13 mins
Dane Simpson chats to Subculture about the show that he is doing with Isaac Compton at this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival - Blak Holes.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, listeners, we all tell you continuing our look at
the Melbourne International Comedy Festival right now, there is one
show that is coming up. It's an absolute world premiere.
It's made up of two comedians, Dane Simpson and Isaac Compton.
It's called Black Holes and it's running through to Sunday,
the twentieth of April. And we'll tell you a little
bit more about those details later on, but we thought

(00:24):
today we would actually get Dane on the phone to
chat a little bit about this amazing show. So welcome
to the program, Dane.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
No worries now, mate, I am so excited to be
able to interview you because you've been someone over the
last couple of years that I've seen pop up on
so many television shows that I love. I've got to
ask tell us a little bit about this show and
how it came together, and how have you been able
to put this together with everything else that you've been
doing over the last two months.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
Yeah, you're right, And you know what jumping on these
TV shows is crazy about. Been Wogga Wogger, you know,
like it's it's so much fun to come to the
major cities and to do all these shows, but to
be on the Telly is so crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
I still, you know, like turn on the TV and
watch me. You know, it's it's fun.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
But yeah, doing a show with Isaac Isaac people might
not know, but he actually did a TV show called
The Summit as well Able to New Zealand and climbed
up a mountain and whatever, and then he's been absolutely
killing it on social media since. So what a part
maybe past three years or so and just blowing up heats.

(01:36):
And I love that he does these little silly fun
sketches and stuff for you know, TikTok and Instagram all
that type of stuff. And that's something that I've never
really done before or gotten involved with, so and I
thought that would be really cool to I don't know,
to stretch that kind of muscle. I'm just usually just
doing straight stand up stuff, so it's cool to work

(01:57):
on a show with somebody that has different and skills
is super funny, and it's just you've got that charisma,
you know, and so yeah, I'm loving it.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
This is so much fun.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
So how did you two meet?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Did you meet?

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Did you already know each other or did you reach
out to him on socials. How did that happen?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, we were already sort of bump into each other
during events, you know. I think the last time that
we've seen each other was that there was a national
Abergel and Islander's Day ball they had, and so we
ran into each other and we're having a bit of
a laugh. And then I think it was a couple
of months after that where I was just like, you
know what, it'd be cool to do a show, to

(02:39):
share the stage with someone like this. My last year
did a show called The King and I and I
brought my dad with me, which I thought was just
so much fun and it was very silly, and so
then I thought that we could do something similar to that.
But it's grown and changed and it's it's something that

(03:01):
I didn't expect it would be this show, but and
I'm very very.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Happy with it.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
It's two good friends just enjoying, I suppose, being on
stage together.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
And having a laugh. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
So Dane, I have to ask as well. You mentioned,
of course that you're from Wagga Wagga. Tell us a
little bit about how your comedy career took off, because
I can't imagine that there would be very many opportunities
for a young comedian in Woggle Wogga. I tell us
a little bit about that. How did your career take off?

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, it's so weird.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
I still live there, you know, And it's there was
no comedy club in Wogga. There's no like Carl Barron
and Kitty Flanagan and stuff come to come to the theater.
But then that was about it, and so I needed
to create like a little bit of a space, and
so my wife and I created the River Arena Comedy

(03:54):
Club and then we get up every month and have
some local people get up and do some and do
some jokes and be a bit silly. And then that
became a thing that some of the big comedy Like
we just had Dave Fues come along, and we've had
Gleason before. Silly pe Puola came along a couple of
months ago. So it's that's grow on and changed, and

(04:15):
then I think just going I used to just drive
because Wogga Wogga's in between Sydney and Melbourne. I used
to just drive to any of the major cities, even Canberra,
and go over and perform a few little shows and
do some stuff and then head back home and then
that was that was ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Ten years ago I started.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well that's a yeah, that's awesome that you've been able
to put together a club like that as well. That's
able to help other people are coming through as well,
because so many people I know, coming from a country
town will kind of make the break out of the
country town and then you never see them again. So
it's great that you've been able to help those coming
up in Wogga Wogga.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Now as well. Yeah, I reckon that.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
That's super important, you know, because I wish that there
was something like that for me when I first started.
But you know, what's the best way then just create
it yourself. We had to go to because there's no
comedian well there wasn't any comedians, So you can build
a comedy club where you are, but there's no people
there to feel. So we had to go to toast
Masters nights, you know, people trying it. And we went

(05:22):
to poultry Slams looking for funny people just performers in general,
musicians and all that type of stuff, and just said,
do you want to create a comedy club?

Speaker 2 (05:30):
And this ragtag bunch of people just decided to get
together and make each other laugh.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
And I love I love how weird everyone is because
there's no way that these people should be friends, and
the thing that brings them together is getting on stage
and having a laugh.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
That's cool to me definitely, And for you was comedy
something you were always interested in? Like was that? Did
you know from an early age that you had the
ability to make people laugh?

Speaker 3 (05:56):
It's always been. My family come from Wolgot, which is
like out back New South Wales, and what you do
is you spin a yarn out there. You wouldn't really
go out to Wolgot for the for the play. You know,
there's not a lot happening out there, but all of
the people are cool, you know, and you spin a
yarn and have a laugh and you share that just

(06:17):
just being around each other, that humanity. And I grew
up spinning yarns, being silly, having a laugh.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
And then later on.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
In life, a comedian came to Woggle Woggle. His name
was Kevink Pinuri and he was doing a tour in
outback New South Wales and was heading out to Wolgot.
And because I had all the equipment, as in like
all the audio equipment, I jumped in the car with him,
and in the front seat of the car, he just
said to me, oh man, because we're just telling each
other stories and he just said, oh man, that's really funny.

