Cityscape Summer 2020

CULTURE
LIVING WITH MY DAD’S PORNO It started
as a bit of a laugh and has now taken over Jamie
Morton’s life. Cityscape talks to the podcast creator
about sharing his dad’s pornography with the world.
There must be some challenges in
turning an audio podcast into a
stage show? It was quite difficult
to think how we were going to do a
live show, how it was going to work
and how it was going to be
different to just the podcast.
What’s exciting is that we’ve got a
wealth of stuff that my dad has
written that he’s never released or
shown anyone so we’re going to
delve through that. And we’re
going to get the audience to help
us make sense of this work, so
we’re going to employ them to tell
us where we want to go next with
the story and if we want to do a
little more of this or a bit more of
that. We’re going to use the
audience as if they’re the editor
that my dad never actually had
with the book, and try and make
him a better author in the process.
Do you think the audience will
have any real idea what they are
in for? I don’t think they’re going to
be realising how crazy the writing
is because it is the weirdest stuff
he’s ever written. Hopefully, if you
like the podcast you’re going to be
able to come and revel in the fact
that you’re in this world. And if you
haven’t ever listened to the
podcast before, it’s a great place to
start because we are open to
virgins of my dad’s work too. What
is it about the three of you that
makes it all work? I dunno, I think
it’s because we are genuinely three
mates. We aren’t comedians, we
were never setting out to make
something that was a comedy
show really, we just make each
other laugh and we just hoped that
other people would find this story
funny. And I think maybe that’s it
– it’s our authenticity, that we
aren’t trying to one-up each other
with our jokes, we just genuinely
want to make each other laugh and
through that the audience laugh,
and people like that. This has taken
over your lives, hasn’t it? I try and
make it not my entire life. We all
still have our day jobs, and that’s
been really nice to keep everything
a little bit normal. But it is certainly
a crazy tangent of my life, yeah.
Have you thanked your dad for
what’s happened? Of course,
every day. I thank him for being
crazy. And what’s nice is that he’s
part of the business with us so he
gets to be involved with it all which
is great. It’s like a cottage industry,
isn’t it? It’s basically the family
business now, I’m not going to lie.
We’re going to start getting my
sisters to do some presenting as
well on the show. That will be fun.
What does your mum think of it
all? Mum – yeah, do you know
what, she’s really cool about it. She
doesn’t listen to it, she doesn’t
want to involve herself in the whole
porn aspect but I respect that, it
makes sense. But she’s really proud
of us and I think now that it has got
to this point she gets it a bit more.
They both come on tour with us
and they see the audiences get so
excited. For my mum she’s like, this
thing you wrote in the garden shed
is actually bringing a lot of joy to
people and that’s really nice. .
What has been the most surreal
moment in it all? A surreal
moment was having our faces on
billboards all over LA for our HBO
show – that was crazy. Down
Sunset Boulevard – that was mad,
seeing your face huge. Doing the
Royal Albert Hall was a pretty big
night, just because that’s such an
iconic building in London. The fact
that we got to talk about
pornography in the Royal Albert
Hall was pretty crazy, the fact they
let us in was a surprise in itself.
What would you be doing
otherwise? I loved the job I had
before, and I still do it so I would
just be doing that, which is
directing TV stuff, commercials, but
it’s certainly a more interesting life,
having pornography in it. I’ve just
always thought it’s healthier to not
have my whole life dictated by my
dad’s erotica. Did you ever think
you would have even said that
sentence? Exactly – the fact that
that is even part of my life is
worrying enough, right? It can’t be
the whole of it.
My Dad Wrote a Porno
Isaac Theatre Royal, January 22
mydadwroteaporno.com
101 CITYSCAPE.CO.NZ Summer 20