You were born in New York but raised in California. Your childhood must have been a bit different?
I was so young when my parents moved to California. The disconnect was my parents. People in California were much softer and quieter and less blunt and confrontational. My parents were not like that. My Mom grew up in the Bronx and my Dad grew up in Manhattan. That’s what created a unique variety of me.

Do you like Australia better than US?
First thing I find is that everyone asks, in America, “do they understand your jokes in Australia?”. I get that all the time and they don’t realise how on top of world issues Australia is. They don’t realise how similar some problems are everywhere in the world, like the economy and obesity. I’m shocked that people in America don’t understand that. Globally, sense of humour is remarkably similar. People like to laugh at stuff they can relate to and where they feel there’s emotion behind it. If your comedy is about frustration, hope, confusion, or silliness, everyone shares those emotions so it’s not that much of a difference. People might think there is, but there’s not.

Do you incorporate America into your jokes?
My comedy is not really political and everybody likes to mock America, me included. America
is such a big target. America is like Paris Hilton, so over the top and over exposed, how could you not make fun of it? How could you leave it alone.

Do you have a favourite comic?
I don’t have a favourite, but my favourite comics to watch are the ones who are doing stuff that’s so out there; they absolutely do not care the results of their shows. I like to see it when the crowd is confused by another comedian. I think as comedians we don’t necessarily like to do that but we like to watch it. Its’ almost like a sociology to watch. Andy Kaufman was like that. He was big in the 70s and 80s. The movie Man on the Moon was about him.

Have you ever had a bad experience
on stage?
I think every comedian has their horror stories. I’ve done block parties where you’re standing literally in the street and you have kids riding around you on scooters and you’re trying to perform to a crowd of people who’re eating hot dogs and drinking beer. I’ve done shows at nightclubs where they literally stop the music and announce there is going to be a comedy show and everyone who was just trying to line up their piece of action for the night basically has to stop flirting with the opposite sex to listen to a guy talk about jokes. I’ve had shows where people were so drunk they had to be dragged out. Then they see you outside and they tell you what a great time they had and you look at them like, “what do you mean, you didn’t even listen to the show. You were not even mentally present.”

So, I heard you like puppets?
Oh, that’s just my attempt at being sarcastic. I can’t take MySpace seriously so I put puppets under interest. It’s my attempt at being anti-MySpace. Facebook is becoming MySpace. Is anybody realising that; am I the only one to realise the nightmare that is Facebook? I’ll log on to my Facebook right now. I have three people instant messaging me, who are people who would never call. Under requests, I have like 20 different things and I don’t know what any of them are. I have 11 causes. What they’re doing is they’re ruining a cause that I might really care about because they’re overloading me. Facebook is sadly becoming MySpace but sure somebody will come up with Facespace and it will combine all the good things of both websites and the world will be saved.

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
The obvious answer is the Comedy Store in Sydney. I would like to go to Saudi Arabia to see if they would give me a special deal on gas. If they could just hook me up, because I drive a V6 and hybrids cost a grid. Not that I’m not green; I’m teal.

Andrew is playing Sydney’s Comedy Store till Saturday 1 August. Info and
tix (from $10) at comedystore.com.au.
WIN one of five double passes for Wednesday’s (22nd) show at
www.tntdownunder.com (click on “win”)