Obligatory Blog

I don’t love the ageing process. I wish I did. I’m working on it. But you know, having things hurt that didn’t hurt when I was young, knowing what a thyroid gland is, seeing all the new lines appearing that you’ve been told forever by every magazine and social media outlet are something to be fought against or at least hidden… it can be deflating. And yet… I am so grateful for every year beyond 33 that I’ve had. It turns out that it’s so common for children who’ve prematurely

Left: my mum and I making cookies 1983. Right: keeping the tradition going with my girlie, 2012. So Caleb (my 8-year-old) came and saw my show for the very first time (at the Judith Wright Centre a coupla weeks back). I gave him a pretty good pep-talk in the week leading up to it, explaining that he had to show me he was mature enough to handle the fact there’d be some adult words and ideas, and that just because he heard them didn’t mean he was allowed to go ahead and use th

Backstage before the show. Not much comedy in this post, but I just want to share it for what it is. Anybody who has seen “An Unexpected Variety Show” will understand why the prospect of having my daughter in the audience for the very first time was one that filled me with a plethora of emotions, from anxiety to sappiness and just about everything in between. Despite feeling incredibly tense onstage for the first half of the show (despite my suggestions that a side seat might

Trying my hand at "Skee Pong" on set with Jason Chong at Festival Fishbowl As I was heading into the Light Hotel this avo to get ready for my show, I heard some news that rocked me. A family member – a distant family member, but one whom I have extremely positive memories of from childhood – died. I was so shocked, not just by the news itself, but also by how very upset I felt about it. And selfishly, I was also more than a little worried about being cool by the time the curt

Somebody sent me a snippet of their journal page after seeing the show at Melbourne Fringe. This made my freaking week! I want to share with you a couple of encounters with strangers that have really rocked my world of late. The first of these was at Woodford Folk Festival. There I was, popping my head in backstage at The Mystery Bus to double check what time my gig was that day.  The greenroom was empty except for one woman. I smiled at her and said something like “Hey! I’m

Making cookies 1983-ish. She passed away in 1984. Right now, were she here, I’ve no doubts at all that there would be celebrations a-plenty, much of which would revolve around music. But you know. She’s not. And we’re not. So instead, on this day, I want to just think of her and smile. You know? Be happy. Remember the good times. Yet if I’m being completely honest, it seems ridiculous to even try. I mean, how can you not tarnish even the most wonderful memories when the lens