Rhys Nicholson on his massive yr of Netflix, Drag Race and a Melbourne Worldwide Comedy Competition award

Rhys Nicholson is a comic and actor who received the Most Outstanding Show award on the 2022 Melbourne Worldwide Comedy Competition. They’re well-known to TV viewers as decide on RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Beneath and in addition as Dr Sarkov on Netflix’s The Imperfects. They’ll be internet hosting the ABC’s early present on New Yr’s Eve with Casey Donovan.

How onerous have COVID instances been for you, as a working stand-up?
It’s a humorous previous combine, as a result of, one, my associate and I launched a comedy membership, which I don’t advocate – launching a spot of meeting throughout a worldwide well being disaster. The launch was March 2020. So you already know … that wasn’t nice. That was all type of miserable and in addition, like everybody, all of the work went away. However I additionally on the identical time had bizarre issues the place – I’m at all times cautious to say this – however I type of had a fantastic work yr one other manner. Like I bought Drag Race and I bought an performing job on a Netflix present and we bought my particular to Netflix and blah blah blah blah. So it was each grim and miserable and I placed on 10 kilos, however on the identical time I flourished. The strangest was Drag Race occurred and I bought a bit bit extra identified, however with none of the perks of being a identified particular person, as a result of I couldn’t go anyplace. , the goals once you’re youthful of what showbusiness was like: you get to go to events and issues like that. Like … nope! So a mixture of very, very dangerous and type of good.

It does really feel like there’s been a Rhys Nicholson second over the past yr or two – you’ve exploded in numerous instructions.
A little bit bit, I assume. I believe it’s a type of issues the place I’ve been round comedy for therefore lengthy, and when you knew comedy you may know who I used to be for a few years. However comedy, particularly on this nation, doesn’t imply well-known. I received the award and that was very pretty and an enormous shock and nice, and I’m very grateful for it and it modified my life in knowledgeable manner. Nevertheless it additionally didn’t. Like, everybody in comedy respects it, however exterior of it it’s like, “Oh yeah, isn’t there an award they do there?” Like, yeah: it’s all the pieces I ever wished!

Once you obtain one thing, you need everybody to grasp it’s an enormous deal.
Yeah, it’s bizarre. My dad and mom, my unimaginable dad and mom – they’re very proud folks, I’m very fortunate to have them – however Mum was like, “I believed you had been going to win it”. And it nearly gave it much less gravity, in that after all my mum would suppose I’d win one thing like that, however she doesn’t actually know what it’s. It may very well be like I received a meat raffle.

Now you’re on the New Yr’s Eve present: particularly you’re doing the sooner a part of the evening.
Yeah, the early evening … I’m doing a horrible job remembering what it’s known as … the early evening supershow? Ah f—.

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It’s positively early evening although.
Yeah. And the truth that I simply mentioned f— might be boding nicely for the youngsters’s half.

This type of gig have to be one of many perks of that higher success we had been speaking about.
It’s type of enjoyable, to get to a degree the place issues are simply simpler. We did a little bit of capturing for a part of it a few weeks in the past, and like, simply clean, simply working with actually skilled individuals who know what they’re doing, and nobody’s asking massive wild questions. You flip up and all the pieces’s able to go. The nice privilege of getting a tiny bit extra success is you don’t have to attend round anymore. Does that make sense?