Fox Klein is playing the Laugh Garage this week. I took the opportunity to chat to a comic Iâve known for years but never quite gotten around to interviewing.
Dom Romeo: So
tell me about going to LA with a script.
FOX KLEIN: âGoing to LA with a script?â What are you
referring to?
Dom Romeo: Didnât
you go to LA and have a script commissioned?
FOX KLEIN: Iâve got a couple of scripts that Iâve got
out there, but nothing Iâm going over there for, as such.
Dom Romeo: I
thought youâd already been there and had a nibble on something youâd already
put upâ¦
FOX KLEIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, but as Hollywood is, the
wheels turn very slowly there. Iâm not holding my breath for anything. Itâs a
company called Delaware Pictures and they were interest in a project called Broke â that I wrote with Dani [Solomon]. But
theyâve got a lot of projects on the board that have more priority for them,
and then if and when they get around to it, they get around to it. Itâs not as
though itâs locked in from pre-production and everythingâs raring to go.
Theyâre definitely interested in it, and something could happen with it, but Iâm
not holding my breath â Iâve learned not to do that anymore.
Iâve got a few things though â Iâve just
finished an animated Family Guy style
script and Iâm gonna start shopping that as soon as itâs fixed up â spelling
errors, stuff like that.
Dom Romeo: What
took you to the States in the first place?
FOX KLEIN: I donât know, I always felt like â comedyâs
great in Australia, no denying it â but I just wanted to give it a shot. I made
some contacts and I just wanted to head over and give it a shot.
Dom Romeo: I
know that some of your heroes when you were coming through were American
comics, rather than the ones we grew up with here, or the British model of
stand-up comic.
FOX KLEIN: Absolutely, Iâm a huge fan of the American
comedian â Dane Cook, Louis C.K., people like that. Not that I donât appreciate
Australian comedians, I love Australian comedians, but thatâs just what I
gravitated towards. Itâs not just a matter of âlikingâ it â I was able to âdoâ
that kind of humour rather than an Aussie âboganâ type of humour, if that makes
sense.
Dom Romeo: Why
are you âFoxâ Klein? Do you talk about that? Do you prefer it not being spoken
of?
FOX KLEIN: No, not at all. Itâs not a secret. Itâs a
nickname that I got in school, because of David Duchovney from The X-Files. I looked a little bit like
him, therefore I got that name. Then when I started doing comedy, I was using
my real name, which is Matt, or Matthew, but there were a ton of Matts doing
comedy, and I wanted to stand out a little bit so I used my highschool
nickname. It seems to have worked, there are no other Foxes doing comedy. Not
in Australia, anyway â there may be a few Foxes in Americaâ¦
Dom Romeo: I
can only think of Redd Foxx and Jeff Foxworthy, off the top of my head.
Who inspired you when you were starting out? Who made
you go, âIâm going to do this thingâ?
FOX KLEIN: This is going to
sound weird, but the first comedian that I listened to that made me do stand-up
was Bill Hicks, and Iâm a million miles from his biting political and social
commentary type of stuff, but thatâs how I got started and I was attempting to
do that kind of comedy when I started.
Dom Romeo: But if you were just another stoner conspiracy
theorist, weâd probably never hear of you; all the âBill Hicksâ clones
disappear unknown unless they develop their own voice, at which point theyâre
no longer Hicks clones. Youâve clearly developed your own voice. How did that
happen?
FOX KLEIN: Iâm not very political myself, so I
couldnât sell it. It was just bullshit. I was just trying to do what Bill Hicks
was doing. Then as I got more comfortable and widened my scope of comedy, I
found my voice and I didnât really⦠itâs not that I didnât have a message, it
wasnât my agenda. I just wanted to have fun, let my audience have fun, and
entertain, is the bottom line.
Dom Romeo: I
havenât seen you in ages, but one of my favourite bits of yours is about
wanting to learn martial arts â finding a teacher. Were you into kung fu?
FOX KLEIN: I did tae kwon do for years. There are a
couple of embarrassing photos of me doing the splits Van Damme style on chairs,
out there somewhere. Theyâll resurface some day that will surface some day and
embarrass the shit out of me, Iâm sure.
Of course, that storyâs from my childhood.
I love hung fu, I love martial arts, I love old films and itâs become part of
my material like a lot of that stuff does.
Dom Romeo: What
was it like doing gigs in LA?
FOX KLEIN: Totally different ball game to over here.
We donât really realise how good we have it here in Australia. It was actually
a nightmare, but thatâs mostly because of where I was, which was bang in the
middle of Hollywood where there are only three big clubs and about five
thousand comedians all vying for stagetime. It was horrible. It wasnât a
pleasant experience at all, but thatâs not true of everywhere in America, of
course, but particularly where I was, it wasnât fun.
Dom Romeo: What
did you do? How did you get stage time?
FOX KLEIN: I got stage time. There were a lot of
little rooms around, but nobody bothers going to them because theyâd all rather
be at the bigger clubs where the celebrities would turn up.
So when I got
back to Australia, I was really looking forward to it because the week that I
got back, I jumped up at the Lounge and did 20 minutes in front of 500 people.
