How Colin Lane Has Fallen In With Very Different Crowd

Confronted with the opportunity to appear in a play, comedian Colin Lane turned to a trusted source for inspiration. "I'm taking a leaf out of Judi Dench's book," Lane says. "I did hear her once say she doesn't even read scripts. She just finds out who is working on a project and then she just says yes from that.

"The first thing I heard about Extinction was it's a script by Hannie Rayson, and I thought, 'Well, that's good.' And Red Stitch, GPAC and the Arts Centre are co-producing and I thought, 'Well, that's good' and then they said Nadia Tass is directing it and I said, 'Well, that's very good'."

Using the Dench method of part-picking, Lane was confident Extinction was something he should be involved in. The play, set in the Otways, throws Lane's character Harry into a crisis of sorts when, driving at night, he injures a tiger quoll, an almost extinct species.

"It's not just two or three people in a room trying to come up with funny stuff and trying to make their brains hurt."

So far, both Lane and Judi Dench's instinct has paid off. "I'm really enjoying the dynamic," Lane says of working on Extinction. "It's such a different way to work," he says of his experience working on a play. "It's not just two or three people in a room trying to come up with funny stuff and trying to make their brains hurt. There's a variety to the people and there's really great support from stage managers and production people."

Lane admits he isn't used to working in such an ensemble setting. Though it's been almost ten years since Lane and his long-time comedy partner Frank Woodley put Lano & Woodley to bed, in the time since Lane has continued to work mostly in the art forms he knows best, comedy and cabaret. "Coming from the comedy world where it's just you two in a room, after three or four hours you just say, 'You know what? I've had enough'. And because you get 50% of the vote you can just go. But if you're in a theatre show and they say, 'Be there at 9.30am', you have to be there at 9.30am."

But Lane has definitely discovered an upside to starting work earlier than his comedian peers. "I've just been looking at the other actors and thinking, 'Man, this is so different. This is awesome'. I think, 'Wow, you really know what you're doing. You do this all the time'. I'm blown away by their skills because I've just been showing off for a living, with Frank and other people."

Though Lane is enjoying flexing his acting muscles, he's quick to offer up a confident, "I don't know yet to be honest" when asked if he sees a lot more serious theatre in his future. "People say you have to do something that scares you and this does scare me just a tad. As you get older you think, 'I want to do new things and I want to muck around with people who haven't heard my jokes before'. I love comedy, but I wanted to mix it up a bit."

If there is one tenet that Lane has been able to stick to through all the different entertainment forms he's tried; whether it's stand-up and physical comedy, television, cabaret or serious theatre, it's be nice to people.

"I've always tried to be a reasonably good person to work with. I hope that is the message I've put out."