A Leung full
"Unknown, likeable" comic Lawrence Leung is new to Sydney. He won Best Australian Act award at last year's Melbourne Comedy Festival and now brings his new show on breakdancing to Cracker. He talks to Time Out about being liked
The phone rings at my desk. This is unusual because I have just started at the ABC and no one knows my number. I don’t even know my number. I’m so new here, people in the corridor ask me if I’m the IT Guy. So I’m Asian and wear a Darth Vader T-shirt – I’m not the IT guy. I’m writing a TV series. Well, that’s what my Facebook update says.
I pick up the phone. “Hi,” says a male voice, excited, “Is Chas there?”
“No,” I reply, realising I have been given the desk of one of those pesky Chaser boys.
“Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“No. They’re doing a live stage show and won’t be back for a while.”
“Oh,” says the voice, “is there another celebrity around? We’re doing the Sydney Uni Scavenger Hunt and we need a celebrity.”
“There’s no celebrities here,” I quip. “It’s the ABC.”
“We’re down at reception. Bring us someone famous. Please.”
He sounds needy. Girls always tell me ‘Needy is unattractive’. I have an idea.
“I can send down Lawrence Leung. He’s a comedian.”
“Who?”
“Lawrence... he’s really… funny.”
“We need a real celebrity.”
I realise I’m the one who sounds needy.
Time Out has asked me to write a piece about the glamorous world of comedy. About sex, drugs and groupies. That’s not the world I know (unfortunately). I’m not saying that comedians don’t indulge in excess. Most do. But comedy for me hasn’t been about shagging, snorting and shotglasses. I’m pretty honest on stage and vulnerability isn’t sexy. Why can’t I be Arj Barker?
Can comedy be the New Rock n Roll? Well, yes, if we think of comedy as having various genres just like music. There’s punk music and there’s hard-hitting comedy. There’s lyrical folk musicians and there’s one-liner comedians. There’s hack jokes about reality TV and the differences between men and women, often on breakfast radio.
For every angry comic with a beer in hand and a mouthful of cock jokes, there’s a skinny boy who tells gags about clothes pegs. Or a girl like Courteney Hocking with her political barbs or London’s Josie Long who weaves heartwarming gags about oddballs. Or Professor Andrew McClelland who jokes about pirates. Sydney has Daniel Moore who tells endearing tales about love letters, Carnovale and Culp who are as trippy as the Mighty Boosh. Comedy is like music. There’s AC/DC and there’s Belle and Sebastian. I’d like to be Darren Hanlon. I’m going to play my whimsical riffs at the Opera House.
Lawrence Leung Learns To Breakdance is about trying to be cool and competing with my cooler bass-guitarist brother. And it has crap breakdancing. The Scavenger Hunt dude hangs up the phone. I race to the elevators and press DOWN. The doors open just in time for me to witness security guards escorting six uni students in togas with crap-filled shopping trolleys. I want to explain: “I’m Lawrence Leung, unknown yet likeable comedian. I’ve just moved to Sydney from Melbourne to do Opera House gigs and a TV series.” I look like an IT Guy trying to impress Roman frat boys. I am what comedians really are: not hardcore rock stars, but desperately insecure attention-seekers.
Lawrence Leung Learns To Breakdance Tue 15–Sat 26 at The Studio, Sydney Opera House, Sydney 2000. (02 9250 7777 www.sydneyoperahouse.com) 9.30pm. $20–$29.