An Evening with Jonathan Duffy is a brand new show featuring stand up comedian Jonathan Duffy. It will play at Tjarnarbíó theatre starting from May 5th.
“I am a fan of variety shows and used to be a guest on a lot of live variety shows in Australia. They’re great because you never really know what is going to happen, you just know you’re going to have a good time,” says comedian Jonathan Duffy, also known as simply Jono.
Jono has made quite a name for himself in Iceland, doing popular stand-up shows and co-writing a comic strip for us here at GayIceland. Now he’s working on a new show called An Evening With Jono Duffy, which will play at Tjarnarbíó starting from May 5th.
“The show will literally be about whatever I want it to be that week,” says this vivacious comedian when I ask him what the show is all about. “I’m taking a standard stand-up show and making it more like a late night chat show. We will talk about what’s happening in the world, there will be guests, sometimes music and of course stand-up.”
Some might remember Jono’s last show, Australiana, where he reflected on his childhood in his homeland of Australia, what he missed about the island down under and why he left. So, I wonder how his new chat show themed show will be different.
“It’s completely different. This is more silly and fun. Imagine if I were allowed to host a show like the Graham Norton Show, but I only had one guest each week for about 10 minutes and so I had to fill up the rest of the hour myself by making the audience have fun. That’s pretty much it,” says Jono.
“I’m taking a standard stand-up show and making it more like a late night chat show. We will talk about what’s happening in the world, there will be guests, sometimes music and of course stand-up.”
Jono was actually approached by Tjarnarbíó theatre and asked to do shows this summer on a regular basis. He says that he was initially hesitant about the idea.
“At first I didn’t really want to do it because even though some of the jokes I have done over and over again still make audiences laugh, if I had to do the same show 11 times it would kill me. I needed to come up with a way to still give audiences a great night but without having to be repetitive,” he says, but ensures his fans that they will still get a little bit of the good ol’ Jono.
“Of course there will be bits in there that people know and love and there will be stand-up. I just want to keep people on their toes. I’m also excited about having guests. I’m trying wherever possible to get guests to
May 5th, 10th & 25th
June 2nd, 8th, 15th & 22nd
July 14th, 20th & 28th
do things people aren’t used to seeing. Like for instance one of my guests is going to be interviewed by me in a segment called ‘You Can’t Ask That’ where I ask questions I really shouldn’t. Another will be facing off in a lip sync battle with me,” says Jono.
Can he give away who the guests will be?
“I won’t reveal the guest names until the week of the show. However, I can say that my first guest in Hugleikur Dagsson.”
An Evening With Jono Duffy is aimed at tourists and Icelanders alike. I wonder if Jono will poke fun at people’s nationalities in any way?
“I always do. One of my favorite parts of stand-up is crowd work. I usually start the night by asking where everyone is from and then tastefully destroying their national pride just so that we realize we are all as shit as each other,” says Jono with a smirk.
Jonathan’s premier date is in a few days time. Is he excited?
“Super excited. I can’t wait. I love this concept and I love Tjarnarbíó. Even though I enjoyed doing Australiana, I really missed just making people laugh for an hour,” he says.
But what about nerves? Are they creeping up on him?
“I always have a freak out a couple of days before where I start to think that I’m not funny and nobody should ever pay to see me. Most of the time that’s because people usually wait till the last-minute to get tickets. As soon as I step in front of the audience, that all changes though.”
Before we say our goodbyes, I ask Jono what’s next up for him?
“If this show goes well, I don’t see a reason to stop. I’ve been working on a couple of other things. I still have my podcast with Hulli (Hugleikur Dagsson), I’m touring later this year with Bylgja Babýlons, and I’m currently writing a new show that I’m hoping to put in pride this year, and I’m working on a documentary, so yeah just a couple of things.”