Interviews : “I’m attempting to make a comedy equivalent of a metal band.” – An Interview With Mitch Alexander (Eye of the Enemy)

Mitch Alexander, Melbourne’s resident heavy metal comedian and vocalist of melodeath metal band Eye of the Enemy, embarked on a two-week long tour of Asia with his band and decided to base his next show on all of his obscure observations and experiences. ‘Diu Lei Lo Mo’ will be running throughout April and he will be doing what he does best – “yelling in the faces of strangers” about all the things he saw and did during the band’s travels through Asia. Metal Obsession caught up with Mitch recently to chat about his upcoming comedy shows, his journey in the field of stand up and just life in general.

On asking Mitch whether he’s all set for his upcoming shows, he replied, ” So many people were recently posting about how they weren’t ready and I’m like yes you are! This show has been coming up for a year now and you’ve been writing it for ages. So when I posted a status about how unprepared I am for the upcoming shows, that was more of just a piss take at those people. But really, a show is never done. It’s kind of like writing an album. I would love more than anything for a producer in comedy, the same way that you have one when creating music. I do have one now and she’s great – she organises everything and I’m completely useless but if you have a comedy producer or a director  to tell you ‘Stop it. You’re done. The show starts in 3 hours so stop coming up with jokes you have’t tried before and just finish the show.’ It really is all about the writing and then trialing live and then re-writing, trialing it live again. Sometimes it is hard to do because so much of the stuff this year, relies on what came before it. For instance last year’s show was just stand up humour which I could take anywhere but this one has a theme and a whole sort of story behind it.”

So how did the idea to do a show about a metal tour come about? “Well I came up with the idea even before we went on the tour and I figured that if I don’t get even one hour of stand up out of a fortnight long tour of Asia then I should just quit comedy. I think I should anyway but nevertheless I felt it would be fun to sort of do a retrospective for my own sake, instead of just the usual photos and videos to remember things. I do realize though that I’ve totally distorted the truth of the matter and nothing is as it seems in my mind any more but that’s still the fun part. When I did start writing for the show, it was a bit difficult because I don’t like observational humour so what I’m doing is taking the experiences I’ve had and shoehorn my opinion in. This way it gets my perspective and the show is more about my opinion on what I saw than recounting it in an objective manner.”

Being his first international tour, Mitch did reveal some of the things he experienced in Asia. “The tour was amazing and it was just a good group of dudes throughout. I did get a little worried halfway about there being a no show sometimes. Just because we got really tired. It was a physically grueling tour where we’d bump out at 1 in the morning and get in two hours of sleep and then take a bus to the airport.  But really, there were no major bust-ups or fist fights. We did however, have some pretty hectic moments especially when we decided to use Japanese public transport on Monday morning at peak hour to get to the airport. That was my first experience with those cliche ‘people pressed against the window’ trains involved me and the rest of the band with all of our gear and the most apologetic looks we could muster. The fun and randomness of it all was what I loved.”

I also asked Mitch what the biggest lesson was that he learnt while on tour. “That for me personally, that’s all I want to do.  It was life defining in terms of solidifying where I want to go with the rest of my life. I’m not expecting to be a rockstar or earn millions. I’m happy to jump in a van, cruise around in foreign countries, meeting new people and playing shows every night. It was my first taste of the constant travel, hotel rooms, the constant partying at all hours for no good reason – it’s the kind of life I want to live. Weirdest thing that was seen on tour. “In Japan, it was either a dildo attached to a drill bit which was pretty intense or Dan from Ne Obliviscaris dancing to drum and bass on a Monday night – for someone that can keep great time and rhythm that dude cannot dance.”

Shortly after being announced as the new vocalist of Eye of the Enemy, Mitch and his bandmates were all set to do a two week tour through Asia which included Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan , Korea among a couple of other countries. On asking how he felt at the time of the tour announcement, Mitch shared his initial thoughts. ” ‘Can I?’ ‘Do I want to do this?’ ‘Do I have the time?’, ‘Can I afford it?’. The questions were endless  for the funny Melbourne metalhead. ” But the thought straight after all of those questions was ‘Shut the f*ck up and do this’, because literally, since I was 8 and heard Korn, that’s what I’ve wanted to do and when the opportunity came up to do it it, it certainly wasn’t a tour to be sniffed at.  I told myself I’d do it come hell or high water!”

