FULL CHAT: Comedian Arj Barker

Arj Barker joins the Zoo FM Breakfast show to discuss his upcoming show in Dubbo. He talks about his recent tour and how the shows have been going well. He also mentions a incident involving a baby, but says it hasn't affected the shows negatively. Arj Barker shares that his show explores the mysteries of consciousness and how science cannot fully explain it. He emphasizes that his show is meant to make people laugh. He also briefly discusses a film called "The Nut Farm" that he is a part of, which is a low-budget comedy. The film revolves around a cryptocurrency trader who inherits a macadamia farm. Arj Barker mentions the changing beer scene in Australia and expresses his excitement for his upcoming show in Dubbo. Kid Leroy, 8 minutes to 8, Zoo FM Breakfast, your home of Dubbo's best music from the 80s to now, top of 21 in Wellington today. Currently 8 degrees, gonna be sunny this morning. Ahead of his upcoming show at the Dubbo RSL, Arj Barker joins us on the show this morning. Cheers for coming on. Hey, an absolute pleasure. You've done a bit of a hectic tour across the big barren land of Australia recently before you hit Dubbo. How's it all going? Actually, it's going really well. You know, there was an incident a few weeks ago. I don't know if you heard about it. Yeah, maybe. There's just a little thing of the baby and it was unfortunate and I just want us to go on the record. I have no ill will towards anyone else involved in this thing, but it was definitely a rocky, rocky seas for a couple days. But since then, I have to be honest, the shows have kind of gone up a level in terms of people have seemed more excited to be there and very extra supportive and in fact, the ticket sales have gone up. It's just odd, but you know, we call it the baby bump, but I'm not saying I'm glad it happened, but in the big picture, maybe it hasn't been the worst thing. Pretty sure the Dubbo RSL offers childcare, so you shouldn't need to worry about that again. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, well, it's a terrific venue and I'm happy to be coming back to perform there. My show has got a lot of really cool information in it about what we know about reality and what we don't know, which is the really interesting stuff. To me, there's a lot of mysteries left in our knowledge of how things work, primarily how consciousness works. They know a lot about how it works, operates, but they don't know how it exists. And I think that's a very important point. Every little thing you experience is still a mystery in terms of science being able to explain how you have that experience. So I love talking about that. Of course, I always make it about the jokes. It's always leading to punchlines and jokes and laughs because people come to the show not to learn necessarily, but to laugh and definitely, right? And so I always made that my mission. If I want to talk about something in the show, whether it's UFOs, that was a couple tours ago, or in this case, the mysteries of consciousness. Well, I bloody well better have some punchlines coming up and I'll keep it fun. Well, man, I just want to change the course slightly. The Nut Farm, which is currently in cinemas, it's starring Deez Nuts, which is probably the most reputable nut producer in Australia. What's the movie all about? There's one character called Farmer Dee and his operation is called Deez Nuts, a very funny character played by Guyton Grantley, who's a terrific Aussie actor. People will recognize him. But the Nut Farm is a film my friends and I wrote a few years back and we got it made. It's a low-budget, family-friendly comedy, which should be on streaming soon-ish. Oh, brilliant. Keep an eye out for it. And it's basically, I'm a cryptocurrency trader and I'm the lead role in the film. I play Brendan Brandon, who's a cryptocurrency trader who goes broke trading crypto, but simultaneously inherits a macadamia farm on the east coast of Australia. And so I come out and I thought, I'll just sell the farm. But then the will says, my eccentric uncle who wrote the will said, I have to successfully farm 20 tons of macadamias before I can rightfully own the farm. So that sets up the challenge of my character. And there's a love interest played by Madeline West and Tyrael Mora, who played the lawyer in the castle, is in the film. Oh, right. The lawyer again. He was terrific. It's definitely an odd film, but it's fun. I think people laugh out loud a few times when they watch it. The movie actually makes a reference to Australian beer. And I mean, I've got to ask you personally, what was your initial reactions in the very beginning to what we actually have on offer? When I first came here, there wasn't all the microbreweries taken off and the random, you know, names of the beer. And I think that's what you're referring to in the film. They have one called Kelly's Piss and Fat Bastard is real, is it? Is it real or is that in the film? Now I'm getting confused. They're blurring the lines between them. Well, cheers for coming in for a chat this morning. I was 100 percent keen to see your show coming up at the RSL here in Dubbo. Thanks a lot. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. And I promise folks, if you come out, it's just going to leave you with a smile on your face, feeling good. And that's really the goal of my shows. We're going to have a great time. Brilliant. Cheers, mate. Much appreciated. Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. You're on Zuri's Breakfast.