Toby Halligan describes himself as a “bad gay”. The up-and-coming comic and writer for Channel Ten’s ‘The Project’ is the socks-and-sandals kind of dude, and he loves it, but sometimes it invites some flak from the wider gay fraternity. We chat to Toby about his show as he prepares to bare his dorky soul.
What is it that makes you call yourself a “bad gay”?
It comes out of a core truth that I’ve always physically and fundamentally been bad at identifiable stereotypes of being a ‘good gay’. When I was younger, before I came out, I used to wear a bright yellow Polartech. I didn’t just wear it on hikes or stuff like that – I’d wear it to parties. Any event. It stood out so much that my friends had a costume party and someone came dressed as me. He wore a yellow Polartech to the party and everyone knew who they were.
Hey, it’s a look.
(laughs) Yeah, I was wearing bright red Crocs recreationally and really enjoying it. I’ve just never been a particularly effective gay man, so a big part of the show is about that. You’ll never navigate the gay world if you don’t have the core skill-set.
A lot of the show was written when Abbott was Prime Minister and taps into the sense that gay people are a group in society that are generally made to feel on the outside. You’re not a normal person, or not a good normal person, at least. It matters more when you’re made to feel you don’t matter that much by sections of mainstream culture – but I make that funny.
Some people would argue they feel marginalised from within the LGBT community as well.
Yeah, we used to call it a “gay community”, but it’s not really. It’s not the same as a Chinese community or a Jewish community – those groups have a shared language, a shared history, shared religion. Gay people aren’t like that at all. At parties, I’ve had friends say things like “Toby, this is Christian… You’re both gay!” as if that will literally give us enough to talk about.
So your show explores preconceptions and stereotypes of gay men?
The kind of underlying theme of the show is that there’s a [preconceived] right and wrong way to be gay and I think that’s bullshit. It’s marketing, basically. It’s nightclubs trying to sell you shit – or hookup apps trying to get you to pay.
So it’s a struggle between a personal compulsion to defy stereotypes and those who’d tear you down for not conforming?
Yeah. It’s that “I’m cooler than you” mentality. I think I’m old enough now to be like, “You’re right. I’m not.” I could never have been. It’s like a zebra telling a watermelon, “I can outrun you.” Well, yeah, but I’m a watermelon. I can’t compete. There’s no point me even trying to bother competing in that environment. I’m sweet though at least, and kind of healthy?
Catch Toby Halligan being The Bad Gay at Connections Nightclub from Friday 5th – Sunday 7th February. Tickets available at Fringeworld.com.au.
Leigh Hill
