What\u2019s your most controversial pop culture opinion?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if this is controversial but I don\u2019t like Gogglebox. I will say this publicly: I think the idea of a television show where you watch people interrupt a television show makes no sense. If I want people to interrupt me while I am watching TV, I will sit on my own couch with my family. I have tried to watch it but I cannot. It makes no sense to me. I know it\u2019s a popular show! I know that it has even won awards. People have won awards for being filmed while they interrupt television shows. Think about that for a second.<\/p>\n
Does anyone in your life still call you by your birth name (John)?<\/p>\n
My mum sometimes calls me Johnny, which I don\u2019t mind. John, I don\u2019t like. I find John very boring. John Live would have been a very dull TV show. Rove is a nickname that I got from my sister when I was younger. When I started performing, I didn\u2019t want anyone from high school coming to see me because I\u2019d only just left, so I adopted it as a stage name. It stuck, which is fine because it\u2019s what I preferred.<\/p>\n
What has been your most memorable interaction with a fan?<\/p>\n
Someone came to me at a cafe and handed me their baby, while I was paying for my coffee, and asked me to sign their baby. I put it to you, Sian \u2013 if I said, \u201cSign my baby\u201d, where would you sign the baby? That\u2019s what threw me for a loop. Firstly, I wouldn\u2019t think it\u2019s OK to sign a child. But if it was put to you, with the parent\u2019s consent, the question then becomes: where is it OK to sign said child?<\/p>\n
Um. A limb?<\/p>\n
I panicked and signed it on the top of its beautifully bald little head. A blank canvas. At that point, we are now graffitiing a human child. I have no idea where that baby is now. They would be close to being an adult by now. If you\u2019re reading this, I\u2019m sorry that I scribbled on your head.<\/p>\n
Did you adopt a training regimen in the lead-up to Taskmaster Australia?<\/p>\n
All I did, like I\u2019m sure many have done before me, is call as many former contestants as I could. I spoke to Wil Anderson and Peter Helliar and they were very, very helpful.<\/p>\n
I went in with the idea that I had to commit to it 100% and enjoy it. If you get too caught up in trying to win, that\u2019s where you can sometimes come unstuck. Joel Creasey does struggle in this season \u2013 but it results in some of the most entertaining moments.<\/p>\n
If animals could talk, who would be the nicest?<\/p>\n
Elephants would be really cool. Elephants are a matriarchy, so that means there\u2019s a no dickhead policy. I want to have a good chat with an elephant. I think they\u2019d have a lot of wisdom.<\/p>\n
How often does someone shout \u201cSay hi to your mum for me\u201d at you on the street?<\/p>\n
I brought that one on myself. It does make me chuckle if there are people around who don\u2019t understand it is a catchphrase. It came about because I once genuinely meant it. I was on a phone call with a friend and I said, sincerely: \u201cSay hi to your mum for me\u201d because he was off to visit his parents. Another friend who was in the room with me and could only hear my side of the conversation, said: \u201cOut of context, that was a really weird way to end a conversation.\u201d I began using it as my strange end to standup sets. Obviously it stuck. Even last night, I closed my act by saying it.<\/p>\n
Do you have a nemesis?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think so. Obviously, over the years, I\u2019ve had people who have been put to me as nemeses. But it\u2019s not a feud if it\u2019s one-sided. That is just a person saying nasty things in your direction. I\u2019ve never had a counter-strike.<\/p>\n
Although \u2013 we used to have a dog who lived three doors up who barked at me every time I walked past. His name was Hercules. He\u2019s sadly no longer with us. He was a tiny little thing. He had big dog energy. And every time I would walk past, I would say to him: \u201cHercules, you know me! I\u2019m here every day!\u201d Can you have a dog as a nemesis? I had no ill will towards Hercules. I certainly started to get very frustrated with him because I was trying to make amends and he just wouldn\u2019t have it. Hercules was probably a big Gogglebox fan.<\/p>\n
What are you secretly really good at?<\/p>\n
Drawing. Everything I can do in various degrees of aptitude and skill, I have learned it somehow. Performing, telling jokes, being on live TV \u2013 all of that, I have learned somehow. The one thing I could always do naturally is draw. I did a fine arts degree, I majored in painting and minored in sculpture. But I didn\u2019t like painting, I liked drawing cartoons.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s been my true passion and natural ability all my life. I\u2019ve released five children\u2019s books and, as much as people talk about me being an author, it is more important to me that I do all of the drawings.<\/p>\n
Which movie scarred you for life as a kid?<\/p>\n
Watership Down. My parents took me and my two older sisters to see what we all thought was just an animated film about rabbits. If you haven\u2019t seen it, all of those rabbits are mercilessly torn to shreds by a pack of dogs at the end. It is so confronting and so distressing. I have the slightest glimmer of a memory of all of us in the cinema afterwards looking at each other, completely gobsmacked. Any parents who might be reading this: yes, there is an animated rabbit on the poster but it should be rated M.<\/p>\n