10 Quick Qs – Mat Ricardo
People, take note. This is how you take a light, frivolous interview and turn it into something else entirely. Mat Ricardo, you knocked this one out of the park.
1. Describe your show Twitter-style, 140 character or less!
I’ll make you take back what you said about jugglers. Guaranteed.
2. Do you feel pressured to be funny at family gatherings?
God no. My parents find the whole “Mat makes a living out of being funny” concept beguiling and puzzling. After 27 years of doing this professionally, I get the feeling they’re still waiting for me to wise up and get a job in an office.
3. Is this your first Adelaide Fringe? If so, what are you most looking forward to? If not, what is your least favourite thing about the festival?
It is my first Adelaide fringe, and as I write this, I am at home, in London, listening to the rain hammer on my windows, with the heating turned up full and two sweaters on. Does that answer your question?
4. What was the most challenging aspect about preparing your show?
It’s by far the most complicated and demanding show I’ve ever done. There are things in it that, if I don’t do them exactly right, will genuinely injure me, badly. An hour of warm-up every day before the show, 10 minutes of self-congratulation afterwards, and then a sleepless night wondering why I decided to juggle cordless electric carving knives. Yep.
5. If you could be any character in any movie, who and what would it be?
Anyone Gene Kelly played.
6. Who’s your biggest comedic idol?
George Carl. Google him. Funniest 9 minutes ever created by a human.
7. Is heckling allowed?
A very good friend once said that heckling is like going to the ballet and throwing marbles on the stage. Heckle if you must, but don’t think for a second that you’re doing anything other than getting in the way of the thing we’re all here to do.
8. What’s your favourite Internet-related guilty indulgence?
I’m not big on guilt. Boring, I know. Indulgence-wise, the point at which it became possible to order pizza from an app on my phone, was the point at which I had to double my daily cardio. Stupid delicious cheese.
9. What is the biggest accolade you’ve received from one of your shows?
I’ve been lucky – I’ve won a few actual awards and stuff, and they’re great, but honestly, there are a couple of moments in my show where, sometimes, you’ll hear an honest-to-goodness gasp from the audience. That always gets me. The American playwright David Mamet said “You can blackmail an audience into a standing ovation, but you can’t fake a gasp”. It means something to me, every single time.
10. What other Fringe show are you most excited to catch up with?
So many great shows are here – lots of old friends, and lots of shows that I’ve been hearing great things about but haven’t got the chance to see yet. I can’t wait to catch up with people. But the brilliant thing about the fringe is that I’m willing to bet that one of my favourite shows will be one that I don’t even know exists yet – the sheer number of amazing things going on means that I’ll get taken to something that I’ve never heard of and it’ll blow me away and become the thing I make sure to catch up with next year. That’s the fun of it, right there!
Showman plays from February 14th.
