Melbourne International Comedy Festival Tour Diary: Lightning, Big Hair, Auslan & Kitson
- Jenny Wynter
- Apr 16, 2012
- 3 min read
If it weren’t for energy drinks and Melbourne coffee, I would be in a coma right now.
Highlights of the past few days:
– undoubtedly doing a guest spot in Spanzac Ballet, a late night glam rock gig at the HiFi Festival Club last night. I sang Skyhooks. I covered my poor lyric recall with a stunning lightning bolt across my face. I then proceeded to be approached by half of Melbourne’s tipsy wildlife on the walk back to the car. It was pretty damn epic.
Lipstick. Is there anything you cannot do?
– being joined by the wondrous Ruth Sullivan to interpret two shows this weekend. I LOVE HER SO HARD!
Ruth! Melbourne! Jen! Three of a kind!
Ruth, Matt and I at The Butterfly Club. Go team!
I am so loving having these guys onboard, it really makes it feel like a SHOW, you know? Plus I have a brilliant behind-the-scenes crew of Eden (Tech) and Belle (Stage Manager). Which brings me to my next highlight…
– walking into The Butterfly Club yesterday to see Belle wearing a creation she organised all on her own volition:
HOW CUTE IS SHE?! PS That's a chuppa chup in her mouth. And again, I say HOW CUTE IS SHE?!
– still having my mind blown by the ridiculous awesome “eccentric grandma’s house” flavour that is my show’s venue, The Butterfly Club.
This is just another *yawn* typical view of any particular square foot at The Butterfly Club.
– having my hair done nightly – and me avoiding brushing it out daily – by none other than our incredible pianist, Matt Hadgraft. He really is the full service musician. I think he should start up his own freelance business offering musical accompaniment and hairstyling and it “Tease and Keys.” Amazing.
Misbeehiving.
– seeing Daniel Kitson live for the very first time ever. My mind is still reeling. I would utterly love to get my hands on a transcript of the show just so I could actually take the time to digest it properly. It seems wrong to describe such a beautiful work of language with “it was so so so good” but that’s all my little brain can muster up right now. That and “Kitsonian.” I think I’ll just stop.
My view from the top balcony.
It ain’t all peaches and Kitson, though.
I am also missing my kids ridiculously much. They are going great, but you know. I really don’t like being away for long and this year has already been insane for that. Today I visited a friend’s house and hugged her kids so much I think I started to freak them out!
One thing’s become clear to us and that is that we don’t want to keep doing it like this: being separated just sucks. That’s all.
I’m also finding the show – while I love that it’s connecting with people on a really personal level – is becoming increasingly hard to perform.
Those of you who’ve seen it know that it’s so ridiculously personal, specifically when I deal with the material about my mum’s death. And while performing it has been cathartic, I think it’s now getting to a point where it’s feeling very much like I’m opening up the same wound over and over again.
You’re either damned if you do, or damned if you don’t: you either disconnect from the emotion of it to protect yourself, in which case you’re not really feeling it and the performance suffers, or you go there for the sake of the show and then deal with the emotional side effects afterwards. All I know is that after performing the show now for nearly two months straight, I am really feeling exhausted to my core.
And now. Bed.
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