Steve Hughes was driving on a motorway, bound for Norwich and thinking dark thoughts. Now nearing the end of a 52-date tour of the UK, the Australian comedian was finding it hard to be excited about his day job.
“Everyone hates going to work,” he said before letting out a fantastic bark of laughter.
“I mean, touring is a different style of work. It seems glamorous and exciting on the outside, and I get to do pretty cool things, but 52 dates? That looks good on paper, but I just thank God I’m flying to Aberdeen and not driving.”
Surely being slightly disgruntled is a good thing for a comedian who has cut a successful career out of embarking on impassioned rants about the state of the world today – social and political conspiracy theories and all.
In his current tour, While It’s Still Legal, which heads for the Lemon Tree tomorrow night, it is business as usual for Steve, although the subject matter is even more personal this time.
“It’s more about the power structures that we all live under,” said Steve, who has made his home in Manchester since moving to the UK in 2002.
“And how people are held in place by the illusion of power, but with real-life consequences. And that’s because we self-police ourselves and so are conditioned into the idea of the power structure.”
It seems pretty heavy stuff, even for UK audiences who live on the darker end of the humour spectrum. But the former death-metal drummer says he’s able to find the funny in it. After all, he notes, the fundamental role of the comedian is first and foremost to make people laugh.
“I’ve worked out a way to say it without preaching,” he said.
“I have no desire to be seen as a preaching lunatic. I mean, the world is an unfathomable place to the wisest among us, so why would I try?”
What makes his brand of social commentary less “out there” and more available to comedy is that the “power structure” which he has been shining a light on for years has now become obvious to people.
“I think it’s able to be comedy because it’s becoming less extreme to people; because these things are actually affecting our lives now,” he said.
“There are people working in a library who can’t sharpen a pencil without filling in a form. They need to get someone to watch them while they sharpen a pencil. So my stand-up is just reacting to this, because this kind of stupidity is happening. It really is.”
The fall guys for a lot of Steve’s routines are what he dubs “mainstream people” – regular punters who are completely blind to the sociopolitical power structures at play. He’s not knocking it as a way of life, per se, he just gets riled up by the fact that they don’t seem to have “a thought in their heads”.
Likewise, he doesn’t have a problem with comedy which doesn’t have a hard edge like his. Keeping the mainstream entertained is a talent in itself.
“I mean, Michael McIntyre is genuinely funny,” said Steve.
“He can make mainstream people laugh, which is no easy thing to do. He’s talking about Scotch tape or Valentine’s Day and making it funny. I don’t know if I can do that.”
And that’s probably because of the direction Steve has come to comedy from. Before stepping on to the stage with just a microphone and a follow-spot, Steve was hammering out death-metal hits for numerous top-billing bands in Australia, racking up an impressive total of six albums.
So he admits it doesn’t seem much of a stretch for him to stand up and talk about Satan, war and treachery. But it’s at times like this when he’s heading down the A47 to Norwich for the 47th gig of a long tour that he truly misses his life in the music industry.
Sometimes, he just wants to jam, man. And suddenly the blissful ignorance of the mainstream life doesn’t look so bad.
“I just want to play music or go to the gym,” he laughed.
“I would love to be able to switch off and say: ‘Aw, everyone knocks stupid pretty people. I want to have a go.’ I just want to get up in the morning, put jeans on and notice that they look perfect and then be happy for the next month.”
Steve Hughes will conclude his While It’s Still Legal tour at The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen, tomorrow, December 6. Tickets are available from www.aberdeen performingarts.com or by calling 01224 641122.