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Eddie Ifft & Andrew Stanley
 350 hours of footage! Thankfully, that's the end of the shoot for Eddie Ifft... although now in the edit stage for his documentary "America: The Punchline", Ifft comes to the logical conclusion. "I wish it was more like three hours...because I'm losing my mind."
I'd just wrapped up a hilarious and fascinating interview with Ifft and Andrew Stanley when Ifft told me about his mega-ultra-sized video project - and I recommenced recording the interview. A typical interview goes for twenty minutes, this one went for thirty...and then another twenty! "We've got nothing to do until tonight," quipped Stanley, "so we're just going to be sitting here (for the next five hours)." I was loving it - although I'd have a lot to edit afterwards...
Although Ifft and Stanley are performing at The Arts Theatre for the 'Best Of The Fest!' show, their profile in Australia is quite small. Whilst 'The Best Of The Edinburgh Fest' plays at The Gov, Stanley queries the logic, since he performed in Edinburgh yet is in the best of the Adelaide Fest.
"Technically, I'm the best comedian at this festival," he concludes. It's a convoluted logic that somehow convinces you when he says it, helped all the more so by his Irish, yet comprehensible, accent. What exactly makes them the best - do they make people laugh until it hurts? "Oh no, we don't like to hurt people!" quips Stanley, "Oh, I do!" retorts Ifft.
Establishing the 'good comedian/bad comedian' relationship between the two, New Yorker Ifft drills his point. "I like to make fun of everything you're not to supposed to make fun off. I don't think there's anything that you can't laugh at." Hmm...but surely there are things you can't laugh at?
Stanley elaborates: "There are things you're not supposed to... like gay paedophiles who have AIDs: those are subjects I tend to stay clear of."
"And I go right into them" adds Ifft. "I inflict pain."
 Could Ifft laugh at his own tragedy? Back to that documentary: Ifft tells me that the previous editor worked for a year on the project, did his own thing by ignoring the briefs of Ifft and the Producer, was fired, and out of anger he wiped the project off the hard-drive. That is, he'd probably earned a hundred grand for a year's work and then he completely destroyed all of the progress. 350 hours of footage takes, at minimum, 350 hours to recapture on the computer, but in actual execution, probably five times that amount...
"I'm like: where do I sign up for my gun permit?"
There's more talk between both Stanley and Ifft of website URLs being stolen and then sold-back, and it's clear that both comedians have been seriously harassed by the greed of the world. "It is greed though. It's 'I'm going to make money and I'm going to take advantage of someone'. It's stealing your shit and then selling it back to you!"
Ifft and Stanley aren't upset by all of this, as their outrage is coloured over by an ironic attitude of 'what can you do?'. They both look back over their troubles and genuinely find the funny side to it. Ifft says "I owed a kid a thousand bucks who made my website, and I said 'I told you I'd pay the rest when you're done.' He was, like half-way done. He goes: 'I need the money now, I've got bills... pay me now or else! ' ...I drive home, go to my website and it's a picture of my head on a barbie doll and it says: Eddie Ifft, he knows what guys like...for great guy sex, call Eddie at...and he's got my fucking phone number!... He'd linked it to gay porn pages and I got all these phone-calls saying 'Is this Eddie?"
Stanley chips in: "You had so much respect for him though!" Ifft elaborates: "I was so angry... and then a day later I thought it was probably the funniest thing that had ever been done to me!"
Ifft and Stanley continuing making jokes about the little punk for the next few minutes and there's not a hint of malice in their voices, only genuine humour. Refreshing and educational; it was indeed: 'The Best interview of The Fest'.
Eddie Ifft and Andrew Stanley perform with Dave Johns in Best Of The Fest! at the Arts Theatre until Sun 1 April (no joke)
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