Since we first spoke to Rhys Nicholson last year his world has changed a lot, he’s scored a regular TV gig on Balls of Steel, moved out of the bohemian Sydney suburb of Newtown and gotten himself a boyfriend. Now he’s heading to Perth for the first time to perform at Pridefest.
How’s your life changed ever since we last spoke, now you’ve been on TV your profile is probably a hundred fold what it was before?
It has changed. It’s probably what I’ll be talking about most in the show. I’ve got a boyfriend now and I’m touring a little bit more and getting more work and I’m less bitter which in turn makes me more bitter because I’m not writing bitter material anymore, it’s a vicious cycle of bitterness.
Do you get recognised in the street now?
Not really. If I do get recognised at all, it seems to be at two o clock in the morning from bouncers at the bar. I’m always shocked when it happens because it rarely happens.
What can people expect from your show?
Filth, the same old filth that I’ve always been spewing yeah I think I’ll be merging the last two shows because I’ve not been to Perth before so I can kind of get away with doing half and half of a new show I’m doing now. Very personal stories, it’s not for the light hearted I would say that seems to be the most common thing I get in reviews. Don’t bring your grandmother!
You’re prolific on Twitter, what did you do before you had twitter? Where did you put all those thoughts?
I just yelled expletives at people on the street. I’d tell them what I was eating, just frame pictures of me drunk at bars and just hand it to people and ask them to re-tweet it which didn’t make any sense then because twitter wasn’t invented. I don’t know what I did. I was trying to think the other day of what we did before Facebook? Twitter and stuff? I just have no idea what I was doing I guess MySpace… I went onto my MySpace the other day which I hadn’t been on since I was 17 and it was depressing I don’t know what was wrong with that guy, he’s got problems.
Can you over share?
Oh yes, if you look at it, that’s all there is, one big over share. I actually had to put in ‘not safe for work’ because I started getting complaints from my followers. For a while I was sending the Westborough Baptist church a picture of gay porn every day. You got to stop hate with love. Just angry anal love that’s all. So I had followers saying you need to stop because I keep clicking on this and when my boss walks past I’m looking at an image of angry fisting. My autobiography needs be called Over Share or What’s Wrong With Me, Why Am I Like This?
Graeme Watson
