Nick Offerman on why we should tall try to be better humans and what Canberra can expect from All Rise

Politics, consumerism, climate change - it's all there. But it can be easy to forget that we, as human beings, are the reason it has reached this point.

When thinking about this, the actor and stand-up comedian came to one realisation: "Aren't we all just a bunch of dumb-arses?"

That's the sentiment of Nick Offerman's upcoming All Rise tour. And he thinks it's time for us to own up to that fact and improve our situation.

"It seems our world is nothing but low-hanging fruit right now and it would be really easy to just get on stage and laugh at how shitty everything is, but I don't think that's particularly helping," Offerman says.

"We all made this civilisation together and we've basically all profoundly s*** the bed together and so let's admit that, let's cop to that, make fun of ourselves and then discuss some ways by which we might pull ourselves up out of the muck."

Those who are familiar with Offerman's stand-up shows will know this is what makes them so special. Not only will you leave his show having laughed, but you will have witnessed his little sprinklings of wisdom.

Or, as he puts it, his broccoli on the pizza.

"When I sit down to write my show and it's entirely my current agenda, it's like 'OK, I'm making pizza for a group of people and I want plenty of delicious cheese and meat and sauce but also what kind of broccoli do I want to sneak into the pizza? Or do I want to do something special with the crust this time around?"

Offerman's stand-up performance "recipe" is different to the one he uses for his on-screen and theatre work.

Offerman's fictional roles have been crafted by writers to interpret a story and create some sort of emotional effect. Whereas during his stand-up shows, it is solely Offerman and his own agenda.

It's also a performance which Offerman says he "never in a million years" thought he would be doing.

As a theatre-trained actor, Offerman almost fell into being a touring comedian. In fact, it wasn't even until he took on the role of Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation that Offerman started being viewed as a comedic actor.

"When you work in the theatre you basically train yourself to do whatever is on the season, which means depending on where you're working, a year's career could be a Shakespeare play, an Arthur Miller deep drama and then a crazy farce," he says.

"You hopefully have all of those abilities in your toolbox and I've always loved whatever good writing holds, whether it's scaring people or making them laugh.

"After Parks and Recreation, colleges in America assumed I was a stand-up comedian for some reason and they began to invite me to perform my stand-up."

At first, Offerman declined with a polite, "No, thank you. I don't do that". But then it hit him.

"On average there's 2000 kids a show and I would really like to talk to 2000 young people. There are some things that I would very much like to tell them."

And here he is, about seven years later with All Rise, where he continues to "engender some mirth" on his audience.

Arriving on a Canberra Theatre Centre stage on June 12 and 13, it's an experience which months out from his arrival date, Offerman had already written a poem about.

"June 12 at the Theatre Canberra / Delight in my subtle mascara / When I holler 'All rise' / You'll water your thighs / Like the Nile in the desert Sahara."

Poems and "funny little songs" form the basis of an Offerman stand-up show.

When he started in the medium he knew he would never be someone who could pick out somebody's T-shirt in the front row, create an hour of content on the fly and still have the audience on the floor.

Hew wanted to be prepared but when he sat down to write his first show, it was a present he had created for his wife, Will and Grace star Megan Mullally, that was the true inspiration.

The Rainbow Song was not only the perfect homemade gift for Mullally's 50th birthday, but Offerman's fans can thank the pun-filled love tune for kick-starting his stand-up acts.

"That was my jumping-off point," Offerman says.

"I thought, 'OK I have this one funny song' so I wrote a couple more of these dumb funny songs and then filled in the middle with some talking.

"Like I said, I never thought it would be something that I would do but I really enjoy crafting - especially my songs - to make people laugh but to also make them think."

It's been 10 years since Parks and Recreation and Ron Swanson hit our screens, and while fans now consider it a cult show, that wasn't always the case.

A heartwarming comedy with "an incredible amount of optimism and sort of humanity to it", Parks and Recreation had a simple concept. It focused on Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) and her mission to build a park.

But while critics would say things like it's "the smartest show on TV", Parks and Recreation was never a runaway hit.

"In fact, we were always wondering if we would come back from year to year because the ratings were just medium," he explains.

"It has been really gratifying since streaming was invented that the show now has such an incredible life and it's sticking around.

"I especially love all of the young people who are loving the show because it is moving.

"The show is a great comedy which has moral lessons in it so I love when my friends' teenagers tell me that they're obsessed with the show because it means they are taking on the lessons of Leslie Knope and that's a very good thing."

What Leslie Knope brought to the show through her optimism and go-getter attitude, Offerman matched with Ron Swanson's wry asides, deadpan delivery and weird hobbies.

With that in mind, it is no surprise that Offerman's character has taken on a life of its own. So much so, the actor says he will never be seen with Swanson's signature moustache again.

"As an actor and in order to get more jobs I have to escape that pigeonhole," he says.

"If I show up with just my moustache then people would probably want to talk to me a lot more about bacon and eggs.

"I mean I've seen a lot of stuff on social media where a lot of my audience somehow thought that was me, like they [the creators] just gave me a different name. I was really just this guy who showed up, who lives in a cabin and said 'I love meat, can I be on your show?'

"Sometimes the more simplistic audience members have sort of had to be awakened to the fact that I am an actor playing a part."

One of - what can be assumed is - the many side effects of being confused with the character you portray, is becoming associated with the same traits - whether they are intended or not.

Offerman, like his character Ron Swanson, has over the last decade become associated with "some sort of machismo or masculinity", which at times gets interpreted as being "able to punch people, shoot a gun or swing an axe".

It has prompted Offerman on many occasions to talk openly about what it means to be a modern man and whether Ron Swanson is the embodiment of that.

"I do think Ron is a great example [of a modern man]," Offerman says.

"The cover of the book is your stereotypical, meat-eating outdoorsman.

"But in the stories of the show we come to learn that as a libertarian, he's actually very open to human rights and it turns out that he's a staunch feminist.

"With the positive influence of Leslie Knope in his life he's able to exhibit great decency."

Offerman says Ron had a similar upbringing to his own - with good manners and a sense of respect and decency. So when it came to the modern concepts like consent, misogyny and sexual harassment tackled in the show, Offerman says there are things audiences can learn from the character, if not relate to.

Even the actor himself aspires to uphold the same values as Swanson.

"I try to remove gender from these sensibilities and I think what being a good man is about is just being a good person," he says.

"It means standing up for your values, treating everyone with respect and being decent.

"I think it has a lot more to do with shaking hands and hugging than it has to do with being ready to punch somebody."

Offerman is glad to be continually asked about what it means to be a man, taking it as an indication that there is at least a conversation happening, if not a change.

But one thing he says he can't understand is society's need to cling to old-fashioned gender roles.

"It keeps playing out," Offerman says.

"In America, there are a few states that are passing these terrible abortion laws and we're all just looking around, saying this is so barbaric. It might as well be passing slavery laws.

"We figured this out a long time ago that it just doesn't make any sense to have legislation around that, around a woman's right to deal with her own body.

"Just the same way that it doesn't make any sense to ban a race of people or a religion from entering your country.

"There are all these things that speak to me of cowardice and greed and avarice.

"I think if you want to be considered a good man or a woman or a citizen or gender non-conforming - anybody - then it just means to treat everybody with respect and we're a long way from achieving that."

And so the cycle continues. Until society finds a way to "pull ourselves up out of the muck", Offerman will still have things to talk about.

All Rise is on at Canberra Theatre Centre on June 12-13. See canberratheatrecentre.com.au/show/nick-offerman/