It’s nearly twenty years since comedian Dave Hughes stepped on stage in Perth, for the first time and experienced every comedians greatest fear, the sounds of silence.
All well and good for Simon and Garfunkel fans but not for a young bloke hoping to make a go of stand up comedy.
Two decades on Dave Hughes, now based in Melbourne, is one of the biggest comedy names in the country.
Comedy crowds embraced him, he didn’t give them a choice. He was determined to make it and did, the hard way. Slogging it out in pubs and clubs around Australia.
The light bulb moment was a gradual one as bit by bit he pieced together his comic persona. Hughesy realised the best thing he could do was tell the truth on stage. No matter how embarrassing or inappropriate it might seem he lay his life bare on stage like an emotional garage sale.
Much of his comedy focused on his inability to hold down a job or get a girl and what life was like living on the dole.
Of course nowadays that’s not the case. He’s a radio and television star and has a beautiful wife and young family but it hasn’t impacted on his standing as a comedian because Hughesy is still telling it like it is.
He’s still the bogan boy from Warrnambool. Being rich, famous and married is just as confusing and bemusing for him as being unemployed and broke.
Some people are surprised to learn that Hughesy was dux of his secondary college but it shouldn’t. His comedy comes from a rare alchemy of intellect, insecurity and insight. Add to that his rural working class upbringing and you get some idea why he wasn’t about to let a tough Perth crowd crush his dream all those years ago.