(06:47):
You should open for me tonight. And we're in a
town called NARRABRII and I got sight of stage.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
I was so scared, but.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
He physically pushed me out on stage and I told
I told my stories and that was it.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
Of the rest sort of grew from there. Wow.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
So now you're part of one of the biggest comedy
festivals in the world with the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
What does that mean to you to be part of
a festival like this that is so renowned right around the.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
World, around the world. That's insane, isn't it. Like that's
just crazy to me.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Man, Like I've been doing so I've been doing stand
up so ten years and when I when I hit.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
The third year, I got one of the.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Garles spots at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. And that's,
to me, is the biggest, biggest event in the country,
you know, Like I grew up watching that on the
on the telly and it just made me so emotional.
And I've done I've done one of the Garlass so
there's Opening Night super show as well. I've done one
of them every year ever since and it never loses

(07:49):
it shine for me. I still love it. I love
it so much. I love being the Melbourne International Comedy
Fest again. It is one of the biggest comedy festivals
in the world.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
And that's just my blowing that Wogga Wogger is just
sitting there doing dot shows and mega.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
People talking about talking about the whole wide world as well.
You and your dad took part in the Amazing Race
Celebrity edition and you went across to India. That was
that was huge as well. Tell us a little bit
about that. How did that come about and what was
that journey like for you going across to India like that?

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, because that that's from Walgut, you know, and so
to take.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Him on such a huge TV show was I knew
it was going to be a great idea.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
It was a hard well to explain.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
It to my wife that I was going to be
on the Amazing Race and I'm not taking you, I'm
going to take my dad. I thought that that would
be a hard sell, but she actually went, jeez, that's
going to be good television.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
It will be. She was absolutely right.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Yeah, Dad's just experience of being not not only you know,
outside of volgat because I brought him to Melbourne before
and he absolutely loved the big city, but he was
happy to go home. Taking that man to India is crazy.
It just so much fun. And just seeing him on

(09:15):
the plane for the first time, Yep, it was just
just insaye. I remember that the air host she came
over and she just said, oh, hi, mister Simpson, and
then he was impressed that she knew his name.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
That was funny.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
And then she said we're about to serve the meals.
Are you allergic to anything? And he said, yeah, bees,
I think that's irrelevant.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Dad.

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Oh, I love dads in that kind of situation. My
dad is the same. My dad is such a such
a country boy. And a few years ago, outside of radio,
I also do some work across Asia for film journalism
and I have the opportunity to go to an event
that The Rock was going to be at, and my
dad loves Dwayne Johnson. So I took my dad and

(10:06):
my dad was a fish out of water straight away
and we walked up and I said, oh, Dwayne, this
is my dad, and my dad just absolutely froze. He
could not put a word together, couldn't even put his
hand out to shake the rock's hand. Dads are just
classic in those kind of situations.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
That's so funny, so funny, that's fit. And yeah, I'd
like to say that Dad freezes, but he does not.
He is a live, live wire.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
He at my very first Melbourne International Comedy, first show
that I ever written by myself, Dad got up at
the end. He just walked up from the crowd, told
everyone to sit back down and then started doing jokes himself.
And I'm like, no, just the show's finished, Dad, Like,
and he's just a silly dad jokes you know, and.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
What do you call war worse when it burns downs?

Speaker 3 (11:01):
And it was so silly, And yeah, we went over
time because he's he's.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Doing his whole show like that's it.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
We've got to leave and I send everybody off and
he put his arm around me at the end when
everyone was walking out, and I thought it was like,
you know, some validation from a parent that I was
looking for, and he just.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
Said, oh, pretty good, Hey, I killed it. I suppose
you did that. Well.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Listeners, if you want to head a long and see
Dane killing it as part of this year's Melbourne International
Comedy Festival. His show Black Holes is on right through
to Sunday, the twentieth of April. There's no show on
the fourteenth. It's on six thirty each night except for
Sundays when it's on at five point thirty, and it's
on at the Greek poor Port Jump at two hundred
and seventy two Russell Street in the city. You can

(11:48):
book your tickets through Comedyfestival dot com dot au and
if you forget that, you can go to our Subcultuur
Entertainment dot com website and we will have a link
going straight through to book tickets. Dane, I guess niche off,
what would you like to say to people out there
who are thinking about coming along and checking out your show?

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Yeah, I think come along to It's just something that's
a little bit offbeat. It's the B track you know
of the Melbourne Comedy First, there is obviously those huge,
amazing comedians, but the Comedy Festival is here to give you,
like you know, a spectrum of all different people. So
I suggest go check out something that you don't that

(12:27):
you normally wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Definitely. I always say when the Comedy Festival comes to town,
you should always go and see the comedians that you love,
but you should always go and see two or three
comedians that you've never heard of before as well, and
just take that chance.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's exactly discover your new favorite comedian exactly.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
And once again, listeners, if you do want to go
ahead and check out dance Dan Simpson and Isaac Compton,
you can head along and check them out. Their show
is called Black Holes. It is on right through to Sunday,
the twentieth of April. No show on the fourteenth, six
thirty night except Sundays when it's on at five point
thirty on at the Greek at Poor Paw Jump, two
hundred and seventy two Russell Street, and you can grab

(13:07):
your tickets through the Comedy Festival website
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