Pete Helliar Gives Zero Flips for his Perth Comedy Festival 2024 show at The Rechabite

Pete Helliar has entered into his era of not giving a flip and is loving every minute of this latest philosophy.

From taking on the role of Narrator in the upcoming Sydney season of The Rocky Horror Show in April to a humorous hardcore transformation in the photo shoot for his latest stand-up comedy show, Helliar — who turns 50 next year — has reached the stage in his life where he is up for new challenges and is loosening the reins on being in control all the time.

“I’ve gone from a job (The Project co-host) that I had for 10 years to leaving that (December 2022) and saying ‘yes’ to things which years ago there would have been no way I’d do,” Helliar explains from his home in Melbourne.

“Even though there were things that terrified me about them, I ended up doing three shows (I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!, Who Do You Think You Are? Australia and Taskmaster Australia) where you have no control.

“You have no idea what they’re about to do to you and what they’re about to put you through. You just have to let go. I’ve worked on shows where I was in the planning meetings, or script meetings, or whatever it might be for The Project, or How To Stay Married or It’s A Date, so there’s always a sense of control and there’s nothing that could really surprise me. I mean, live TV throws up moments, but they’re fun and nothing dangerous is usually going to happen. I just decided to give less of a flip.”

The silliness of Taskmaster Australia — the season will air later this year — turned out to be a great antidote to the seriousness covered on The Project.

Learning about his family history on Who Do You Think You Are? Australia had a rather profound effect on Helliar, giving him a greater sense of himself, while being called “Peter” on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here! by co-host Julia Morris was the incentive he needed to officially change his name to “Pete”.

“It’s going to take some time for a lot of people, there’s going to be an adjustment period,” the father of three jokes.

“I’ve known Julia Morris for years and she’d look at me and go ‘Peter’ and I’d look around me for someone else. Whenever I’m credited, it has always Peter Helliar, but I just found it strange . . . I mentioned it to a few friends and I think it was Lehmo (comedian Anthony Lehmann) who said he was surprised I hadn’t changed it years ago. This is one of the first shows I think where I have my name as part of the title, so I thought ‘let’s do that’. I’m officially a Pete now. It’s quite drastic.”

Helliar is referring to his aptly named stand-up show Pete Helliar Gives Zero Flips, which debuted at Adelaide Fringe in February before a run at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

He will perform it at Perth Comedy Festival in a gig at The Rechabite on May 11, which brings us back to the publicity photo of Helliar sporting a mohawk with face and neck tattoos.

“I really like having fun with the posters,” he shares.

“I did a show called Snazzy, maybe 15 years ago, when a lot of comedians, a lot of my mates, were starting to have their posters look cool, like they were rockstars. I remember making the choice to keep the posters funny.

“Will Ferrell is always funny. He’s never tried to do a sexy photo shoot, he’s always about the laughs. I just kind of thought ‘let’s do that — let’s just always lean in to being funny’. People will have a giggle when they look at the poster, then they’re more likely to buy a ticket. I’ve kind of kept the show title funny, and the image is funny, and it’s been nice. I’ve had other comedians reaching out to me.”

After listing off multiple writing projects he has in the pipeline — most of them at the stage where he can’t say too much as they are not yet official — it is surprising Helliar had more time to work on Pete Helliar Gives Zero Flips than his other stand-up shows over the past decade.

“I’ve got more time to do more gigs, so it means the show’s better. I can kind of get more headspace instead of when I was in the studio for The Project for seven hours a day and then rushing off to do the gig,” he says.

“I had to take a lot of stuff out of the show when I was getting it ready, so I’ve almost got half of next year’s stand-up show. There’s an abundance of material. I feel quite inspired.”

Pete Helliar Gives Zero Flips is at The Rechabite, May 11. Tickets at perthcomedyfestival.com