The contrast was
surprising: Iâd supposedly been at the mecca of comedy in America, but really,
back home is where you get the proper opportunities to perform. The contrast
was surprising.
Dom Romeo: Are you back for good? Youâre not chasing summer the
way most expat Aussie comics do, âcos youâve come back for winterâ¦
FOX KLEIN: No, Iâve
actually negotiated a new contract with a new management team. The reason I
came back was because I was âglamouredâ by Hollywood assholes. Which is fine.
Apparently, youâre supposed to go through all that before your career actually
starts to happen.
Dom Romeo: Right. I wonât ask for details.
FOX KLEIN: Iâm happy to
talk about it. It was just someone who totally misrepresented themselves and
basically lied about their position and what they were able to do. Which was
fine, because I went over there and made a lot of contacts, so it didnât really
matter and led to something bigger and better, which is why Iâm heading over in
a month or so.
Dom Romeo: Itâs a bit of an initiation process in showbiz, though
â being suckered in by someone who says they can do something for you when
really theyâre trying to get you to do stuff for them.
FOX KLEIN: Absolutely, and
instead of being bitter and negative, itâs actually been a blessing because it
opened my eyes to the whole business, and it got me over there. I got a lot of
contacts and met a lot of great people and now Iâm going back prepared, eyes
wide open, with a proper management agency.
Dom Romeo: So whatâs planned for this next visit? Will you get to
play one of three big venues in Hollywood?
FOX KLEIN: The company that
Iâm going across with is based in New York, Nashville and LA and Iâm doing the
college circuit when Iâm there. Iâm staying away from the comedy clubs this
time. The moneyâs good, everythingâs cool
You have to
excuse me, Iâm on a treadmill. Iâm doing an incline of 10.
Dom Romeo: Whatâs the workout like when youâre being interviewed
and have to talk and think on the treadmill?
FOX KLEIN: Itâs good. Itâs
distracting. I hate working out without something to do. I want to do all
interviews at the gym.
Dom Romeo: The college circuit is cool â you can play to anyone, youâve got the experience; but youâre clever enough that youâll appeal to
students.
FOX KLEIN: I know this will
get me a lot flak from a lot of people, but one of my heroes is Dane Cook. I
know heâs fairly dissed in the industry, but the one thing that heâs great at
doing is performing to a large crowd. Heâs very entertaining. Thatâs what Iâve
moulded my style on. There are a lot of comedians who can only do small rooms
because thatâs all theyâve ever done. When they do eventually get to a bigger crowd, they donât know how to
perform to it or handle it. Not a lot of them â just a handful of them, who
only seem to do the boutique rooms. I think you need to be able to do both for
your own professionalism.
Dom Romeo: Indeed, and for the sake of being able to make a
living. But people donât really dis Dane Cook because heâs
hugely popular, but rather because heâs hugely popular and an alleged joke
thief. My problem with him is, when I listen to his CDs, he doesnât make me
laugh. But now I want to watch a DVD to see if heâs funnier to watch than
listen to.
FOX KLEIN: Absolutely. Heâs
very energetic and his stage present is incredible. Thatâs what I try to
emulate. The weakness of his performance is the material â heâs not the
greatest writer â but when youâre watching his facial expressions or his
actions, it adds to it. Performance wise, as an entertainer, I donât think
thereâs anyone better.
Dom Romeo: Is it true that President Obama models himself to him?
FOX KLEIN: I heard that. I
heard that he studied all the great speakers, and Dane was one of them. But
regarding the joke-stealing thing, itâs a huge story and is all over the
internet. But Iâve actually compared the material that heâs actually accused of
stealing. He has 10 to 15 hours of material; the jokes heâs actually accused of
stealing is about two minutes. At some point, material is going to cross over.
Iâve got jokes that are similar to people here and vice-versa. But when you
compare it to someone like Carlos Mencia, who is well-documented, practically word-for-word
doing Bill Cosby jokes, it pales in comparison. So the whole joke-stealing
thing just sounds like an excuse to hate on him, you know what I mean?
Dom Romeo: And have you noticed a difference in your performance
since youâve been back?
FOX KLEIN: I donât really
have a new American attitude or anything like that. Iâm just doing gigs as much
as I can. Iâm still performing. Nothingâs really changed. Iâm writing as much
as possible. Iâve got a whole heap of material.
Dom Romeo: Last year you were doing stuff for a show on Channel
31 in Melbourne.
FOX KLEIN: Studio A. it was organized
by Ged Wood, who used to work for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
It was a Rove-style talk show format
that Dave Thornton was hosting and myself and Karl Chandler and Tommy Dassalo
and a few others were writing for the show. It was a good show and we won a
couple of awards for it â Antennae awards. Now itâs in its fourth season, I
think, and Tommy Little is the host.
Dom Romeo: Are you still involved?
FOX KLEIN: I had to drop out
close to my leaving for LA last time because I was spending too much time
writing for the show and not for myself, and it was effecting my stand-up.
Stand-up will always come first. I donât want to spend time writing jokes for
other people. Itâs a little bit selfish, but Iâd rather write for myself. The
showâs got enough writers.