Paul Ego on the joy of saying the first thing that pops into his head – Ask Me Anything with Paula Bennett

For Paul Ego, the stage is one of the last places you can still say the first thing that pops into your head.

Talking to Paula Bennett on her podcast Ask Me Anything, the comedian says his audiences know it’s entertainment and don’t mind him stepping outside the boundaries a little.

“I just still feel like the stage is kinda like my safe space to not necessarily push the boat out heaps, but to sort of say the funny thing that pops into my head without filtering it too much.”

While he doesn’t see himself as a shock comic, he’s not interested in playing it safe either.

“To me, by the time you go ‘ should I say that is, is that funny? Should I say something else?’ you’re saying the second or third thing that you think is funny, which to me is not as funny as the first thing and it won’t quite work.

“As soon as you sort of start to second-guess yourself, I just go, ‘well, I won’t bother saying it ‘cause that’s not the first thing that popped into my head anyway’.”

After a long career sharing the stage with other comedians, Ego is currently touring as a solo act for the first time since he started out in comedy.

Born Paul Jones, Ego initially used his given name when trying to break into comedy but was worried it was boring.

Inspired by the childhood nickname of Pauly Joe, Ego decided he’d adopt a version of that moniker on stage.

“On my second or third gig I said to the MC, ‘can you introduce me as Paul Ejo?’ And he said Paul Ego by mistake.

“Then he came off stage and said, ‘oh sorry I got your name wrong, but it’s a pretty good name’.”

The name stuck and has seen Ego through a highly successful comedy career, propped up by work in radio, television and as the voice of Pak’nSave’s Stickman.

After 30 years in comedy, Ego knows his audience well. It’s a cohort that has travelled the journey with him.

“Nowadays I pull a crowd which is generally 40 to 60. They’re kind of mine. And that audience is pretty much hungry for offence.”

Even though he can’t be sure how a crowd will respond, Ego says he can make some broad assumptions about the kind of material they might enjoy.

" If I was doing a gig to, say, a bar full of 40- to 60-year-olds in Morrinsville, I would probably do a slightly different set to what I was doing to a bar in Ponsonby in Auckland of 25- to 30-year-olds.

“But to be honest, if there was a bar in Ponsonby in Auckland full of 25- to 30-year-olds, they probably wouldn’t book me.”

Ego’s show Stick is playing May 19-23 at The Classic in Auckland.

Listen to the full episode for more from Paul Ego on:

• The family life that fuels most of Ego’s material
• The moment he realised comedy “felt perfect” and never looked back
• Why he resists the urge to sit on concrete walls

Ask Me Anything is an NZ Herald podcast hosted by former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett. New episodes are available every second Sunday.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.