Pursuing a career in comedy and signing up for an anthropology degree may not seem like a natural progression at first glance.
But for up and coming Australian comedy star Sweeney Preston, who partners with Ethan Cavanagh to deliver award-winning comedy show Presentation is Everything, it was the obvious choice.
“I genuinely picked anthropology as a major because I thought it would help me with comedy,” he said.
“Anthropology, at its core, is really the study of human diversity. Truly good comedy has to come from somewhere, and oftentimes that stimulus is other people.
“Essentially, comedy is observation, and then you transfer those observations into jokes. In anthropology they remain as observations; comedy just takes that next step.
“But that’s just me taking a really long road to justify my arts degree, which I’ve been trying to do for the last two years since I graduated.”
Presentation is Everything sold out for its premiere at the 2022 Melbourne Comedy Festival and has since won Best Comedy at 2023 Dunedin Fringe Festival.
Preston’s powers of observation, keenly-honed through studying anthropology, helped give rise to the idea behind the show.
“It was at the end of 2021; at that time a lot of people were spending a lot of time on Zoom, on video calls, having PowerPoint parties” he said.
“We thought, what if we can transfer that into a stand-up forum and make it really funny. Tell some stories, have some jokes that are all centred around the use of PowerPoint.
“For anyone thinking, oh no, this is going to remind me of KPIs and those boring presentations at uni, it’s not that. It’s the complete opposite.
“We’re offering a fun release, almost a catharsis for anyone who’s had to endure those crap presentations, be it at work or uni or wherever else in their life.”
Supported by some of Melbourne’s best stand-ups, Presentation is Everything will be at Geelong West Town Hall on Saturday, August 19.
