Take me back to the very beginning when you discovered you had a knack for making people laugh. Can you remember when that was?
Uh, I don’t remember the exact moment, I just remember that I’ve always enjoyed it. I remember finding out about stand-up comedy when I was a little kid and being fascinated by it – that there was just one person holding court in a big theatre full of people that are laughing. I just found it to be a magical thing. I remember at school, every report card from year one through to the end of high school said ‘Nick gets his work done quickly so he can go on to distract others’. It was just me and my mates having fun – I don’t think there is anything better than laughing.

Let’s jump forward then to your start in comedy. What solidified you decision to do it for a living?
Again, there’s not one key moment. It’s just something that I’ve always loved but when it got to the point that I was doing two or three spots a week – and this was like open mic five minute spots – I just realised how much I loved it and how much I hated the day jobs I was doing. I just mentally clicked into realising that I had to do whatever I can to make sure I can do this for a job. I’ve done it now for just over nine years and full-time for five of those.

How do you go about finding humour for your jokes? Is your process mostly observational?
I usually just write something down in my phone – something that I think is interesting – but generally I just go about my life and later on I realise that things could be used as great story. I’ll work through the story at different stand-up spots and tighten it up, then over the course of a few months I’ll build up a new show to take on tour.

You’re coming up to the Brisbane Comedy Festival this month with your new show Come Get Some. What can you tell us about the show? Are there any overarching themes?
It’s an hour of stand-up, there’s no theme. I know some comics say their show is about this and that but every time I do a solo show I get about 15 or 20 reviews and every reviewer has found a different theme in it. I will make you laugh as hard as possible in the allotted time. Whatever people decide to take from it is up to them. I don’t want to tell you (laughs). If everybody takes something away from it, that’s good – as long as you are laughing.

So you change your shows up yearly?
Yeah, so every time I go on a new tour. Last year I had one called Beard Game Strong, so if you saw me last year at the Brisbane Comedy Festival then you’ll see a brand new hour this year.

Is it hard start from a clean slate every year?
Uh, yeah. It’s always a bit terrifying at the start because you’ve worked on all this stuff that’s super tight and that is doing really well and you’ve gotta scrap it all. But it starts with one joke – much like a marathon starts with the first step. An hour seems like a daunting task but if you look at it as you are just trying new jokes, you can slowly build it up. I try not to look at it as an hour, I just try new things and it constructs itself.

How do you workshop these new jokes? Do you need to do small gigs to test them out?
Yeah, if I am at home in Melbourne I try and do two or three spots a night when I am working on new stuff because that is how I find it most effective. I’m terrible – I can’t sit down in front of a computer and work on stuff. I don’t like that at all. I get very fidgety. I prefer the high stakes of a room full of strangers staring at me. It forces me into making it good.

How are the nerves the first time you break out some newbies?
I’m not nervous now, because I’ve been doing it a long time. I’m more hopeful that the stuff is going to work. When you try it for the first time it’s never going to be as good as it will get after months of fine-tuning. The first time you just hope that you van get the idea across. You want it to be as funny to strangers as it is in your own head.

When do you know that a joke is good and ready and that you are going to get some mileage out of it?
When it’s consistent. If it goes really well the first night then that’s great, but I’ll test it 20 or 30 times and change the wording here and change the rhythm and pace. When it’s going well in the toughest of comedy rooms, that’s when you know it’s going to be fine.

Are there any particular venues or crowds that are notorious for making or breaking jokes?
Oh, any place where there is a pub and they are showing greyhound races on a screen behind you. If you can capture the attention of people in those rooms and hold it then you know you have something. You can take it to theatre but it’s full of 1000 people that are there to see comedy – if you can make four people in high-vis eating parmys laugh, you know it’s going to kill at a place where you have people there to watch comedy.

Do comedians ever have a favourite joke of their own? Do you have a joke that you are most proud of?
I’ve got bits and pieces, but I think it’s always more fin to figure out the new stuff. Like, what’s the best bit in the new show? You do have those bits where you wish you could do it forever, but you realise that the new stuff is going to be old best stuff, because you get better the more and more you do it.

What’s your dream gig? Is there any place that you really want to perform?
I just want to do solo stand-up in bigger venues – a tour of 1000 to 1500 seaters. It’s just stand-up. I get TV and radio offers and that’s great, but I don’t wake up in the morning thinking about those things. I wake up everyday thinking about stand-up comedy. I’m at a point where I try not to think backwards but more about what’s coming up.

You’ve performed in a lot of interesting spots all around the world – America, Europe and Asia. How do the international crowds compare to Australian comedy fans?
Obviously there is some Australian lingo and things that might not work over there but I don’t have a lot of that in my set. I’m not talking very often about just Australian stuff. I find that for crowds, the night of the week will dictate what they are going to be like more so than what country you are in. A Friday night in Adelaide is going to be better than a Tuesday night in New York, just because it’s Tuesday. If it’s a Friday it doesn’t matter where you are. I think with YouTube being so popular now people are starting to see all kinds of comedy. 

When you come up to Brisbane is there anything you are looking forward to doing? Do you get up here often?
I come up to Brisbane a couple of times a year. I catch up with a bunch of army mates that are stationed up there and catch up with a few relatives. Mostly though, the weather is cracking, especially because I am up there in the middle of March – it’s perfect. Last year I was there in the middle of February and it was too hot. I’m a Melbourne boy – I can’t take that humidity. It’s supposed to be 23 egress but there always infinity humidity.

You’re still in the early stages of your career and you’ve got a lot ahead of you. At the end of the day, what would you be most happy with achieving?
When I wake up and get to choose what I want to do. It’s been like that for five years. I remember when I had three different jobs and be working seven days a week and I hated it. Now I wake up every day and think ‘How good is this?’ I’m currently in Adelaide in an awesome hotel room overlooking a huge park, it’s a beautiful day, I’ve got a show tonight – it’s awesome, I can’t complain.

Catch Nick and his show Come Get Some at the Brisbane Comedy Festival at the Brisbane Powerhouse from March 17–20.