Categories: Lifestyle

The marvelous Mr Eastgate

HE’S been hailed as Australia’s hottest musical comedy genius. A bloke who is ready to strap on the leather, crank up the metal, and metaphorically smash your face in with a plastic beer cup.

Dave Eastgate is bringing his ‘hilarious’ mix of stand-up and song to London before debuting at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His show I Wish I Had A Band features every genre from rock and rap to emo and country. Dave takes us through three special moments in his life.

There’s no place like home…
As much fun as it is to play in the UK, and it’s an absolute dream come true to be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, there is nothing like playing in Oz to the cold, hard stares of Australian audiences…

Aussies just seem to sit there, staring at you, going, “Who are you?! I don’t know who you are? I haven’t seen you on the footy show! I haven’t seen you on Good News Week! Who are you?! You’re not Carl Barron, I know that… Better make me laugh or I’ll plastic ya face with a plastic schooner, ya dickhead!”

Ahhh. there’s no place like home…

Rubbing Robin up the right way
My best gig ever was performing with Robin Williams at the Sugar Mill in Sydney. He just dropped in to try out some material while he was in town filming Happy Feet 2. We hung out backstage and I could barely talk I was so stoked! Hearing Robin Williams laugh at my jokes was possibly my greatest ever moment in comedy and I could easily retire tomorrow a happy man-boy after that.

Worstest favouritest gig
My worst but favourite gig ever was last year’s Best and Less Xmas Party. The first thing the woman from the social club said to me (she was running the show) was: “This year we’ve decided to do a Sydney Harbour cruise because we’ve found in previous years people tend to leave.” Great…

As a musical act there’s three things I need. 1. A stage. 2. A mic stand. 3. Somewhere to plug my guitar into that’s close to the stage.

I got none of those things. I was stood on a set of deck stairs, with employee of the month holding the microphone up to my face, stuck behind the buffet table performing to a bowl of prawns who, let’s be honest, hated me as much as the crowd of 200…

Needless to say, the boss waddled over in the middle of my set and grabbed the microphone out of the employee’s hand and cut me off…

The biggest laugh I got all day was when I shouted out that I had CD’s for sale. The worst part was that it was a harbour cruise and I couldn’t leave…

Thank f**k for water taxis!

See Dave and his show I Wish I Had A Band at the Wahoo Bar in London on 29 July or in Edinburgh from 3 – 28 August.

Australian Times

For, by and about Aussies in the UK.