Comedian and storyteller, Aidan Jones, came to a startling realisation last year. He’s been fired from 14 jobs in his life and is now starting to ponder the question….could it possibly be him that is the problem?
SAT: Aidan, welcome and thank you for passing some time with us and sharing insights about your Adelaide Fringe show, ‘Passing Time’ (see what we did there? 😉 OK, we’ll leave the comedy to you). Your new stand-up show consists of a series of stories around the theme of resentment and bitterness. That doesn’t sound too cheery – tell us more! Will we laugh?
(side note from Editor – SAT has actually seen a preview and yes, we definitely laughed)
AJ: What do you mean will you laugh? What’s that supposed to mean? I RESENT THAT QUESTION!!
Hahaha… no honestly I was a little surprised after I’d collected all the stories I’ve been telling on stage for the last couple years and put them together to make the show. It took me a while to realise that the thing they all have in common is it’s either me or someone I’m interacting with struggling with that jealous, bitter side that I think we all have in us to some extent. The feelings aren’t that funny, but watching someone struggle against it and make an ass of themselves in doing so, that’s often where the laughs are! And when it’s me, I’m finding a real joy lately in learning how to laugh more at myself!
Aidan Jones performing at the Adelaide Fringe Gala
SAT: Your stories are personal and inspired by real events and real people you care very much about. Can you give us an insight into the process of taking these ideas, respecting the source and turning them into a stand-up show?
AJ: All I do when I’m planning what to say on stage is I think about the things I find myself repeating in my day-to-day life. I gig 6-7 nights a week throughout the year so I’m always getting on stage and trying new things, and in the day I’m always thinking about what I’m going to say that night. If on any given day I realise that I’ve been repeating the same story to a few different friends recently, I take that as a sign that the story is important to me, and that I should say it on stage.
SAT: Your grandfather is clearly an important part of your life and this show as well. Without giving too much away and spoiling the surprises in the show, could you share a grandpa story with us? He sounds like a brilliant character!
AJ: Man he really is, and I don’t think there’s much I could say that could give it away because there is so much to say about him, I could never fit it all in one show anyway. He grew up around Robe in the South-East of SA, went shearing in Queensland in his 20s and then bought a farm with my grandma in Lucindale (near Naracoorte) where they lived for 53 years until retiring to Victor Harbor a few years ago. He’s travelled all over the country and he will literally talk to anyone, so wherever he goes he’s striking up conversations with whoever’s around, sharing stories, and learning about people. We’ve been emailing each other back and forth for around ten years, so I have a record of a lot of those stories, and I share a few of them in the show.
SAT: How has the pandemic affected the content of this show and do you have a message you’d like the audience to take away?
AJ: When I started writing the show I was really resistant to the idea of doing a show about the lockdown. It felt boring, and cliche, and like something that everyone was going to do, so I – being the difficult person that I am – wanted to go against the grain. The more I explore the show and think about what all of these stories have in common though, I realise that the resentment I have towards jobs (which is the reason I’ve been fired 14 times!!) is the same as the resentment I felt about being in lockdown. There are so many things we do in life, that we would rather not do, but we have to for various reasons, and I’m learning that while we can’t control those things a lot of the time, what we can control is our reactions to them. Rather than get upset and hold on to the anger, I’m trying to let go of it, and trying to laugh more.
SAT: Previously you have toured extensively throughout the UK, Europe and Australia. What would be one or two of your most memorable moments?
AJ: Oh my god I love this question! I’m a huge Stella Donnelly fan and one year in the Edinburgh Fringe on a Friday night I had 50 people in a 40-seat room, and before the show started I was playing music while people settled in, and her cover of ‘Time After Time’ came on and I pretended to sing to get a laugh, but instead of laughing, the audience thought I was being serious and they started singing along, so we sang the rest of the song, 50 people rammed into this tiny room, and then I brought myself on to that and started the show! My friend filmed it and I put it on my instagram story and tagged her, she saw it, but disappointingly did not email me and ask if I wanted to be best friends.
Another was I think the same year in Edinburgh, this one rowdy late night show the crowd were out for blood, and a friend of mine Simon Caine who really does prefer more of a theatre-style crowd who are a bit more patient for long-form stuff, was on stage being shouted down by 20-30 drunk people in one section of the crowd. He ended up snapping at them and shouting about how they wouldn’t let him talk, and they started sarcastically cheering his name going “SIMON! SIMON! SIMON!!” until he left the stage. I was on next, and I knew jokes weren’t going to be much good, so I got on and started chanting “SIMON! SIMON! SIMON!” again, then walked off the stage and crowdsurfed over the drunk people. The ceiling in the rooms in Edinburgh is typically pretty low, so it wasn’t the most comfortable crowdsurf, but it felt better than being cheered off the stage hahaha.
SAT: You have a comedy special on YouTube, a brilliant following on TikTok and a podcast. Post Fringe, what plans do you have in the pipeline?
AJ: The special has been doing really well on YouTube! It’s got 20k views since I put it up on Christmas Eve, and around 60% of those are in the US, so I’m thinking towards the end of this year after Australian festival season wraps up, and after the Edinburgh Fringe in August, I might head over there for a few weeks. I’ve never been, but obviously the market for good stand up comedy is huge out there, so I’d love to visit a few cities, do some shows, and see if I can’t make some connections to start heading back there on a regular basis!
Aidan’s show, ‘Time Passing’ is at The Producers Hotel until March 6.
Book tickets via the Adelaide Fringe website.
View Aidan’s stand up comedy special on YouTube below.
“I’m half-Colombian because my Mum was backpacking in South America when she was 22, came home and found out she was pregnant – that’s me. In 2019 I went to Austria to meet my biological father for the first time. It got heaps of likes on Instagram, so I wrote an hour of stand up about it.”
