‘It’s not a Ted Talk!’ British comedian goes off-leash
He spent a night in jail after rolling gold balls daubed with swastikas at Donald Trump, so expect the unexpected from British comedian Simon Brodkin.
There’s brave and then there’s “what were you thinking?” brave. English comedian Simon Brodkin seems to fall into the latter category. And he’s bringing his stand-up show, Unleashed, to The Tivoli in Brisbane on June 25.
The funny man once turned up at Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland during his 2016 presidential campaign and proceeded to pull off a stunt involving rolling swastika-covered golf balls at the man as he was about to start a press conference. Needless to say, Trump and his security people were not impressed.
Brodkin might not be a household name here, but he has made a splash in the comedy arena, with his previous stand-up tour, Screwed Up, playing 170 dates around the world. He has also had a successful TV sketch series, Lee Nelson’s Well Good Show, which boasts a huge following on social media and made Prince William and Princess Catherine chuckle at the Royal Variety Performance in 2023.
This will be his first time in Australia, something Brodkin is looking forward to enormously. As he talks to me from England over the phone at an uncivilised early hour our time, he’s also keeping his eye on the England versus Croatia World Cup soccer (sorry, football) match, emitting occasional commentary such as, “Oh, England have just scored!”
‘the first thing I do is have a little jog around the city to soak up the atmosphere’
“I’m looking forward to learning about the real Australia and getting to know the real Aussies,” Brodkin says. “Forget the stereotypes, forget about the beach … I love touring, I love travelling and the first thing I do is have a little jog around the city to soak up the atmosphere, because every place has its unique vibe. It inspires me seeing things and helps me write some jokes.”
He asks me for suggestions on what he should do in Brisbane, to which I tout the picturesque river and pleasant weather at this time of year and suggest a river walk. It is not the windy, rainy weather he’s expecting in a so-called winter.
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With the show’s title, Unleashed, I wonder who and what he has got his comedic sights set on for his Australian tour.
“The show is addressing all sorts of things, from my own life to married life to why I’m a terrible dad … I mean, let’s forgive all the bad dads out there because what’s expected of modern dads is so hard,” he says.
“Not only do we have to earn all this money, but we have to learn all our kids’ names and play with them, be nice and not hit them anymore. I mean, what fun is it being a dad anymore?
“Then there are big things about America and how Americans do seem to have this different mindset to the Brits. Americans are always telling us theirs is the greatest country on Earth. But we’re really down on the UK at the moment – broken Britain. I can’t wait to get the Australian vibe. Hopefully, I’ll make everyone laugh. It’s not a Ted Talk.”
‘It’s hard to take the mick out of Donald Trump when you couldn’t get a more ridiculous figure’
With many comedians saying it is impossible to do satire these days because political reality is already so bizarre, Brodkin admits there are challenges.
“It’s hard to take the mick out of Donald Trump when you couldn’t get a more ridiculous figure,” he muses. “But there’s definitely a lot to sink my teeth into, and I like taking a sideways look at things as well.
“You’ve got to admire that he’s a two-time president and he’s a multi-millionaire married to a Slovenian model 25 years younger than him. Have you seen what the guy looks like? In the UK, if you looked like him, you’d be living under a bridge.”
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So, to that astonishingly well-planned and risky stunt at Trump’s golf course – Brodkin disguised himself with glasses and a beard and was dressed as an employee of the resort.
“As Trump was about to start his speech, I called out, ‘Sorry Donald, these are the new balls you ordered’. Then I rolled all these golf balls at him with swastikas on them … I think the guns were drawn.”
Indeed, he was arrested and spent the night in a jail cell.
Brodkin obviously relishes doing stunts if the result is that a lot of people laugh. Another infamous one was when he wanted to make a point about the popular series, Britain’s Got Talent. Disguised as a rapping Jewish rabbi who, after losing his mother he turned to Jay-Z for solace and performed a rap about how wonderful the UK was.
“It was a kind of box-ticking exercise to see if you needed any useful talent or actually just needed to say what the judges wanted to hear,” he explains. “And, lo and behold, I got four yeses and went through. Unfortunately, the presenters watching recognised me and said, ‘Hang on, he’s a comedian. We don’t want him back’.” But point proven.
Brodkin loves the unpredictability of stand-up comedy and is not fazed by audience members calling out, unlike some comics who make it known they want the audience to keep their thoughts to themselves.
“You’ve got to make sure you don’t come across as a supply teacher,” he says. “They’ve paid their money so they can do what they like … as long as it’s not too crazy, like at The Apollo (in London), these two women started shouting, security were called and they started biting security and the police were called and the gig got shut down!”
Here’s hoping Brisbane audiences will be a little more civilised.
Simon Brodkin – Unleashed, The Tivoli, Fortitude Valley, June 25.
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