Cruise ship comedian shares his secrets
If entertaining of room of people within nothing but a microphone and your wits seems daunting on dry land, you can only imagine at sea it’s be sink or swim scenario.
We chatted to Australian headliner comedian Jacques Barrett about life performing on cruise ships. As you can imagine, telling jokes as sea is not always smooth sailing.
What’s great/not so great about the gig?
What’s great is the size of the crowd. When the 700 seat Marquee theatre is packed and you’re crushing it feels good… feels right. Flip side to that is when it’s not going well, knowing you’ll have to look these 700 people directly in the feet whenever you want to leave your cabin for vodka. If you have a good show you’re king of the cruise, drop the ball and you’d better have a disguise.
When you were on board, how much actual performing did you do?
Depends on the cruise line but per week, anywhere between one and five shows.
What are the crowds like? Do you find you have to adjust material?
The crowds are great, they’re all in good spirits and much of my dry land fan base are people who saw me on a cruise. I really don’t adjust my material at all. Except for my family friendly shows, and I nearly have a stroke trying to keep the tsunami of cuss words from spilling out onto the innocents. That’s what a lot of other comedians ask me, do you have to play clean? Which for any hardened club comic really is a nightmare, cleaning up the act means losing a lot of the funny. The adult shows however, are great, the audience is for-warned and the fear that senior-citizens might not like the blue material is unfounded: They’re cheeky, dark, and quite fond of smut.
What did you do during your down time?
Get dressed up in my various disguises, treat myself to a Mai Tai, tell stories about the war, solve crime.
What tips do you have for cruise passengers?
If you’re at a comedy show and want to heckle, just remember the odds are that the comedian will give you a nice verbal tough up, and you’ll be known around the ship as that dickhead who couldn’t keep their trap shut.
You can find Jacques on Facebook here, or check out his website.
Related links:
6 offbeat cruises you should book
How to determine your cruising style