Standing on-stage naked and tackling homophobia requires a certain element of chutzpah.Joel Creasey has been chased out of a Victorian country town, taken his clothes off in front of people he doesn’t know and eaten his little sister’s hospital meals and he’s fast becoming one of the funniest people on the comedy circuit.
““The naked finale happened at a Sydney show. I decided to take all my clothes off and I wasn’t sure it’d get the laugh I wanted. So there I was standing naked onstage with the crowd staring back at me. It would’ve been a tough way to end the show if it hadn’t worked, but it went well. By the time I got to do the same thing at the Melbourne Comedy Festival I wasn’t even thinking about it,” Joel said.
Colac in rural Victoria was another headline in Joel’s comedy career. The openly gay comedian was run out of town by a homophobic gang who weren’t impressed that he turned up to host an anti-discrimination event.
“It all began at a previous Colac performance. I was abused after the show and a reporter from the Colac Herald saw the whole thing and put it in the paper. I was invited back to talk about those issues and when I arrived at the venue there were about 20 people waiting outside to bash me. It was awful at the time but the support I got was amazing and the half-hour of comedy material I pulled from it was even more amazing!”
Standing on-stage naked and tackling homophobia requires a certain element of chutzpah. And even more so when you return to your own territory and strut your stuff in front of family and friends.
“I’d like to say I’m utterly fearless now, but that’s not quite true. It’s still quite tricky when I come back to Perth. I grew up in Applecross and went to Wesley College. I had some awful teachers there and some amazing ones, too, but I don’t think I’d send my kids there. I didn’t have a massive struggle being gay at school but it would’ve been a lot easier being straight.”
“Appearing in Perth is always interesting because I tell a lot of stories about people who are in the audience. I change the names obviously, but then I forget the aliases I’ve made up and I keep switching between their fake names and their real ones. I think I confuse just about everyone that way.”
“There are some real idiots from here that I’ll always remember. I hear on the grapevine that they’re coming to the show but now I make sure it’s more of a worry for them. I think they’re so stupid they don’t realise it’s about them.”
Joel reflects on all-things-medical, from friends who are training to be doctors to his sister’s hospital experiences.
“I’ve never been seriously ill or had an accident. Ten seconds after hanging up the phone, I’ll probably get hit by a bus! It’ll be more good material for my next show. I’ve got a few friends who are training to be doctors or just graduated and that freaks me out. There’s one who’s just graduated and I wouldn’t recommend him to anyone. I know far too much about him. He just should not leave the house. As for me, I don’t have a degree and I get paid to swear on stage for a living!”
“My little sister was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when she was about 7 years old. She went to PMH and we’d often go in to visit her, so my experience with the health profession has been pretty good. I do remember eating a lot of her hospital food.”
Perth’s a small pond, so where is this all heading for someone who’s a self-declared attention-seeker who loves the spotlight?
“I’m loving it at the moment and basically I’d like to take over the whole world. My ultimate goal is to have my own talk-show like Graham Norton. I adore his work and that whole pop culture side of things.”