Transcript
Anna (0:00)
Hey, it's Anna here with a wee bit of bonus content. That's right. Lucky you. Now, this is bonus content. So if you haven't listened to the series, go back and start at episode zero and listen all the way through to episode six. This episode will then make a whole lot more sense if you've done that. Also, this episode might touch on some heavy lifting feelings territory, including what it's like to feel so hopeless that you want to die. If it leaves you with a few things rattling around in your brain after, you might want to, you know, go do something nice for yourself. I can vouch for walking dogs, going for a bike ride, even taking baths. They're all pretty great things to do. So. Actor, musician, comedian Eddie Perfect was kind of central to the opening of episode six, the last episode of the series. He was in his starring role as the totem of my sabbaticals to Doomtown. So we reached out to see if he'd be up for a chat. We wanted to talk about the Don't Kill Yourself song that's featured, but also about life and everything in between. And absolute legend that he is, he was up for a chat. So here's me in conversation with Eddie Perfect down the line from New York City.
Eddie Perfect (1:24)
I remember that the producer of the ABC said to me, we're doing a week of mental health programming and it's going to culminate in a variety show. And the whole week of programming is about attempting to, you know, in inverted commas, raise awareness, mental health, the state of mental health in Australia, to try and contribute towards destigmatising it. And I think with our variety show, it was about using comedy as a tool to explore mental health. Would you be interested in hosting it? I was like, yeah, and could you write a song? And I was like, that's what I do, you know, I write. I kind of write songs. And I was like, yeah, great. And then I went away and I fucking freaked out about that song for I had, like, a good three months to really worry about that song. And I was actually on a family holiday in Scotland driving a hire car around and talking to my wife Lucy about it and just going, I don't know what to do. Because with satirical comedic songs, the whole point of it is you. You know, for want of a better word, they're like weaponized songs. You know, you need a target. And normally what I would do is take an attitude or an ideology or an institution or a policy that I disagreed with, and I would adopt that opposing argument and then Just kind of ride that pony into the blazing sun. You know, let's take it to its illogical extreme. Right?
Anna (2:54)
Yeah.
Eddie Perfect (2:55)
And the problem with mental health is the target is often ignorant. And then probably a whole bunch of very specific things that you'd be well acquainted with that are, like, institutionalized. You know, everything from policy down to the White House in mental health care is kind of provided or not provided for people. And I didn't know what the target was. And so I remember coming back from that trip and saying to my manager, I don't think I can write this song. You know, the rule in comedy is, you know, you always punch up. I'm like, who am I punching here? And it's also, like, it's fucking terrifying in Waters, you know, like, I don't want to do any damage here. And so my manager said, well, we've just got to call a meeting with the ABC and talk to them about it. So I went and talked to them, and we had this meeting. And, you know, like, trying to get a producer to pitch to you ways and it could be funny is excruciating, to say the least. But after that, I went away. I'm like, what do you want? Like, what do you want this thing to do? And then I'm like, I wanted to raise awareness, and we obviously want people to seek help if they need help. And, you know, we want to address suicide, and we want to stop beating around the bush, and we want to be, like, specific, and we want to be bold, and, you know, we want to start a conversation, you know, that kind of thing. And so I came up with the idea of the song Don't Kill Yourself, because I was like, it's pretty blunt, but it's like, kind of generally the aim. I think one of the aims of what's going on with the show. And I wrote a song and I handed it in, and then the ABC freaked the fuck out about that song for ages. Like, meetings, meetings with lawyers. One of the big things I was really worried about was, like, if you write a song called Don't Kill Yourself, what if someone hears that song and then they kill themselves? Like, that would be absolutely awful. So they got in, like, all sorts of different people. Patrick McGorry got sent my demo, and he was like, this is great. You know, let's bring this stuff out in the open. And I think it mixes humor. And it was supposed to be the opening song of the thing, actually. But then the ABC was so sort of terrified of it, but loved it. But, you know, Got increasingly scared of it as they were coming up to taping it, they decided it would be better to open the show with something else and to put it further back in the show in case it died at death. It wasn't the thing that began the show. So that's what happened. And I did the song and, you know, I don't know, like, how do you measure songs? I don't particularly love that song. I'm not like. I mean, you would have a better take on it with someone that, you know, has personal experience with the subject matter. But I thought I did a much better job the next year because I think I understood what the target was. And I found a different way of approaching the second year. I wrote a song called Get over it, like a music theater number where it was like someone presents at their workplace with having mental health problems, and the boss sings this whole song about, why don't you get over it? Just go for a jog, drink chamomile tea, all the things that people are told, you know, deal with that. And I thought that was way more sort of successful as a satirical thing. And, you know, don't Kill Yourself was just like a kind of a bold message wrapped in a lot of sort of stupid idioms. But anyway, that's enough for me that that was how it came about. What was your response to it? I'm interested to know.