Radio Australia Today Editorial

When Funny Ain’t Funny

27 March 2008

We have all kinds of guests here on the Breakfast Club.

Authors, actors, politicians, humanitarians, lawyers, people who help others.

Sometimes we have comedians too.

The expectation is that they will will always be a hoot. Sometimes they are, like Anh Do (who’s been on before and was a hoot, and is coming on again tomorrow and will be a hoot again).

Then again, sometimes our expectations are different to the reality, like yesterday when we had the Amercian superstar comic Arj Barker in the studio.

We love this guy. His speed of wit and great humour have made him one of the most successful srtand-up comedians in the world.

But when he came in the studio he wanted to talk all serious about things. It was a bit like having Jerry Seinfled in to talk about the Russian social system. We were geared up for a laugh and we got no quips, no New York style banter, no humourous asides. The only time he semi-smiled, was when I took this photo:

That all said, he was a lovely bloke who was obviously enjoying his time here in Melbourne. In fact the last thing he did before leaving the studio was to ask for directions to the casino. He told us he was a serious poker fan, and wanted to go play some hands.

Hope you won Arj.