“I studied finance, the funniest of all uni degrees. I always avoid telling people that too early; people are going to be like ‘this person thinks he’s going to make me laugh? He was a banker’.”

George Dimarelos admits he hit the comedy circuit a little later than others, and it all happened in a somewhat round-about way.

Aged 25 and in a graduate program at one of Australia’s leading banking institutions in Sydney, life behind a desk nine to five saw him looking for a creative outlet. Inspired, the Melburnian decided to take up part-time acting, a hobby of his through school.

He still remembers the turning point like it was yesterday.

“There was a guy there and he said, ‘you’ve got a really nice energy; have you ever tried stand-up comedy?’. I hadn’t even thought of it to be honest.”

This set the ball rolling; Dimarelos was soon performing around Sydney, before taking part in his first stand-up comedy show The Four Horsemen at the 2013 Sydney Fringe Festival.

“The reaction was quite warm. I got to about three-and-a-half years into the banking thing and I thought ‘if I want to pursue this performing side of things, the longer I wait, the less chance I’ll follow through with it’.”

It was then that he quit his day job, taking a few months off to work on material and travel to the Edinburgh Fringe festival to see what all the fuss was about.

Little did he know that would be the very festival he would début his first solo show, George and Co. in 2014, leading him to perform both in London and New York.

“It was intense; I basically thought I’d jump in the deep end and go to the biggest one [comedy festival] in the world and try it there,” Dimarelos tells Neos Kosmos.

Upon returning to Australia he continued onto the comedy circuit in his hometown.

Though he admits he tried to keep the Greek Australian content to a minimum at the beginning, so that his material could easily transcend borders, he’s now realised there was no escaping his roots.

“You don’t want to get typecast and put in a little bubble. Practice-wise I wanted to improve the broader skill of making jokes and observing things, so I can approach any topic and know how to hit it appropriately,” he explains.

“I’ve got nothing against it [ethnic comedy], but at the same time I don’t want to be just that. That’s why from the beginning I thought ‘let’s try and be a funny guy, before a funny Greek guy.”

Funnily enough however, he soon came to realise that certain traits perceived to be specific to a certain culture can also be universal.

“Like when I talk about the Greek mum,” he says.
“I talk about them and the guilt they put on you constantly, on everything you do,” to which I can’t help but agree wholeheartedly, knowing exactly what he means.
“And I was surprised at how many people resonated with it. The Greek mum might be the extreme version of it, but most people seemed to have a mum who would get upset at you if you don’t tell her that you’re sick so she can suffer with you through it,” he laughs.

While we’ve seen ethnic humour that draws heavily from stereotypes on the comedy circuit for decades now, aspects of it are still as relevant as ever.
That’s the beauty of observational comedy, which is Dimarelos’ approach.

Audiences have the chance to sit back and relax with the freedom to laugh at experiences – both good and bad – that they can relate to all too well.

Without giving too much away, the comedian gives us an insight into his act, which will be showcased in Melbourne for the first time this month at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

“I look at the Australian side of the Greek cultural impact, then look at Greek parents, and how you try to get away from it, but it’s still inside you – always! I also talk about other experiences like talking to girls, growing up with three brothers.”

Travelling is the theme that ties it all together. “I’m travelling, backpacking, to find myself and to find out, am I Greek? Am I Australian? Am I an idiot?”
With a background in acting, it’s not surprising Dimarelos feels right at home in front of a crowd, but with comedy it was the ‘one man show’ element he enjoyed most.

“I’d always done acting, but I’d never written and gotten my juices flowing creatively; that was the first thing that hooked me, the fact that I was writing and doing it all up there for myself,” though he admits he is not immune to feeling nervous.
“You can’t hide behind the fact that somebody else wrote this, it’s all you.”

Aside from touring the country – Dimarelos has just finished up tours in Perth and Adelaide – he is also writing and performing sketch comedy as part of the 5MA Productions team, while undertaking lessons at the Melbourne Actors Lab.

Taking a method-acting approach, the comedian is learning to better embody the character. Unable to shake his enthusiasm of a breakthrough moment, in his last class, he reveals “I cried on stage, and I was like ‘woah, that’s awesome’.”
“I was like an alien discovering crying.”

It quickly becomes apparent that there was something to that comment about Dimarelos’ warm energy, a humble honesty that’s felt through his words, even via phone connection.

If you go and see George and Co. there will be tears, but they’re sure to be tears of laughter.

For more information, visit www.georgedima.com