Dave Bloustien.
 In order to be recognised at our arranged meeting place, ex-Adelaide stand up comedian Dave Bloustien described himself as being "the one with big sideburns and wearing a giant purple cockroach". Intriguing, I thought. "Thankyou, I do like a good t-shirt, there's a great shop called 'Urban Outfitters' [in Sydney]," he grins. "Someone gave me a really great t-shirt for a Christmas present, which was my first Christmas present ever because I don't have any Christian heritage, if you know what I mean? Anyway, I asked them where they bought it and I went there and bought this one."
With a name like Bloustien, and the gift shirt reading: "EVERYONE LIKES A GOOD JEWISH BOY," it's little wonder he dosesn't do much yuletide celebration. This leads into a whole discussion about Jewish traditions and his surname's origin. "It means 'sapphire, as in a blue stone," he informs me, "and a kid I grew up with thought it was cool because it sounded like Frankenstein."
Now based in Sydney, where his day job is a staff writer for the ABC's 'The Glass House', the immensely knowledgeable Bloustien views the role as a comedian as more than just being funny.
"I think that's what comedians are really," he considers. "Ideally we're popular intellectuals and we're out there doing public editorials about politics and history and current events but I don't want to be seen as 'the Jewish comedian'. But it's like Chris Rock, he's a great political observer but he doesn't want to be known as a black comedian and there's also gay comedians, female comedians and all other kinds of marginalised groups, and they're just people standing on the outside looking in which I think is where comedy comes from.
"We all like to see ourselves as small poppies and say that we're on the outside, but there is a lot more to us than what the average person realises. I'm not really interested in doing ethnic comedy but at the same I can't really get away from it because I'd be lying if I said my background didn't affect my outlook on the world, you know?"
Bloustien's show is entitled 'ST*RF*CK*R', and takes on the topic of celebrity and the possible overuse of its status.
"Ostensibly the show's about all the different aspects of celebrity and tackles everything from the political side, to marketing and the Bali Nine, but because I like to tackle things that are current the problem is it never lasts that long as material. Because I work on 'The Glass House' that's the type of issues I'm constantly dealing with.
"I try to keep that pressure up when writing my stand up routines, but because I don't have a head writer directing me, I have to try out all my bits and lose things as I go. And there's quite a bit that doesn't make it onto the show so I use that in my routine.
"So this is kind of like my comedy come out show as such, because it's about celebrity and me not being quite as famous as I want to be. I see it like when Bowie first went to America and said that he was famous in England when he wasn't, so he got all these people to come to his shows and was able to go back to the UK and then say that he did really well in America. I now tell people back here that I'm doing well in Sydney," he laughs, nervously.
Steve Jones
 | Dave Bloustein performs 'ST*RF*CK*R' Upstairs at Bin 273 Rundle St until Sun 19 March |
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