Taboo: Comedian Harley Breen brings laughs to some dark issues

Stand-up comedian Harley Breen believes all topics can be funny including death, disability, mental health and racism, and puts his beliefs to the test in his new television show called Taboo.

• Can home remedies put to the test in new show?
• Why Daniel Sloss is the dark knight of comedy

Comedian Harley Breen is of the controversial opinion there is no subject that cannot be laughed at — a belief he puts to the test in his new TV show, Taboo.

The former radio host spends five days with different groups of people — those who are terminally ill, suffering mental health issues, disabled and victims of racism — and then performs a stand-up comedy routine around his experiences with them.

While there will undoubtedly be people who say “dying is not funny” or “mental illness is no laughing matter”, Breen hopes the confronting format will help change perceptions.

Comedian Harley Breen fronts new show Taboo in which he proves even the darkest topics can be funny. Picture: Channel 10

“There is nothing that can’t be joked about, I have believed that since I wanted to be a stand-up comic,” Breen tells BW Magazine.

“The discerning thing is about intent and tone and what your purpose is.

“If your purpose is to hurt, bully and denigrate, that’s not for me. I always made sure my intent was in the right place.”

MORE FROM MERCEDES MAGUIRE:

BRAIN SURGEON CHARLIE TEO TAKES ON MEDICINAL MYTHS

DEAD TO ME HIGHLIGHTS THE DARK SIDE OF COMEDY

Taboo, which was nominated for a Logie Award this week, starts with four terminally ill people: Nicole, 32, a new mother with bowel cancer which has spread to her lung and liver; Lauren, 28, who has suffered from cystic fibrosis since birth; Matt, 22, who has stage two brain cancer; and Michael, 44, a father of two girls who has stage four lung cancer despite being a non-smoker.

Comedian Harley Breen with his family. Picture: Instagram

Comedian Harley Breen hams it up. Picture: Instagram

Breen now counts these four as friends and says their week together has changed him in ways he wasn’t expecting. Viewers can expect to be reduced to tears by their brave stories, and simultaneously cry with laughter during the hilarious stand-up segments.

“On the one hand I can say it hasn’t changed me at all in that it hasn’t had some sort of philosophical impact on me,” Breen says.

“But on the other hand it has definitely changed me as a comic in that I’m just a bit more open with people.

“In the past five years or so I have become more and more introverted and this show has pulled me out of that. And the other thing is that, with the exception maybe of the racism episode, a lot of this stuff is indiscriminate — it doesn’t matter what privilege you sit in, something like this can happen.

“These are all normal people, and that’s hard to confront.”

Harley Breen spent time with people with disabilities for the first episode of Taboo.
From left: Jason, Dee, Khoa and Sam.

Taboo was developed in Belgium by a fellow comedian and, like any confronting, or black, comedy, Breen says there may be a little backlash. “I saw the first minute of an episode and I was in,” Breen says of his immediate connection with the format.

“There’ll be certain opinions I make which may not sit well with some people. Maybe the opinions in the race episode will be more polarising than the other episodes. A lot of people are talking about how comedy is changing and becoming darker but I don’t think it has changed at all.

“What’s changed is politics, the world, society and people.”

* Taboo, June 13, 8.30pm, Ten

Originally published as Taboo: Comedian Harley Breen brings laughs to some dark issues