Perth Voice Interactive

BEHIND really good comedy often lurks an edge of darkness.

No doubt Robin Williams would agree if he was still here: the comedian had ended his life the morning I was due to meet Australian funny man Peter Rowsthorn, and it inevitably set a sombre tone for the interview.

Rowsthorn is set to play the lead role in Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor at the State Theatre, a very funny show, despite the sinister thread of McCarthyism running through its core. It’s a tale with lessons that are just as relevant today as they were 70 years ago.

You might be surprised to learn the rubber-faced Rowsthorn lives in WA, in Beaconsfield, but less surprised to learn he’s been working the comedy circuit for years, with stints on Thank God You’re Here and as host of the ABC’s long-running Can We Help?.

Playing Kim’s husband Brett Craig in Kath and Kim, “really launched my career,” he says.

Untimely exit

Being funny is both a blessing and a curse, more so for some comedians than others he says, as our interview drifts to discussing Williams’ untimely exit from this world’s stage.

“Laughter is a great thing, I love the job, but at the same time it can be born out of strong things and a darker world,” Rowsthorn mulls.

Laughter is a “positive reinforcement”, but for some the need for a “fix” becomes all-consuming.

“It’s like a drug, some need it.”

‘Laughter is a great thing, I love the job, but at the same time it can be born out of strong things and a darker world’

In Simon’s play he portrays Max Prince (based on Sid Caesar—whom most of us know as the coach in Grease) at a time when Senator Joe McCarthy was raising hell about reds under the bed and writers and actors faced employment oblivion if “blacklisted” by his Committee for UnAmerican Activities.

Censorship—much of it self-censorship by nervous network and studio owners—ruthlessly cracked down on anything that looked or sounded even slightly socialist.

But on the 23rd floor of New York’s Rockefeller Plaza the writers were determined to keep the good times rolling, refusing to bow to the pressure.

One-liners ricocheted off the walls as writers held out against network bosses who thought the show too smart, acerbic and “sophisticated” for middle America.

“It’s referring to the dumbing down of television…which is still relevant today,” Rowsthorn says.

Caesar’s team of young guns included Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, Carl Reiner and Neil Simon—all household names today.

“[A] team of crazies who assembled each Monday morning to dream up ideas for the 90-minute, sketch-comedy show to be telecast live the following Saturday night,” director Kate Cherry says.

The team is portrayed on stage by Humphrey Bower, Stuart Halusz, Damon Lockwood, Jo Morris, Ben Mortley, Igor Sas, Lara Schwerdt and James Sweeny.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor is on at the State Theatre, September 6–21.

by JENNY D’ANGER