The first thing you should know about Randy Feltface is that he’s not a puppet. He’s a sentient being with thoughts and feelings and opinions who came to self-realization the same way as any human would. I had the privilege of speaking with Feltface on the phone last Thursday, and he was as congenial as any regular I’d meet at a local pub.
Feltface is a Just for Laughs veteran who’s played the festival several times in the past, and if my conversation with him is any indication, his solo show, Randy Feltface: An Alien of Extraordinary Ability is a guaranteed good time. Speaking with a heavy Australian accent, Feltface says he loves Montreal and that it’s one of his favorite cities, though he admits he’s never endured a winter here and thus he does not know if he has a full perspective on our city in the colder months.
“I love exploring the city, I like the grittiness of it, I like the beauty of it… I don’t think people necessarily talk about the grittiness of Montreal because it’s so overwhelmingly artistic…I like that it’s a little bit gritty, a little bit edgy.”
Though he looks like the subject of a children’s TV show, Feltface says his target audience is adults. He says that he does get teenagers over the age of fifteen at his shows, but his target demographic is anyone who finds what he does funny.
“I think my stuff resonates with a pretty broad age demographic, but I sort of just write what I think is funny and I speak the way I speak when I’m hanging out with my friends. If stuff gets bleeped, it’s because that’s how I talk.” I can hear a hint of smile in his voice as he says that last bit.
Feltface says anyone who comes and sees his act is immediately aware that it’s absolutely not for kids. He knows his face may suggest he’s child-appropriate, but says that within the first five minutes of his show it’s apparent that it’s not the kind of thing one would like to bring their five year old to.
He says that it has happened at daytime shows of music festivals he’s played, but often these same kids end up enjoying his performance most. In terms of his Just for Laughs show, Feltface is confident that it’s at a time in the evening that suggests it’s not appropriate for children:
“If you are bringing your six year old to see a 9:15 show at a comedy venue then you’re either the coolest parent on the planet or the silliest parent on the planet, no judgment from me.”
Randy Feltface has no idea where he is from, but his US 01 Visa status is marked as “Alien of Extraordinary Ability” when means one is able to do something or performs something or you have a job that is unique enough that one is able to do it on a global level or that there’s no one in the country that is doing what you do. He says his visa status is also an apt description of his present circumstances, traveling all the time, increasingly aware of his own mortality.
In terms of his lifespan, Feltface has no idea, but admits that his potentially lethal habits include drinking too much herbal tea and his love of nature that may one day expose him to being stung by a wasp or eaten by a bear. He adds that he no longer has a spleen as it was removed due to bacterial infection, and as a result, something as simple as drinking tap water or eating street food could lead to another infection that will do him in.
In terms of what Randy Feltface wants Just for Laughs audiences to get from his show this year, he says he wants them to experience sixty minutes of “pure escapism and contemplation.”
Randy Feltface appears in his solo show, Randy Feltface: An Alien of Extraordinary Ability and as part of the Patton Oswalt Gala. Check him out.