A little bit of a back story to all of this – a long time ago, this long-haired humourous human was the vocalist of a band called ‘Hours in Exile’ and that’s when Eye of the Enemy’s Kane saw him. ” That’s how I ended up being the vocalist for Eye of the Enemy – when Kano saw me all those years ago at a gig screaming in people’s faces. Before that I was in Hours in Exile and even before that I’ve been in tons of bands. I was a drummer in high school but then I  decided to go over to vocals because I was getting bored behind the kit. It’s what I’ve wanted to do for so long that it actually felt really weird when I took a break. Also, a lot of people met me during that time of not being a vocalist and assuming that that was me which wasn’t true at all because I was like, ‘what I do is scream in front of strangers for an hour and a half.’. So having to switch back to that and do it again has been great. In fact I hadn’t done a gig in a while when Kano hit me up about joining Eye of the Enemy but it’s nice to think that I left that much of an impression for him to come to me years down the line and ask me whether I’m still doing my screaming stuff.”

I also asked Mitch whether he has an impeccable memory or whether he took down notes to remember all of the shenanigans that went on during tour. “At some point I did try to take notes but it just didn’t feel right. The memories that stand out just stand out. Since the tour I’ve been able to work on it but trying to take notes while I was in performance mode was really hard. They are two completely different things. It’s the same with comedy – you come up with stuff on the fly at gigs but when you’re in performance mode it’s very different to when you’re in writing mode. This is the case with Eye of the Enemy now. We’re not doing as many gigs now because we’re in writing mode and performing takes away from that. But while on tour in Asia, it was mainly just chucking a note on my phone or a picture and going back to it weeks afterwards. Then I’d sort of writing it out chronologically which helped. So if there was stuff I forgot and stuff I didn’t and I would just build on that. If I remembered one thing then it was the next thing and the next thing.”

Having come a long way in the past four years, I asked Mitch how he feels when he looks back on his journey through life, full of jokes, obscurity and loud music. “I never started stand up with the intention of doing it anywhere near the level I do it now; I just wanted more stage time. Bands at the small level, especially in Australia, really don’t play all that often, so I thought stand up would be a fun and easy way to get extra stage time. I was like – ” I’m pretty sure I can just get on stage and yell funny jokes but I was wrong, it was f*cked. So much harder than I thought it would be. I totally bombed out my first gig, and so my first goal in comedy was “I’m going to get at least one laugh in a five minute spot.” And then it was “I’m going to get five minutes of laughter”. Now it’s “I’m going to incorporate multimedia in a full length solo show at Australia’s biggest comedy festival.” It’s always just tiny little achievable goals, like stepping stones, reaching to the next one. and because of that I don’t really notice the progression. But if I look back, I guess I’m pretty happy with where I got to.”

So how does he manage being in a band, being a stand-up comedian, studying his Masters in Philosophy and working a full-time job? Well he doesn’t know either. “I honestly have no fucking idea how I do it. It’s a miracle all this gets done – a miracle of entropy. I got super lucky that last year, the tour was just a month or two after the comedy festival, and the end of Uni was a month or two after the tour. My life just sort of slots into place, which is nice. But as things are ramping up, more international tours, starting my Masters, more comedy… I dunno, we’ll see how we go. If I could just ditch the f*cking day job, things would be amazing! This is the longest job I’ve ever had. For me,  I hate it when people ask what do you do, where do you work etc etc. Most people think the day job is what facilitates their personality.

Metal, comedy and then….Philosphy! Do we get to see some of his learnings in a show sometime soon? Most likely. ” I have had the idea to use what I’ve learnt in a show for a very long time and there is a show that I’ve been thinking about that I really want to do. It’s years away now but I’m definitely working on something that involves aspects of metal and philosophy with comedy. I do hope to get my doctorate before that so I can officially call myself a doctor and send people requests from my old high school! ”

Mitch leaves the readers one last message.” I think my main selling point would be that I’m attempting to make a comedy equivalent of a metal band. So I’m not going to stand in the one spot and tell jokes in your face. I’m trying my best to give it a different vibe and a much more hectic metal vibe. I want people to feel the exact same way they do when they see metal bands.”

So do yourself a favour and grab tickets to Mitch’s comedy show and you will be guaranteed a few giffaws and giggles. Preview nights will be held between April 4 – 6, with the main tour kicking off from April 7 – 16. Tickets are available now via Try Booking, with Mitch even adding neat little parameters for punters to save money (it is as follows, below):

4 – 6 April 2016 (preview nights) – $15 or 2 for $20 if you have a band tattoo
7 – 16 April 2016 – $20 adult, $15 concession, $15 if you’re wearing a band shirt, 2 for $20 if you have a band tattoo or $15 per ticket for group bookings of 4 or more

There will be no shows on Sundays.

Find the official Facebook event page HERE.

Click HERE for the official Melbourne International Comedy Festival feature on Mitch Alexander’s ‘Diu Lei Lo Mo’ tour.

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