With Australia’s election coming up later in the year I spoke
to comedian Evin Donohoe, an Australian-American who volunteered for the Obama
campaign in his recent election campaign, focusing on the state of Virginia.
What grabbed your
attention and marked your interest in American politics?
It was kind of a gradual slide, actually. In 2007, I'd
heard that Hillary Clinton was making a run for the White House, so I wanted to
take the opportunity to make a few retro Bill Clinton jokes. Whilst reading
news stories about her campaign I saw Barack Obama and very quickly grew
interested in what he had to say. So, yeah, I kind of got on board with Obama
in 2007, and in constantly checking news sites for updates on the election all
throughout 2007 and 2008, I slowly picked up on everything else that was going
on over there.
What got you
interested in wanting to go over and volunteer for the campaign?
I wanted to finally contribute to something that I'd spent
so long observing and caring about and sweating the outcomes of. I was
positively gleeful, for example, when the healthcare reforms went through in
2010, even though I'd done nothing personally to contribute besides voting for
Obama. And I'm registered in New York, so that was pretty much frivolous
anyway.
2012 was going to be the last election Obama ever
contested (unless for some insane reason he decides to go back to the Senate
after his second term as President) and I realised this would be my last chance
to get on board.
Why Obama and why
Virigina?
He's a historic, transformational guy. What can I say?
He's not perfect, and neither is any politician, but I believe his heart's in
the right place. Virginia was chosen for a number of reasons – it's close to
Washington DC; we had a relative there involved in grassroots politics for the
Democratic party who could introduce us to lots of people; plus it was an
important state with a very close race for the vacant Senate seat
What was the most
enjoyable part of campaigning?
Easily canvassing. Which is, knocking on people's doors
and asking how they plan on voting. It's not, as people commonly believe,
knocking on doors and stumping for your guy or girl. If people say they're
undecided then you can ask them what their concerns are and try to swing them
in your direction, but that's about as far as it goes. But yeah – canvassing is
easily the most fun as you're walking the streets, seeing the neighbourhoods,
getting face to face with a wide variety of fascinating people. You get some
really great stories and some excellent conversations.
Do you have a
favourite politician? Why?
We'll just keep this to within America or I could go on
all day.
I was all for Obama picking Kathleen Sebellius as his VP
in 2008 (she was Governor of Kansas at the time, but he went with her for
Secretary of Health & Human Services instead); but I'm going to have to go
the easy choice and say Al Franken of Minnesota. He won in 2008 by 312 votes,
out of about 2.8 million cast. He's a former Saturday Night Live cast member
and is extremely eloquent, intelligent, well-tempered, and hilarious. But, now
that he's a Senator, he's hilarious only discreetly so.
Do you have a
favourite politician you love to hate? Why?
Hmmmm... Any of the current Tea Party darlings make for
easy targets. People like Rand Paul or Paul Ryan. So, um, anyone with Paul in
their name?
Was there something
amusing/surprising that you found out while you where in America?
I found out that I was getting all “American” about
Australia. As in, I'd walk around going “Yeah, Australia's one of the best
countries on Earth, man! Woo!”
In hindsight I can't think of too many massive bombshells.
There was a lot of new and fascinating information, but nothing that really
surprised or astounded me. Meeting Mitt Romney supporters at a Romney rally was
probably the biggest eye opener. I mean, for example, you hear politicians all
over America stand up in defence of a private health insurance industry that
is, essentially, heartless; but when you hear normal Americans saying the same
sorts of things you suddenly realise “Oh! That politican wouldn't be up there
saying those awful things if there weren't also millions of Americans
saying the same things, agreeing with them.”
Did taking part in
the campaign of one of the biggest players in the world make you have a
understanding of the simplicity of Australia’s political system?
We've probably got an easier path towards legislation than
the US political system – as in, we have more functional government (or people
in Australia just haven't figured out the best way to break it yet) – but I
think we still have many nuances and complexities of our own that can sometimes
make it inaccessible.
With the Australian
election this year are there any similarities on the political agenda?
I think there will be some similarities, even if the
outcome is different. Both elections were or will be fought on the basis of a
historical piece of landmark legislation (Obamacare in the US and the Carbon
Tax in Australia). Immigration is a disproportionately huge issue in Australia
and will play a role, like it always does. But whereas Obama and the Democratic
party won on the basis of forming a winning coalition out of minorities – in
large part due to their desire to push for comprehensive immigration reform –
I'm not sure that the current Labor Govenrment is seen as strong enough on the
issue to be able to do the same thing.
Do you think that
Australia would benefit from our own version of The Daily Show or The Colbert
Report?
We're already seeing something like this in The Chaser
and Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell, but I think that there's definitely –
and always – room for more. Satirical oversight of both the politicians and the
people covering the politicians is not only healthy – it's hilarious. Stewart
and Colbert are regularly cited as the most trusted journalists in America,
even though they're not journalists. How is that not a good thing?
Is it more
disheartening to think that most of American’s get there news from Comedy Centeral
because other news networks such as CNN or Fox are biased?
I'm not sure of the numbers on this, but I think Fox News
is actually still the most watched in America. I think it is both healthy and
distressing that America's most trusted journalists are actually comedians, but
there's a silver lining to this, I guess. Fox News (who started, or at least
perfected, the trend of targeted, biased news for profit) can't keep this up
forever, and in the meantime we get to learn all kinds of creative and innovative
ways to keep balance in the discourse.
When did you become
interested in comedy? Specially when did you know you wanted to preform?
Back when I was still in acting school, my old high school
called my brother, sister and myself to perform for a 20th Anniversary
concert. We'd all been singers at school, but my brother and sister had both
been training as singers for years and I hadn't. I didn't want to stand up next
to them and sing, but I still wanted to do something. So I put together this
weird character piece called “Reflections with Evin Donohoe”, where I had
someone play mellow piano while I sat on a stool wearing a suit with a skivvy,
reminiscing on moments from school history and reading poetry like a jackass. I
thought people wouldn't get it but it went down super awesomely. From then on,
yeah, standup made sense. It's really fun and you can do it at any time. If you
want to perform as an actor you have to run around and audition or go to
massive amounts of effort to put your own show on and then rehearse and
rehearse and rehearse, but with comedy you're your own master. It's incredibly
easy to be productive and effective and self-sufficient.
Was there a moment
in which your brain went “Hey you, Evin – yeah you…. This would make a awesome
comedy festival show”?
When I realised that I could justify the time and expense
of going to America to campaign by factoring it in to my career. Who the hell wouldn't
want to hear about the Obama campaign. People (in Australia) love that guy!
So you’re type of comedy
is refered to as political satire; who are your influences?
I don't know if I'd call them “influences”, but the people
I need to be watching more of, I think, are Adam Hills and Stewart Lee. Adam
Hills because his charming, gleeful stage presence lets him get away with much
darker and dirtier material than I think many people realise, and I have an
enthusiasm and optimism on stage that I can't shake. Stewart Lee because he's
clever, extremely politically and socially engaged, has found his audience, and
isn't afraid to go through long patches of silence from a crowd setting up a
joke. The joke is always really, really good.
Nate Silver has
predicted previous elections in the US with stunning accuracy; care to do that
for Australia 2013?
Hmmmm... The most worrying sign for Julia Gillard this
year was when Rudd didn't challenge in the spill. I think, barring any
political meteorites, we're headed for a Labor rout and for Rudd to pick up the
pieces after the election. He'll be PM again in 2016. (Of course what I really want
is to see Rudd v. Turnbull this year.)
Check out Evin on:
