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Arj BarkerArj Barker is speaking from his home in Northern California, and after opening with the obligatory, 'how are you?' he answered, "Great, I've been super busy. Probably the busiest I've ever been and I've done more this past month than I have in a long time. "I've been to just about every corner of the United States doing shows, as well as Bermuda." Sensing a follow up line here my immediate response to that was, Bermuda? "Yeah, we got a little nervous about that," he drolly replies. "And a comb went missing while we were there. I swear, we looked all over the room and I can't explain where it went. But I'm lucky that that's all I lost because other people have lost whole boats and aeroplanes." Many readers would be aware of Barker's brand of observational humour as he's been to Adelaide many times, as well as being almost a permanent feature on our televisions with such shows as 'Thank God You're Here', and 'Flight Of The Conchords'. "I don't want to sound presumptuous, but I do feel pretty darn at home down there," he says of his love of Australia, "and when I'm there I don't feel like I'm away from home, I just feel like I'm in Australia, does that makes sense? But when I'm away from there, I do feel sad," he adds, sincerely. "So, maybe it is my home." So, has he ever considered duel citizenship? "Oh yeah, I've given that some thought. I just have to find a girl to marry me, then it's a done deal. "I have looked into it, but I don't want to get married for immigration reasons. When I get married I want it to be for the only real and important reason; which is she's comes from a really rich family," he further quips, before quickly adding, "and love. But I get to go to Australia as much as I want anyway, so there's doesn't seem much point." For this year's Fringe Festival, Barker has named his show, 'Arj Barker's Original Style Bits & Pieces'; a title I thought might've represented a 'Best of' hour. "That's one way to look at it," he sets out to clarify, "but do you know what it really is? It's the same thing that I've done every year in that I'll be doing the best jokes that I currently have and I'll rake up some new ones, and I sometimes go find some jokes that I haven't done for years and I put those in too because people don't know every joke by heart. My only goal is go out there and have a solid hour of great laughs," he enthuses. "All I care about is making people laugh and that's always been my formula and I don't see any reason to stray from that. My goal is to make it the same quality that people have come to expect, and that's 'Arj Barker's Original Style Bits and Pieces'." Steve Jones |