ArtView May 2014 | Page 8

alliteration at the end will be pleasing to the ear of
the listener. And I can use that joke to go on to
explain the new comedy theory of “benign
violation”. Ok. Let’s print.
The show goes well with comics Tommy
Dean, Alex Lee and Gretel Killeen providing the
funnies in response to my questions. My
monologue does the trick. The Kermit line gets the
response I was after and allows me to extract some
humour from humour theory. The studio audience
lingers for photos and autographs. They leave
happy and appreciative. Mission accomplished.

From the ABC building in Ultimo I drive to
NSW Parliament House. Actor and lovely person,
Joy Smithers, has asked me to perform as my alter

ego Kevin Rudd at a fundraiser for her charity,
Hope for Cambodian Children. Another fantastic
cause.
My journey as Kevin Rudd’s doppelganger has
been an amazing one, filled with adventures and
unexpected friendships with some of the major
players who have shaped Australia’s political
landscape. Happy to don my dodgy grey-blond wig
to help raise funds for kids affected by the
HIV/AIDS pandemic in Cambodia.
Strangely, my Ruddster is actually funnier than
ever now that the real K. Rudd is out of politics.
There’s almost a peculiar nostalgia for Rudd’s
bizarre idiosyncrasies and those familiar
catchphrases. The crowd at this charity function is
certainly happy to have its sauce bottles shaken by
the Ruddster’s talk on the power of
“Kevinspiration”. Gig completed. Time to zip.
It’s an hour and half drive back to Bowral.
Plenty of time to reflect on a fantastic day. For over
three decades I’ve had a professional relationship
with laughter. It can be a cruel path when despite
best efforts your frog dies on the operating table
instead of jumping for joy. But on a day like today
the laughter of the audience stays warm inside you
like a warm capucchino.
Personally, I believe that laughter is ultimately
a mysterious human experience that cannot be
completely explained by any theory. But whatever
the mechanism that makes things funny, I agree
with psychologist A. Penjon who wrote that
humour “frees us from vanity on the one hand and
from pessimism on the other by keeping us larger
than what we do and greater than what can happen
to us.”
And as long as I can get that result for other
people I will continue to do so. At least until I
croak.
© Anthony Ackroyd 2014