Casey Filips brings the audition of a lifetime to Fringe with Virtuoso
The Man. The Myth. The Idiot. Tobias Finlay-Fraser is the greatest actor of his generation, but the problem is that he’s played by little-known actor/comedian Casey Filips. Virtuoso is an award-winning one-man comedy hour following actor Tobias, a pretentious yet charming idiot doing anything he can in the audition of a lifetime. The show hits Rehearsal Room 1 at the State Theatre Centre of WA from Wednesday, February 4, to Sunday, February 15, with tickets on sale now. NATASHA PAUL sat down with Casey Filips to find out more about his entertaining (and pretentious) actor persona in Virtuoso, his experience with ‘big auditions’, and the ideas behind his solo comedy show.
Congratulations on bringing your solo comedy show, Virtuoso, to Fringe World 2026! How are you feeling about performing Virtuoso on WA shores for the first time?
Thanks very much! I’ve been hearing nothing but great things about Fringe World from other performers, so I’m super excited to bring the show to WA.
In Virtuoso, you’re described as ‘The Man. The Myth. The Idiot.’ That certainly captures audience attention! Tell us a little about the show and your hilarious, pretentious actor persona, Tobias Finlay-Fraser.
Virtuoso is a one-man character/clown comedy hour following a pretentious yet lovable idiot, Tobias. He’s an actor whose delusional dreams of stardom come to a head in the biggest audition of a lifetime. The only problem is, he’s not very good. At all. Yet he doesn’t know that, and he’s determined to win over hearts and minds of all so he can become the big Hollywood star he’s always been ‘destined to become’. The show combines sharp satire, silly long-form improv and a whole lot of fun audience interaction, making sure each show is different from the last. However, don’t worry; if taking part on stage isn’t your thing, there’s still plenty of punchy written gags for you to sit back and enjoy.
Also, the clown element of the show doesn’t see me wearing a red nose or blowing up party balloons, which basically means I’m an idiot who is forever hopeful of fulfilling an impossible dream.
Where did the idea behind Virtuoso and Tobias Finlay-Fraser’s ‘big audition’ come from—were you inspired by your own acting and audition experiences?
There are a few reasons I created the show. First, genuinely being a frustrated out-of-work actor myself was becoming increasingly frustrating as I approached 30. Even when I did land roles, I often found the scripts to be a little safe or unimaginative. So I decided to make something that I myself would want to watch as an audience member.
I chose to satirise acting because it’s innately silly and something that I’d devoted ten years of my life to. That’s ten years of silly vocal warm-ups and embarrassing rolling on the floor pretending you’re a monkey. What’s worse is that after attending drama schools here and overseas, I found there are always actors who are convinced they are ‘God’s gift’ to the craft. Just because they feel like they are. And in an industry full of rejection, these ego-driven artists sometimes become these insane caricatures of themselves.
So after attending clown school in Paris—again experiencing more of these characters—and learning a clown is just an idiot with a big dream they will most likely never achieve, I knew exactly what my show would be about.
Virtuoso received the 2024 Take a Chance on Adelaide Award and has featured at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Sydney Fringe. How does it feel to be performing the show now after such a successful run?
It was so lovely to be recognised with the award in Adelaide in the show’s first proper run. The first time you show a work you’ve written, directed, produced and performed is pretty scary stuff, so to be recognised as being on the right path was amazing for my confidence in the show moving forward.
Now it feels great to run the show for multiple years in a row and see it develop over time. We have a culture here in Australia that we create a new comedy show every year, ideally having something fresh for each festival. But it’s been great to work on the show over multiple years, learn what audiences are enjoying the most, and shift the show towards giving them way more of that.
What do you hope audiences walk away from the show thinking about?
I hope the audience leaves the theatre with sore abs/facial muscles from laughing with their friends like they did when they were kids—giddy on sugar at a sleepover, cracking silly in-jokes. I also hope people get a subtle reminder of their hopeful artist that they may have left behind as they got older. Perhaps watching an idiot fail spectacularly in pursuit of his big creative dreams makes picking up an old creative hobby a little less scary? I hope so.
What excites you the most about Fringe World Perth? Have you got any shows you’d like to see?
I can’t wait to get over to Fringe World and check out the gardens! I’m someone who wants to see everything and gets unreasonably sad when I can’t. So this year I’m going with ‘the spreadsheet approach’, scheduling in shows ahead of time to make sure I don’t miss anyone while I’m there. Josh Glanc and Kirsty Mann are already in the spreadsheet, while Alakzam by Ben McCarthy is so good I’m going to make the time to see that again. He’s my strongest recommendation.
Casey Filips’s Virtuoso hits Rehearsal Room 1 at the State Theatre Centre of WA from Wednesday, February 4, to Sunday, February 15, 2026. Tickets are on sale now from fringeworld.com.au