Comedians get an office Christmas

It’s been a big year for comedian Joel Creasey. Between touring his show Political Animal and being run out of Victorian country town Colac by homophobic youths, if anyone deserves an office Christmas party, it’s him.

There lies the dilemma for a full-time comedian who loved the annual celebration — where do stand-up artists celebrate?

Not one to be robbed, Creasey has organised his own office Christmas party, and invited comedians Greg Fleet, Cal Wilson and Nath Valvo along for the night.

“When I used to work in an office, I was that person who’d come into the office in November and decorate everything with tinsel,” Creasey said.

“I was also the one to take the Christmas party too far, you know, there’d be a federal police investigation the following week. Maybe that’s why I don’t work in an office any more.”

Dressed as an elf, Creasey’s promising his best attempts at evoking the drunk secretary who gets way too much into Christmas for the event.

“I’m hanging mistletoe above the stage so every performer has to pash me. That’s my Christmas present to them,” he said.

One of those unlikely to get an invite to the comic’s event is the Mayor of Colac, the town where Creasey was threatened with being gay-bashed by a group of around 20 teenagers while leaving an anti-discrimination.

“The Mayor of Colac came out in an interview and said, ‘I don’t know what he’s talking about, no bottles or knives were thrown so it’s not such a big deal’.

“So I haven’t had any requests for shows in Colac at the moment, and I’m fine with that. I think Colac’s a nice place to see in your rearview mirror.”

It’s been a bad year for Creasey in regards to homophobic hecklers, with another incident recently at the Comic’s Lounge in North Melbourne.

“A guy up the back of the venue started yelling and screaming, ‘Get the gay guy off stage, I’m really homophobic’, ” Creasey explained.

“I thought what is going on? This never happens to Josh Thomas.”

Seeing the lighter side of this year, however, Creasey said Colac had given him a good half-hour of material for his 2012 Melbourne and Sydney Comedy Festival shows.

INFO: Joel Creasey’s Office Christmas Party is on Dec 9 at Tony Starr’s Kitten Club from 9pm. www.trybooking.com/banw