“I grew up in Central Victoria on a sheep farm in a little region called Mia Mia. My dad was a Sheep Shearer and my mum was a Hairdresser for years. It was that classic country thing where Dad did the work and Mum cooked dinner. We loved living on the farm, we had motorbikes and horses. Through my teenage years I actually wanted to be a Drover because I hated being around people, other than my best mates as we laughed all the time but I think I was depressed now when I look back. My dream for myself was to be on a horse and sitting by a fire smoking ciggies which is a complete contradiction of what I’m doing now. I don’t smoke ciggies and I love being around people
I went to Sacred Heart College in Kyneton which was kind of the low budget of the private schools. I was a really good swimmer and we’d go to the inter-school swimming carnivals. Our school would be like the ferals wearing whatever we wanted and sneaking off for ciggies whereas the other schools would have been training at 4 in the morning in their brown school uniforms. I left school in Year 11 and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Mum and Dad didn’t support me staying at school as I was wagging a lot and really disengaged even though I was really good at school.
I have 2 kids. I was 21 when I had my daughter and I thought I knew what I was doing. I definitely felt like it was the first time I had a purpose was when I became a Mum. The relationship didn’t work out. A few years later I married and he kind of stepped into the Dad role. We separated 10 years ago and we had a son together who is now 14. My daughter is 20.
When I was at rock bottom after separating, I took my 2 kids on a 5 week holiday to Malaysia and Vietnam with nothing planned. We laugh about it now because here I was at rock bottom and travelling overseas…Poor me (laughs). I feel a bit like that at the moment with the floods. I’m rock bottom in terms of that stuff but at the same time I’m peaking with my comedy career taking off. Life is such a contradiction.
I fell into the Disability Sector after doing a day’s voluntary work. I’ve been working in that field ever since and only just resigned 2 weeks ago. I’d been working for Aruma (House with no Steps) for 13 years delivering training. I worked at Tafe and a few other organisations but training is my favourite thing to do. When I was 17 and first started working in the Disability sector was probably the first time I felt people really believed in me. You know when you first start finally being treated as an adult, it changes your perception of the world. That was pretty cool and I’m still mates with some of those people.
Around 6 years ago I was a bit bored with training and I ended up doing Mandy Nolan’s course thinking I’d was just doing it as a bit of a challenge for myself but I loved it. I thought you would just have to do a comedy set in front of the class at the end. I didn’t realise it was at the Byron RSL in front of 200 people. I didn’t sleep for weeks before that but then I became addicted to it. Doing Open Mic nights are pretty hard because you have to go to Brisbane or the Gold Coast so I started a couple around here which took off. The last 2 years I have been doing my solo show…Teardrops on my Dildo. It’s doing really well.
The day I got back from the Adelaide Fringe Festival this year after an awesome run of shows I partied like a rock star on the last night, came home looking forward to a good sleep and that was the night we had to evacuate. I didn’t really take anything. I lifted some things up but I was still thinking it wasn’t go to come into the house upstairs. It seemed unfathomable. It went almost to the ceiling. Straight after I went down to Newcastle Fringe and I won best comedy for the Fringe Festival. The night I came back to Lismore is when the second flood was happening. I couldn’t find accomodation for one night so eventually got a cabin in Ballina and that was the night of cyclonic winds. I then went down to the Melbourne Comedy Festival and my last day there I got Covid so I was stuck there for a week. One thing after another!
Like so many of us here I wasn’t insured and I lost everything. Adelaide Comedy did a fundraiser to replace all my sound gear so I could still run gigs. I do have a Gofundme but I haven’t promoted it because I actually feel really uncomfortable about it. A friend set that up for me. I’m back in my house. The bedrooms are good, the kitchens not. It’s liveable. I was feeling guilty for the last few years because my parents are into things. Dad’s a hoarder of stuff and Mum’s very organised with nice things, so I felt guilty because I spent a lot of my money on holidays and having good times (laughs). OMG I’ve spent some money.
Originally my show was going to be called 50 first dates and I actually started to date as a many people as possible and writing about it but then I got bored. Some of them were great experiences but some were so boring. A friend of mine suggested Teardrops on my Dildo which is all about the tragedy. I say some incredibly personal things in the show. I let it all out. My Mum’s really worried about it because when I was 14 she bought me a book called The little book of Etiquette. She had this ideal of what we should be like and my parents were worried about what other people thought of us which is why I think I rebelled. I felt really misunderstood. Nothing that I’ve done is hurting anyone, I’m just having a good time.
I’m trying to read more but the whole time I’m trying to read I grab my phone. I turn it off, try to focus then turn it on again. I don’t know what the answer is. It’s worse than TV. I remember as kids you had to ask to watch TV..Can we pleeease watch TV now? And you weren’t allowed to watch this or that. Now you’re like, here’s Porn Hub. Can’t you see I’m busy on Facebook (laughs).”