"They're both about taking something negative, like being poor or getting cheated on, and turning it into something positive like music or laughter." So says Melbourne comedian and sometime-harmonica player Michael Connell about the unusual mash-up - stand-up comedy and blues music - of his new show, THE BLUES, touring to the Street Theatre in September.
Connell has been performing as a stand-up comic for over eight years, touring around Australia and New Zealand and performing everywhere from the Melbourne Comedy Festival to live on Rove. And, after picking up the harmonica four years ago, Connell has performed at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and Blues and the Australian Blues Music Festival in Goulburn. But The Blues is the first time he's mixed his harp with his ha-ha.
"I've always kept my comedy and music very separate," Connell explains. "They're two very separate sorts of worlds (but) there're parallels there.
You don't want to watch a comedy show where the guy's like, 'my life's super!' And the blues is written like a punch line. Both of them are taking pain and making them into something that makes you feel good."
The show mixes jokes and music, with Connell performing bluesy harmonica versions of tunes from Muddy Waters to Rage Against the Machine.
"I know there are some hardcore blues traditionalists out there who don't like anything written after the Second World War. I'm not one of them. I'm a big fan of harmonica players like Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf, who became great because they were innovators and broke from tradition."
Joining him in The Blues are Canberra supports from both sides: music-comedy duo The Stevenson Experience, blues guitarist Jonno Zilber, and stand-ups Tom Gibson and Jay Sullivan, the winner of last year's Green Faces.
"In a recent article it was suggested that I was arguably Canberra's most successful comedian," says Sullivan. "Which is bullshit." Sullivan does have a few fingers in the comedy pie, however, running the Canberra Comedy nights at Civic Pub as well as working on his own shows.
"He's Canberra's comedy mogul - the Puff Daddy," jokes Connell.
Meanwhile, a brief chat with guitarist Jonno Zilber - whose style, "sinister swing", is music based on the idea of "why have a wife when your neighbour's got one?" - shows that blues does indeed have a funny bone.
"It's hard getting away with the blues when you're white and 26," says Zilber,
"And living in Weston Creek," quips Sullivan.
"This is a big part of the show," says Connell. "You can't be the dude from Mississippi if you're 26 and from Melbourne. You have to find your own blues."
The Blues plays from September 17 to 19 @ the Street Theatre, 8pm. Tix $18/$16. Call the B.O. on 6247 1223 or jump to the website at www.thestreet.org.au.
