"The show has all of a sudden become more topical, absolutely by accident. My middle name is even Charles."
But even prior to Charles becoming King, Monckton says he is not short on inspiration for his character in The King of Taking as there are and have been various world leaders who are "scary people but also clowns".
"This character is a "man child", he is very entitled, likeable and charismatic but also dangerous.
"He does not have a fully developed emotional IQ, he’s kind of a likeable child in a man’s body."
The initial seed of the show came out of a brainstorming session with his Kallo Collective company in Helsinki. The group had to cancel a planned festival because of Covid so decided to make use of the time to "explore and play around".
However, the rest of the show has been developed in New Zealand, a first for Monckton who has usually developed his shows while spending time in Europe.
He further worked on the show when spending time at Port Chalmers’ Anteroom when he was in Dunedin for his last show The Artist.
"I love Port Chalmers."
Having toured a lot, Monckton realised the audiences’ response to his work and the atmosphere that is created is largely influenced by their experience prior to the performance.
"I wondered how do I get people invested in the show before they arrive."
So he decided to ask people to bring a gift for the King to the show.
"I’m asking audience members to wrap up an unwanted item and give it as a gift. The King will accept gifts from his peasant followers."
He will then improvise his response to the unknown gifts.
It has been an all-encompassing process for Monckton who finds himself totally absorbed when developing a show.
"I get obsessed by it and consumed which is helpful to the process as it’s efficient but it’s not too much fun for other people."
The process involves him spending a lot of time in a room by himself improvising. He films himself and then watches it to select what works for the show and the process repeats "ad infinitum".
"People sometimes ask to come see the rehearsal process but it’s extremely boring."
As he gets deeper into the process it can sometimes be hard for him to get a sense of "what is reality".
"You’re in a dark room for eight hours a day doing strange stuff like trying to find the gap in the throne. You can loose an element of objectivity."
"I love premiere performances. You get feedback from the audiences which is fresh and surprising. You come up with this comedy which you think is funny and when you get laughter back you’re like, ‘ah, of course it works. I should never have doubted it’."
Monckton, who is from Patea in the North Island, started out as a circus performer, training first in Christchurch at age 17 and then heading overseas to study and work. It was while studying physical theatre in Paris that he met fellow performers from Finland with whom he got along well with.
"We got a contract in Helsinki and I found we got more work in Finland."
While he lived in Paris for four years, he found it a "very hard nut to crack".
"Helsinki suited me much better."
Since then he has split his time between Finland and New Zealand. He spent the first Covid lockdown in New Zealand before heading back to Finland.
"It’s the least practical two countries. They’re literally the furthest away from each other that you can get."
It took until he was in his 20s for him to be able to support himself on his circus work.
"I had a small celebration the first year I made it through purely by clowning. I’m now 37 so it’s been a while."
With experience, he is now more selective about what he says yes to.
"Saying yes to everything can lead to some interesting jobs and situations but now I say no more. I know what I’m interested in doing now, it’s definitely more specific."
For the first time he will be taking a show developed in New Zealand back to Europe. After Dunedin’s art festival, he will perform it at Nelson’s arts festival and then do a short season in Auckland.
"We’re looking at international fringes and I have a residency in Denmark where I’ll re-create the European version of the show."
Ultimately he hopes to come back and spend more time in New Zealand.
"But a lot of my life is intertwined in Finland."
To see:
The King of Taking, Kallo Collective, Dunedin Arts Festival, October 14-15
