Categories: Features

Fringe Fever: A Quick Chat With Rob Lloyd

 Rob Lloyd is a nerd. He’s already made shows about his obsession with The Goodies, Sherlock Holmes and every movie ever made, but they are passing interests compared to Dr Who. His co-creator and director of Who, Me is Scott Gooding. Scott owns every cheap Dr Who paperback published in the 70s and 80s and knows the correct spelling of every companion and monster. This is for anyone who has ever obsessed, collected or left a date early because Blakes 7, Battlestar G, Firefly or Voyager started at 10.30.

Rob Lloyd is a nerd. He’s already made shows about his obsession with The Goodies, Sherlock Holmes and every movie ever made, but they are passing interests compared to Dr Who. His co-creator and director of Who, Me is Scott Gooding. Scott owns every cheap Dr Who paperback published in the 70s and 80s and knows the correct spelling of every companion and monster. This is for anyone who has ever obsessed, collected or left a date early because Blakes 7, Battlestar G, Firefly or Voyager started at 10.30.

Show Info:

 

What’s your show called?
Who, Me When is it on?
23 Sept – 8 Oct
Where is it on?
The Meeting Room. North Melbourne Town Hall How do you get there by public transport?
Tram 57 to Errol Street Is there parking?
Yup…loads
What time does it start?
8pm. Sundays 7pm
How much are tickets?
$25/ $20. $15 Tuesdays. Are tickets available at the door?
Yup.
For more information, visit the Melbourne Fringe Festival Website
1.     What three words best describe you Fringe show? Who on trial!
2.     Who does your show speak to? The obsessive nerdy fanatic in all of us.
3.     What other Fringe show will you NOT miss? Foreplay, Simon Taylor, Jenny Wynter, The Baby Seals, Candy B, Brenna Glazebrook
4.     What other Fringe show do you wish you were in? Bullet: A Superhero Comedy
5.     What do you love most about the Melbourne Fringe? It keeps on letting me indulge my inner and outer nerd.
6.     How many Melbourne Fringes have you performed in? Nine…yup…old man of the fringe here.
7.     If you could invite anyone to see your show (and you know they would come), who would it be? William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Chris Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith. I reckon that’d be pretty cool…and intimidating…and impossible because three of them are dead…but a nerd can dream.
8.     What is the best theatre advice you’ve received? “Don’t fuck it up”,  from my director Scott Gooding.
9.     What was your most embarrassing moment on stage? I can’t remember anything really embarrassing. I can remember being absolutely terrified. I had to introduce Chopper Read onto stage at The Comic Lounge. I was then told he wasn’t “good with time limits” so I would have to drag him off stage when he’d been on too long. I had to get Chopper Read off stage while he was halfway through telling a story about stabbing someone. That was scary.
10.  Do you have any pre- or post-show rituals? Just warm ups before the show.
11.  What’s your favourite theatre superstition? Do you believe it? My wife is my second night lucky charm. She always sees my performance the night after opening.
12.  What was the last book you read? The Hobbit…I’m re-reading…getting ready…the first movie is only over a year away.
13.  What TV show do you never miss? Hmmm…that’s a tough one…let me think…no I can’t think of anything 😉
14.  What film will you watch again and again? Too many to list, but I’ll will anyway: Star Wars, Batman Begins, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Seven, Dead Poets Society…
15.  Who will hate your Fringe show? Anyone who has let their inner child die!
16.  What show changed how you see theatre? Why? Dead White Males by David Williamson. When I was 16 I did work experience for a week at the Sydney Theatre Company. While I was there I got to sit in on a whole week’s worth of rehearsals. It was awesome seeing professional actors do their stuff.
17.  What was your first time on stage? I played Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in my Kindergarten (yeah I’m from NSW) Christmas show.
18.  What is the first theatre show you remember seeing? My parents use to take my brother and me every year to see the local Theatrical Society’s Christmas Pantomime. It was a tradition. It was awesome! “Behind you!” Brilliant.
19.  If you had access to the TARDIS, what performance would you see first? I reckon watching me as Rudolph would be hilarious, either that or I’d go back to the 1960s and record every missing episode of Doctor Who! I would then return to modern times and be seen as a god! Then the power would go to my head and eventually my dissatisfied minions would overthrow me.
20.  What director/actor/writer would you just die to work with? Tony Martin, Shaun Micallef, Frank Woodley.
21.  What is your favourite theatre space in Melbourne? At the moment it’s the Portland Hotel because I perform there pretty much every Friday with The Big Hoo-Haa (Melbourne).
22.  Where in Melbourne do you always take visitors? If it’s the right time of year I’ll take people to either Supanova or Armageddon.
23.  How do you have your coffee? I’m a hot chocolate man.
24.  What’s the best pizza topping? Aussie of course…egg on a pizza…you can’t beat that!
25.  What do love most about your Fringe show? The fact that I’m actually doing it…I still can’t believe it.
Anne-Marie Peard

Anne-Marie spent many years working with amazing artists at arts festivals all over Australia. She's been a freelance arts writer for the last 10 years and teaches journalism at Monash University.

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