Shouty, Angry and Sweary

Who is Jonathan Pie and why should we go to his show at the Enmore Theatre in late February?

Jonathan Pie is a fictitious British news reporter created by Tom Walker.

Walker claims Pie is his “alter ego,” who originally appeared in 2015 in a series of spoof video clips as a frustrated British news reporter covering former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s relationship with a British MP, Diane Abbott. Well, Pie has lost that target now but has a bigger one in Boris Johnson, a gift that will keep on giving for the five years of his prime ministership. 

Pie was so good at his job that Walker was approached by several media companies offering him total creative control. 

Walker went to work with RT UK, a free-to-air television news channel, until July 2016 when he left to tour with his stand-up debut show, Jonathan Pie Live, for 23 dates including an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Walker says Pie is “shouty, angry and sweary,” and when it comes to politics, “aren’t we all these days?”

So Walker clearly shares his alter ego’s Weltanschauung, or “world view” for those of you who missed out on a liberal arts education. 

Pie is “frustrated with his job, frustrated with the state of news media and angry at the state of politics.”

Walker says, “He’s pretty good at his job but… can’t help but rant about the state of the world… and he is quite fond of what some might call ‘colourful’ language.”

How does Walker explain Pie’s popularity with audiences the world over?

“Well, we live in an age where, when it comes to politics, the truth is stranger than fiction. In the UK, we have a bumbling idiot in charge. We voted to leave the EU, which is an act of nationalistic self-harm. In America, a glorified real-estate agent and Day-Glo reality TV star is in the White House. And here [in Australia] you have the country literally burning to the ground and a government that refuses to acknowledge that climate change just might be part of the problem.”

“Pie,” Walker says, “helps to make sense of the crazy world we live in. He vents our frustrations. And it’s cathartic to see a character who is lost in this strange political world that we live in.”

Like many, Walker believes that Trump is tough to parody, because “he does it himself. All you kind of have to do is read from his illiterate twitter profile, and the jokes are there ready-made.” 

Walker says that the worse the world gets the better his career becomes. 

“At this rate,” he adds, “I’ll be holding an Oscar the day the world ends.”

Oddly enough, Walker excuses Trump’s behaviour to a very forgiving degree.

“We berate Trump for calling anything he doesn’t like ‘Fake News’, but we all do it. We all read the news we agree with and dismiss the news we don’t. We live in a world where fact and opinion are given equal weight.” 

City Hub asked Walker what he thought about Australian politics, and his response was, “I’ll certainly be swatting up before I tour there in February. But I won’t do too much research too soon – you seem to get a new Prime Minister every other month.” 

What, does he expect ScoMo to disappear before his tour? If only!

Walker says he has noticed that Australian news reporters “get away with much ruder language than ours. It’s all a bit … ‘this is the bloody news!’”

Comedian Ricky Gervais described Jonathan Pie as “brilliant, brave, raw and analytical without forgetting to be funny.”

A recent blurb for Jonathan Pie/Tom Walker’s tour says “With over 1.2 million Facebook followers, his videos regularly go viral, achieving millions of views across the globe. His response to the election of Donald Trump was viewed more than 150 million times worldwide. A recent clip exploring identity politics was viewed over eight million times on Facebook alone.”

Walker’s mother and sister live in Australia, and while he’s happy to visit them regularly, he’s not too keen on Australian wildlife. “Everything is out to kill you,” he says, and just as we were about to shrug off his comment as the usual exaggeration, he added, “A couple of years ago I was visiting for Christmas. I went swimming on Christmas day and I trod on a stingray and it stabbed me in the foot. I spent the rest of the day in the Emergency ward.” 

Ouch! Sorry, buddy. You won’t believe us if we tell you that the chances of this happening are really small, will you, and that you’re more likely to be run over by a bus?

Feb 29. Enmore Theatre, 118-132 Enmore Rd, Newtown. $69.90+b.f. Tickets & Info: www.enmoretheatre.com.au

By Irina Dunn.