John Robertson's stand-up shows have laughed at serial killers, family suicide, and the messy practicalities of teenage BDSM, whilst in his native Australia he hosts huge sci-fi conventions, where his cosplay awards show outsells appearances from headline stars like Simon Pegg. British Comedy Guide's Lydia Nicholas has the following report...

John's as charming a chap as you'd ever hope to meet, with the unheard of gallantry to get the first round in for an interview and polite, frequent apologies for responding to fans online as we chat. But still... what with that textbook maniacal laugh, the enormous black clothes and a smile which seems to hold too many, too shiny teeth I wouldn't be overly surprised to find that he feasted on the flesh of the living. Then again, he'd probably convince you to tuck in too. All that energy, darkness and nerdy glee seems to have come together perfectly in his latest project: a brutal, hilarious YouTube text-adventure game built on a foundation of geek references so deep you could lose a studded-leather boot in it.

The day we'd arranged to talk, John Robertson sent me a link to The Dark Room and it had had a few hundred hits. As we sat down to drink less than a week later it had over 150,000.

So John, how does it feel to be internet famous?

Jesus Christ. I'm not! I'm not! A dark floating head who looks a bit like me is. A dark floating head who's getting death threats daily, which is really exciting. People hate it and they should. The game basically consists of me telling you you're stupid and you trying to impress me. This makes me happy.

I encountered a lot of masturbation and death in there...

Yeah, we basically cover all of human existence. A bit of intellectual snobbery, pain, puns, weeping, masturbation, gags, death. It's gone down surprisingly well, which I didn't expect. I do know YouTube people who are comfortable working in that world but I'm a live performer who specialises in darkness and sadism. I happened to make a dark sadistic thing that worked online and people responded: 'I like this'. 'I LOVE this'... 'No wait! Argh I hate this and I hate you but I can't stop playing'.

So if anyone anywhere ever did recognise me in the street from playing it they'd probably punch my head in. Instead what I usually get if someone comes up to speak to me is 'I spoke at a gig and you destroyed me'. 'I made a sound at a gig and you destroyed me'. 'I came on stage at a sci-fi convention and you were lovely to me'. 'I made a sound at a sci-fi convention and you destroyed me'. That kind of thing.

How do the acting, the stand-up and the event hosting all work together?

Well, at Uni there was a girl I wanted to fuck who said I should be a stand-up... and I tried and I failed and she left. So I focused on acting. I was an actor because I felt there was a lot less pressure in doing that than comedy, but there were a couple of problems: I wasn't a good actor because I don't like listening to people and I don't like working in groups.

The way you gesture and move on stage it certainly seems more theatrical than is usual in comics: is that a hangover from that time spent acting?

That's why I'm a useless actor! It's just me. I am not naturalistic as me. I've always been like this. It's why I used to get beaten up at school. I'm bloody terrific at pantomime, but I wasn't a good film actor because I can't reign it in for the screen, and I wasn't a good theatre actor because I don't like maintaining eye-contact and standing three-quarters to the stage and all that stuff.

So eventually I stopped doing that and went on with the stand-up. The conventions came about because some people knew I was doing stand-up and knew I liked this kind of stuff and invited me in. Conventions are the most wonderful thing in the world: it's a total fusion of performer and crowd. You come out with high energy, they've already got that high energy and they know what you're talking about.

The reason The Dark Room (pictured) exists is that after hosting the cosplay [costume play] all day I was in front of 1400 people trying to half-remember my show Dragon Punch (video) and I decided to do a bit I'd made up the day before which was The Dark Room. I expected to perform it talking to myself but of course they're all video gamers. They want to play: they really want to play! 20 minutes that bit went on! "You awake to find yourself in a Dark Room! What do you do?" and them trying to get out. By the end I was sure there would be a riot. They were driven insane trying to win this thing.

A couple of days later I was getting all these messages about it so I put a bit of it online. Within hours a kid let me know he's made a webcomic about it- not about me but about the character and the room. It's the cutest thing. So funny. So adorable.

So conventions and comedy come together really well. I'm a better comic than I was an actor and I'd be a better evangelist than either of those things. So I put them together and evangelise at sci-fi conventions.

So you have the darkness and sadism on the one hand, sci-fi and geekdom on the other, with some literature and theatre thrown in - is it hard to do a whole hour that can please all those niche audiences?

The nicest thing you can ever do is make it feel like you've told someone a secret: that they're part of a special club. When my crowds come that's what I endeavour to do, whether I'm saying "here's some weird stuff that we both get" or "here's a story about my father's death." The important thing is you share it. I don't have much trouble with people complaining that they didn't understand things. Instead they'll tell me "I didn't understand what you were talking about, but I got there in the end." And yes some people will get smug and assume the rest of the audience didn't get it, I don't care. I don't know if they did but they still had a good time. If you didn't dig the material you can like my voice. If you didn't like my voice you can stare at my stupidly cartoonish face. And if you're not enjoying my face you can leave in which case I'll probably destroy you.

The perfect night is probably a bunch of people split between cosplay and faux Victoriana steampunk guys all sitting around in a grand theatre sipping gin and absinthe. We could do a fusion of instant nostalgia and classic escapism. I'd do that all night even if by the end I was literally just reading out from my fabulous copy of the Marquis De Sade's biography.

Oh of course, I suppose the Marquis fits in pretty well with your interest in stuff that is just, well, wrong...

Ok, sure sometimes when reading that book you get the impression that one hand's on the quill, while the other is getting very busy elsewhere. But a lot of it isn't being written in any kind of sexual frenzy. It's more as if he's in a huff and pouting "I'll show YOU how wrong I can be! I'm the Marquis de bloody Sade. Look what I can do!" It's quite childish. And the reason he went to prison the first time was that he asked some prostitutes "hey, would any of you like to fart in my mouth" and they went straight to the cops. It was something relatively harmless and quite child-like.

I guess what people find weird and disgusting is relative.

Sure. Bad sketch comedy tends to throw in stuff they hope will be offensive, so it's packed with these flippant uses of the Nazis. I find that bizarre. One act I was supposed to follow had this robot sticking out his arm and shouting "Achtung Juden!" and I looked around the mostly deserted bar and thought: who's going to get that? Who's going to pop at that point? Did the group just assume because it was funny in Dr Strangelove it was a guaranteed laugh? It's not offensive now: it's bland. Just like the farting in the mouth thing- what's weird is what's weird to you. What do you consider horrible?

So we've been overwhelmed by and inured to Nazi jokes but you couldn't do the same about the Cambodian killing fields?

I saw a guy make a killing fields joke when I was out in Singapore. He goes "I'm off to Cambodia tomorrow: we'll be killing in the killing fields! Ey? Ey? Ey?" and there was just this dead silence. How wonderful. A massacre and a pun. I do that myself in Australia, talking about British colonialism and the various massacres because that's still an issue. God it's wonderfully offensive. I ask afterwards "were you upset by the content of what I said or were you upset by the terrible pun? Why did you groan? What bothered you?" It's always the pun.

But possibly the most enjoyable thing I've learnt doing stand-up is that if you are in a post-soviet country you can get an automatic laugh if you see one person whispering to another and you say "who are you, the secret police?" - everyone enjoys that.

As I head off to get another round, Robertson picks up the phone I left there, still set to record, laughs, and confides...

I have no actual philosophy of life except that you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story. It's a helpful belief. Really helps shift those tickets.

To find out more about John visit www.thejohnrobertson.com
and follow him on Twitter: @Robbotron

Click below to start a game of The Dark Room...