Aaron Gocs live at Thrashville, Newcastle and Sydney

After years establishing himself as a cult comedian around Brisbane and Melbourne, Gocs found social media stardom when his video “stitch-up at work” went viral. Now the dead-pan battler’s comedian will emcee the Hunter’s hard music festival Thrashville and throw in a couple of side-shows on the way.

“I’ve been at it a long time,” he said.

“I’ve been working toward a cult status.” 

Gocs started on his comedic journey after seeing comedians talk about “kicking ass”.

“I don’t want to hear that,” he said.

“I want to talk about battlers, people doing it tough.”

With comedy’s megastars reliant on canned laughter and innuendo as subtle as a brick to the back of the head, Gocs said people willing to explore deeper levels of comedy were often rewarded.

“That’s vanilla stuff,” he said, talking about the state of popular comedy.

“I don’t hate it, vanilla’s a nice flavour. But that’s the surface. If you go deeper you can find more obscure [comedy].

“Back in Brisbane me and a mate didn’t like what existed so we put up or shut up – as the saying goes.”

Luckily for Gocs, social media had established a platform that could deliver the most obscure acts to the most massive audiences.

Acknowledging this, he said he owed much of his popularity to social media’s ability to circumvent traditional kingmakers of the entertainment industry. Like late-great performer Andy Kaufman, Gocs’ comedy doesn’t fit traditional definitions.

“Unfortunately comedy is still run by people in power and stuff,” he said.

“But online is good...People on there are up for anything. They dig a little deeper.

“It’s great, you can bypass those systems. I suppose it’s a bit like democracy, I’m like the Trump of comedy. You say what you want and people choose to listen.”

Thrashville will likely be a good fit for Gocs, who grew up on a musical diet of skate punk – NOFX and Frenzal Rhomb specifically. While he never got into metal, one of his videos Guy with cornrows eats corn while listening to korn shows a man with a literal taste for the genre. 

“I did a quick spot at Splendour (In The Grass) this year and last, it was pretty good,” he said, humbly underplaying the fact he played to hundreds at one of the nation’s biggest music festivals two years in a row.  

“I’ll just make sure people are enjoying themselves, if there are any messages the organisers want out, make sure everyone’s keeping cool.”

A few months ago Gocs packed out a room in Newcastle. It was the first time he’d been to the Hunter since his membership in a Buick classic car club brought him to Raymond Terrace a few years earlier.

“I was running late on the train [to the Newcastle gig],” he said.

“They said first impressions are important but everyone was so nice, so welcoming about it.”

Gocs will play Marrickville’s Lazy Bones on January 19, emcee Thrashville on January 21 at Dashville in Lower Belford, and then Newcastle’s Central on January 22.